--Point of View: Crim--

“You! You did this to me?” I spat, a low snarl starting to escape my maw.

I could feel my blood boiling up inside me. My fur was standing on end, making my already large body seem even more massive. At this moment, I wanted nothing more than to lunge forward and maul the individual who sat in front of me. Everyone else faded from my view. It was only me and her. Nobody else seemed to matter at this point. I took a vengeful step forward.

“Be still.” Spoke Draya, lazily gesturing towards me with a free hand.

The effect was immediate. I could no longer move a single muscle in my body. Even my tail, which normally liked to wag on its own accord, was motionless. All I could do was stare into her eyes, which were now locked with mine. She was setting an example and unfortunately for me, it was a very good one. I knew what she did but even then, I was powerless against it. Enchanting. She had cast an enchantment, the first proper one I had seen since waking up in this body. Her words held such overwhelming power. Never had I witnessed such magic, even in my previous life.

“Crim?” spoke Katie, standing to her feet when she noticed something was amiss. She stared at me for a few moments before turning her attention to the Old One. “What have you done to Crim? Stop this!”

With a somewhat annoyed expression, Draya broke eye contact with me and looked at Katie. “I am merely protecting myself and preventing your friend here from making a grave mistake. I am not your enemy, and it would be best for them to realize that. So, until I am done explaining, he will remain where he stands.”

“But!” Katie started to argue, but Tom had risen to his feet and put a hand on her shoulder.

“Let’s listen to what she has to say.” he said calmly, though his body was visibly quivering. He understood just as well as I did that they both had little choice in the matter.

“Thank you, young man. I’m glad at least somebody here is well mannered. Now, where do I begin. There is a lot to explain, and we are short on time.” She commented, rising to her feet so she could pace around. Katie and Tom retook their seats.

I continued to strain and pull at my body, but no matter how much I tried, I remained planted where I stood. This was the first time in a very long time, I felt completely powerless. They were in complete control of the situation, and I hated it. So, I did all I could do and listened to what they had to say.

“Crim, or the name you probably learned from your skirmish with the droids, Experiment 001, is what we refer to as a retriever.” she revealed, talking with her hands.

“Retrieve what exactly?” I snarled, giving no effort to controlling my emotions. It seemed like I could at least move my mouth.

“Hearts. Dragon Hearts specifically. We needed them to power the reactors that you humans are so interested in. You see, thanks to my kind’s lack of restraint, all modern or present timeline dragons, are extinct.” She explained calmly, clearly unaffected by my outburst.

“You hunted them to extinction?” interjected Tom, scratching his head in confusion. “I just find it hard to believe a race so advanced would overlook something so simple.

“Yes, you are correct.” Responded Draya, her eye twitching slightly. She was either annoyed by the interruption or perhaps for being called out for the failure of her race. “We were short sighted in this regard and ended up paying for it greatly. That is why we had to find other means to acquire them.”

With this, Draya walked over to one of the large monitors on the wall. With a few keystrokes, it sprung to life and displayed what looked like a picture of myself. The image showed me sprawled out on a large steel table with a group of whom I could only assume were Old Ones surrounding me. They looked to be treating a wound, but it was hard to make out from this angle.

As I went to ask about it, the picture changed to yet another one of me. She was now flipping through dozens of photos, looking for one in particular I assumed. Watching all these scenes flash by was triggering something inside of me. I could feel lost memories beginning to trickle up from the depths of my mind.

“Ah, here we are. While I would love to go over the entire process with you, we are short on time. Perhaps when this is all taken care of,” she motioned widely with her hands, “I can give you a more in-depth explanation. For now, though, this should at least clear up some of the questions you have.”

She pointed to the current image on the display, and it was by far the most impactful of the ones I had seen so far. Regardless of whatever spell she may have me under, my body quaked and shivered. The image showed a large, pearly white wolf strapped down to a medical table. It was hard to tell but I assumed it was still very much alive. This raised a few questions, but they held little significance compared to what was on the table beside it. There laid a man. A man covered in burns. A man that was none other than me.

This time, I was able to move. Whatever Draya had cast upon me shattered away as my emotions flared even stronger. Seeing my lifeless body, my own corpse, was more than I could handle. What was even worse though was their complete lack of care. She showed no emotion or regrets. I was nothing more than an experiment to her. I had had enough.

“You monster!” I bellowed as I bounded forward with one great leap, clearing the distance between us in an instant. My eyes shone gold and my fur seemed to glisten with mana. Even then, I was not quick enough.

“Cease all motion!” she yelled, her voice no longer calm but one of panic. Their face was wrought with horror for all but a moment before regaining a look of composure and content.

Her words, unlike before, struck me with such force that I was left breathless. It was like getting kicked in the chest by a horse. I was also left floating in midair, my body doing as she commanded. I had stopped moving and that included falling.

“Crim, I know you are angry, and I honestly do not blame you for hating me, but you need to listen to what I have to say.” Spoke Draya with a bit more urgency as they walked up to face me.

“Why should I listen to the people that took my life! That took everything from me!” I screamed, struggling once again to thrash around. I wanted to hurt them. Kill them. They needed to suffer like I had suffered.

“Crim, it’s okay.” Came another voice that pieced through my bloodlust. It was Katie. She had moved between Draya and me. I stared at her, her warm expression melting away the rage that had been building up. She reached up to pet my head. While I disliked the idea of being treated like an actual dog, I will admit that it did help calm me down.

“Thank you, Katie. I’m sorry.” Was all I managed to say.

“Don’t apologize Crim. Honestly, I’m tempted to spin around and punch our host here in the face but we both know that won’t solve anything. Let’s let her speak. You may not get another chance to learn what happened.” Said Katie, still caressing my face. She was right.

“You’re right, like usual.” I said, closing my eyes for a moment to compose myself. It was very difficult. Even with Katie’s kind words, my anger still flared. I do not know how I managed to suppress it, but I did. Katie was correct. I needed to know the truth.

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“Well, glad to see you come to your senses. Now, back to what I was saying.” Spoke Draya from behind Katie. Katie did not return to her seat, but instead, took up position beside me. I was thankful for that. Her presence was reassuring.

“Crim, Experiment 001, or even Sebastian. I first want to apologize for what happened to you and your village. You are correct in saying that it was because of us, the Old Ones, that everything you knew and loved, was lost. It was ordered and carried out with the utmost precision. Even I, the department head of the research division, had no sway in the matter. Regardless of how many of us were against it, we had to obey. Just like your kind’s military, orders were to be carried out and not questioned.

I could have sworn I saw a hint of sadness in her eyes. I understood what she meant. You accepted your orders and followed them regardless of how you felt personally. That’s what it meant to be a soldier. A cog in the machine.

“Why us though? There were plenty of other villages.” I spoke, my voice trembling.

“You may not have known at the time, but your people were guarding the very last dragon within your woods. We had left it alone for as long as we could, but the ever-growing need for power eventually won out in the end.” She continued, turning her attention back to the large monitor that still displayed my corpse.

“Okay, so assuming that’s all true. How does Crim play into all of this? Why is he here and everyone else gone?” piped in Katie.

“Pure coincidence, or luck if you believe in that sort of thing. We needed a body for our experiment, or more accurately, a soul. Yours was deemed the most likely to survive the transfer.” She answered, not bothering to turn around anymore.

Draya went on to explain the process that not only bound my soul to another but created the creature I am now. The Old Ones had tried using machines to retrieve dragon hearts, but they had proven ineffective. They were the first retrievers but had a variety of issues. It took a great deal of work to ensure a droid survived the time warp as they called it. Machines tended to malfunction or behave erratically when sent back in time. I did not understand any of it, but Katie and Tom sure seemed to be interested. They eagerly asked more questions about time travel and its effects but were quickly silenced when it became apparent that these matters would be best discussed later.

“When anything that was once living dies, their soul departs and rejoins the cycle to be reborn again. Of course, normally, any aspect of who the soul was before its death is normally erased when it travels to the void. We had no use for an empty soul. They lack something. What that something is even now, we are unsure of, but regardless, it was required to bring life to our new creation, aka, you Crim.” She explained further.

I was doing my best to follow along, but I was still lost at times. Thankfully, Katie interrupted with so many questions that by the time we moved onto the next topic, I at least understood the important parts.

“At what point did I become red?” I blurted out curiously, feeling foolish. Surely there were only a hundred better questions I could have asked, but I suppose this one was the most obvious to me. The creature in the photo was clearly white, not red like me.

“Ah, yes. That was an unexpected but not unwelcome side-effect. It is quite a pretty color. One of the crucial steps to ensuring the capture and relocation of your soul involved carving a plethora of runes into your flesh. The process was, as you can imagine, very messy. None of us were really sure what part of the spell was changed or how, but your blood caused a mutation in the spell itself. You were originally neither supposed to be this brilliant color or this large.”

“I almost wish I hadn’t asked.” I remarked, my mind flashing back to when I had first died. It was on the battlefield surrounded by my fellow soldiers and loved ones. In my last moments, as everything else was fading away, I recall seeing the void. I had expected to fear the end but after all the bloodshed that I witnessed on that day, I almost welcomed it. I also recall being jerked back and seeing a blinding red light. That explains it.

“I don’t blame you there. I wouldn’t be able to stomach experiments like these. There is a reason they are outlawed, even within the military.” Added Tom, scratching his chin.

“It was not like we had a choice.” Bellowed Draya unexpectedly, still facing away from us. She raised a hand to wipe her face. “I never wanted to perform such an act. They gave us no choice. You don’t understand anything.”

Even without a spell, the room was silent again. Nobody dared speak.

“You were surprised when I spoke. Why is that?” I asked eventually, remembering back to the dream I had earlier. She had been horrified.

Draya said nothing at first, but eventually turned around to face us. Her eyes were red, obviously from tears. This caught me off guard.

“You weren’t supposed to remember anything. We tried to erase your memories while keeping the soul intact. It worked at first, or at least appeared to work.” She said quietly, walking back over to her chair to take a seat. She looked very distraught.

“You wanted to erase his memories so he wouldn’t suffer, right?” asked Katie, trying not to look too closely at the Old One. Everyone seemed uncomfortable at this development.

“Yes, that was the intention. The whole procedure was incredibly volatile and experimental. The pain you must have endured.” She croaked, struggling to keep herself composed. “When you first spoke to me, it was not that of the program we had implanted into you, but that of a living being. It was that moment that changed everything for me. I swore that I would never perform such an act again.”

“But we saw more creatures just like Crim in several photos we came across in our search.” countered Katie, rather dubious.

“Agreed, I remember seeing them as well. There were also the dozens of cages and bones down on the lower levels.” I recalled.

“You are both correct and incorrect. After that day, I left the facility and eventually, the planet. I was valuable to them. As long as I was there, they would force me to do their bidding. The others you saw like Crim were clones. They were far from perfect and only lasted a few years at best. Miserable little things. None of them came close to what you are Crim.” She said with a small smile, wiping her face once more before forcibly dawning a look of content.

“To what I am?” I inquired, not sure if I liked how she said that. “What do you mean by that?”

“You are the pinnacle of so many things. The magic and technology that went into creating you was lost when I left. You were made to take on a dragon after all. Even with our advanced weaponry, a single adult dragon could take on a dozen of our droids if we got the jump on them. Double that if it had time to prepare. That was deemed too expensive.” Draya continued to explain, pointing her index finger at me. “You on the other hand, had a one hundred percent success rate on every mission we sent you.”

This realization did not sit well with me. I had, for a good portion of my life, protected the dragon that lived within our forest. The thought that I may have been the one to end its life made me sick. I then realized something Draya had said did not make much sense.

“Wait, you said I was created to hunt dragons, correct? But you just said my village was guarding the last one. Why go through all the trouble?” I said, both confused and now doubting what they had to say.

“The last dragon of this timeline.” Draya said confidently, “There are countless timelines with an infinite number of dragons. Unfortunately, traversing timelines is a very risky business. We needed something more reliable than droids.”

I saw both Katie and Tom’s eyes light up, but they were just as quickly extinguished.

“Talk of the timelines can wait.” Draya said firmly, “Is there anything else beside that you would like to ask?”

“Yes, actually. You mentioned that you left the lab behind. Is that how you ended up here? Are you in hiding?” asked Tom.

Draya nodded.

“Yes, I am currently in hiding. I don’t wish to help my people commit such atrocious acts anymore. If they found me, I would be dragged back by force and made to work. More than likely, it would be to recreate you, Crim. You are the Empires lost jewel. If they knew of your existence right now, the whole star fleet would be assembled.

“But why? I get Crim is strong and that you need him to hunt dragons, but surely, they would have devised another way by now, right?” asked Katie, trying to connect the dots.

“Unfortunately, traversing timelines, like I mentioned just a moment ago, is very risky and non-sustainable for reasons we will not be going into right now. Crim is sought after not only for his abilities, but the other secrets that went into creating him.” she said, her tone very serious.

“Other secrets? Like what?” questioned Katie almost immediately. She, much like me, did not like how she worded that statement.

“Now is not the time. You will learn soon enough when the time is right. Just know that my entire race is looking for you and will stop at nothing to find you. The longer we can keep you a secret, the better.” Draya responded.

“Uh, I’m pretty sure plenty of people saw Crim the day we escaped. He’s kind of hard to miss. No offense.” Remarked Katie, patting my head reassuringly.

“None taken. I’m big and red. I’ve come to accept this.” I answered bluntly.

“That’s true. If any of the crew that was captured mention him, wouldn’t that put everyone at risk?” asked Tom as everyone looked back to Draya, waiting.

“And that is what brought us here originally in the first place because yes, I suspect at least one person will mention that they saw Crim that day. That is all it will take to spin up the investigation and start the gears in motion. We need to move quickly and get your friends off that ship.” She answered, another smile spreading across her face.

“Well, when do we start?” asked Katie, standing up.

“Tomorrow. We have a day at most.” Draya replied.