--Point of View: Crim--

“Wake up?” yelled a voice as something large crashed into the side of my head, sending waves of pain down my body.

My eyes snapped open. I was greeted with Commander Ozark’s smug face, his large steel gauntlets raised for another blow. Where was I and what was going on? I remember being in the forest, hunting a dragon. That was a distant memory though, right? It was becoming harder to tell the difference between my dreams and reality. At the moment it did not matter.

“Finally! I was starting to think I may have accidentally finished you off. It really is a chore, having to hold back against you but I cannot risk damaging the goods.” Ozark remarked, his far too perfect face twisting into a smile. This man was cruel and sick.

A low growl rumbled out of me as I lunged forward to try and maul the smirk off his face but found I barely moved at all. I was being restrained. Craning my neck, heavy rune laden chains were strapped to each of my legs with an even heavier one bound to my neck. The runes glowed with the hint of mana, disappearing into the floor as they were pulled taut.

“Come now Experiment 001, I can’t have you making another mess of my ship. The fact you forced me to come down and handle the situation myself tells me my men need more training. Thankfully you took care of the weaker ones for me. Saved me the trouble.” Ozark commented as he started to slowly walk around me, eyeing me up and down.

“You’re a monster and a coward!” I shouted, pulling at the chains regardless. Runed chains were nearly indestructible even in my time.

“Oh, on the contrary. You are the monster here. I mean, just look at you. A giant red beast that talks and thirsts for blood.” He boasted as he came back to stand in front of me, pounding a fist to his chest. “While I am a respected leader of this ship and the entire fleet waiting for our return.

“What do you want!” I barked as I stared into his eyes, wishing I could bore a hole straight through them.

“Oh, come now, you must surely know. Did your mother never teach you anything?” he mused as he shot a hand forward to grip my throat. “You have quite the bountiful treasure inside that body of yours and I want it.”

I choked as his grip grew tight on my neck, but I could do nothing to resist. I simply had to endure it.

“Over my dead body.” I sputtered painfully.

“Oh no, that will not do I am afraid. You see, the lab made it quite clear that we need to keep you alive if we want our prize. I was pretty upset at first but there is a silver lining.” He replied before winding back with his free hand to punch me in the chest. “The longer you are alive, the more I get to make you suffer for running away all these years.

I felt the wind leave my lungs as his blow struck, my vision going black for just a split moment as the pain took hold. This person was on a completely different level compared to anything I had dealt with now or in the past. I was starting to wonder if I would be able to escape this prison. It was then that my mind raced back to everyone else still trapped on the ship.

“What have you done with the others!” I croaked, drawing in a long, heavy breath.

“Oh, you mean your little playthings, the humans. They are alive, for now. How else would we convince you to talk.” He gleamed with a wicked grin.

“You would not dare!” I bellowed, the hairs on my back rising to stand on end.

“I will do anything to get what I desire.” He said, releasing his grip and turning his back to me. “And what I desire most right now is the heart beating inside of you. As do we all.”

“My heart? What do you mean? Please don’t hurt them!” I pleaded, not wanting to bear the thought of losing somebody again. So many people had already been taken from me.

Commander Ozark was silent for a moment before slowly turning around to face me, his expression a bit more serious.

“So, you don’t know. Hmmm. Perhaps if you cooperate an arrangement can be made.” He said slowly as though his tongue was having difficulty with the words. I did not buy it one bit but what choice did I have?

“Then ask and I will tell you what I know.” I replied, defeated. This man could not be trusted but for now, I will go along with what he asks. In the end, it may make no difference.

“Very well but first let’s have some privacy.” He says with a snap, motioning for the other two guards that had been positioned in the rear of the room to leave.

“No witnesses?” I asked, bemused.

“On the contrary, they will be watching from outside. Information about you is on a need-to-know basis and they do not need to know.” He replied, pulling up a chair to take a seat right in front of me.

“I see the military will always remain the same.” I muttered.

“Quite so.” He said with a nod before asking his first question. “Tell me Experiment 001, where have you been for the past one thousand years. You disappeared after The Event and randomly appeared here. I want answers.”

“My name is Crim, and I do not know about this event. You are going to have to be more specific.” I remarked, locking eyes with him.

“A name is reserved for those of worth Experiment 001.” He said with gritted teeth, his hands clenching into fists. “As for The Event, I mean the one that nearly wiped us all out. The explosion that ravaged our home planet. Ring any bells?”

“You don’t mean that ruined planet down below, do you? What happened? What on earth did your people do to it?” I asked seriously, quite curious now.

The room went dark as a hefty fist struck me under the chin, whipping my head back so hard it threatened to dislodge itself. It took me several moments to recover, my mind still in a daze. I could not even see him start the strike. For a person so large he was incredibly fast.

“How dare you mock our home and accuse us of such things!” he screamed, jumping to his feet and hurling the chair across the room in a fit of rage. “Why would we destroy our own home! Are you a fool! This is your fault! Yours and that idiot of a scientist that gave life to you. If she would have stayed and just replicated the heart herself none of this would have happened to begin with!”

I could not tell if he was being sincere, remorseful, or just outright angry. What was he talking about? How was Draya involved in all of this. She said she fled the city but was it because of this?

“I have no idea what you are talking about. I was either gone or simply do not remember. I just woke up one day a few centuries ago with no memories of anything but the life you all stole from me.” I shouted back.

A swift kick to my side came next. I could hear the bones splintering as I yelped in pain. The chains made it impossible to dodge or do much of anything besides bear the punishment.

“That traitorous mother of yours refused to cooperate with us after we discovered what she put inside of you. A little project she had been working on in secret. We of course were aware of it but had no idea she had actually been successful! But, instead of sharing it with us, she used it to save your worthless life.” He said, delivering another punch to the gut as he circled around me, growing more furious by the second.

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“I don’t know what any of that means!” I snapped back, planting my feet a little wider to better withstand the kick I saw coming this time. It did not help much.

“Once she fled, the higher ups sent everyone they could find to retrieve her. A bounty was even put up. Enough to last a lifetime if brought back alive. Nothing worked though, she might as well have vanished.” He explained, taking deep breaths between every sentence.

I was starting to be thankful for the fact I had not mentioned Draya yet. If he found out we were working together, I would probably be in a much worse situation than I already was. He very well could have decided to torture me for information about her and then tossed me aside once he was done. Keeping her a secret seemed like the better idea. Hopefully Katie and Tom kept quiet as well.

“After years of failed attempts to retrieve that wrench, the task of recreating the heart was given to another. A fool much like your master but regrettably, one not nearly as talented.” He said, his voice now growing tired as he retrieved his chair and took his seat once again. “He was almost successful. It was working and working well. So well in fact he was tasked with creating one to power the whole city.”

I had gone quiet, listening to him speak. The anger had subsided as he delved into the past, his eyes staring not at me, but past me to wherever he was at the time it all happened. I almost pitied him.

“All of us elite commanders were present at the ceremony along with the King and Queen. We held a giant ball, and everyone eagerly awaited the strike of the clock that would signal its activation. The time when we would no longer have to rely on dragons to supply our energy needs.” he told me, his voice growing quieter the further he got into the story.

“What happened?” I asked simply, after a long pause.

“It happened.” he said bluntly, opening his eyes to look at me. “The colossal reactor responsible for powering half of the planet, was turned on with the new artificial dragon heart at its core. It spun up and for a glorious hour it was a dream come true. It was short lived though.”

His face grew serious and the look of disdain he had given me when we first met had return. The hate he held for me was returning.

“The heart failed but not in the way you would expect. Instead of stopping, it just kept producing more and more mana and the fool of a researcher could not turn it off.” He started to yell, standing up again. “Everyone was told to gate out of the city immediately until the problem was dealt with. Little did we know what was about to happen.”

“It exploded.” I commented, thinking back to what Draya had said about Tom causing the facility to destroy itself so we could escape.

“Of course, it did!” he screamed at me as he threw his hands around my neck again in a real attempt to strangle the life from me. He was on the verge of snapping my neck as he shook me around. “It destroyed everything! The whole planet was wiped away in an instant. Our homes! Our families! Everything! All because that blasted woman ran away!”

I was released and crumpled to the ground, gasping for air as he stomped over to the door. He looked back at me with eyes full of loathing.

“Because of that, I will do everything in my power to rip that heart from your chest and make it our own. Every day will be torture for you. You will suffer like we all have every day since then. I wish she was here now so she could see what we had in store for you.” He growled one last time before the door opened and he left without another word.

I watched them walk away before giving up on my attempts to stand again. This was the second beating I had received today. Or was it still today? I had no idea how long I had been out for. Regardless, I needed to think of something.

Thankfully, I would not need to do so alone. As I laid motionless on the ground, still trying to recover from the ordeal that just took place, I heard the pitter patter of footsteps. My ears perked up, mostly on their own accord, and I knew almost immediately who they belonged to. The soldiers on this ship walked around like they were trying to be heard. Heavy boots and marching everywhere. No, this was somebody much smaller trying to be sneaky.

The footsteps creeped closer and eventually stopped. Upon opening my eyes, I saw none other than Katie peering in through the observation window. She looked terrified. Whether that is because of my condition or something else, I was not sure yet. As I attempted to lift myself back up onto my own four feet, she started to frantically wave her hands around, telling me to stop. She was worried. I relented and stayed still as she disappeared from my view.

A few seconds later the door slid open to my surprise. How did she manage to figure that one out? Whatever the case, she was doing better than I was from the looks of it. Thank goodness.

“Crim! What happened to you?” she asked, rushing over as soon as the door was clear.

“Don’t worry about it. Where are the guards?” I asked, trying to deflect. I would rather not worry her if I could.

She looked at me rather cross for a moment, knowing full well what I was doing. A sigh escaped her as she hugged me around the neck. It was very comforting after the beating I had endured.

“They left with Ozark. He mentioned something about more training.” She remarked, taking a step back to look at me again. “Crim, seriously, I have not seen you this beat up since the droids. Who or what is that man?”

“I’ll be fine, just give me a few hours to rest. This body is pretty sturdy. As I’m sure you know by now.” I said, trying to sound confident and reassuring. She just rolled her eyes. “As for Ozark. I am not completely sure to be honest. He is their leader apparently, at least for this ship.”

“Well, he is surely an ass, that is for sure.” she said angerly, crossing her arms in disapproval. “Still, it was scary watching him just, well..”

“Toss me around like a rag doll?” I said frankly.

“Yeah, sorry.” She whispered, looking away, somewhat ashamed.

“I told you already. I will be fine. It would probably be best to avoid him though. I doubt I could beat him even with some mana in me. I stood no chance.” I relented, not really wanting to admit the fact but it was still there, staring me in the face.

“Right, agreed. For now, though, let us get you out of here.” She said with a forced smile. “Are these chains the only things keeping you here?”

“See those runes on the chains? They are the issue. If we could scratch them out or wipe them away somehow, I should be able to break free.” I answered, looking down at the chains that restrained each of my legs.

The runes were engraved into the metal with incredible precision, wrapping around not just the outside of the band, but the inside as well by what I could see. Each and every link seemed to have the same rune etched into it.

“What does it say?” Katie asked, leaning down beside me to take a closer look.

“To hold fast against all odds.” I replied, having to think back for a moment. Some of the runes came to me with ease while some of the lesser used ones were more difficult to remember.

“And you said if I could just scratch this out, it should stop working, right?” she asked once again, tracing the engravings with her fingers.

“I believe so or at least that is how it worked in the past. I do not see a reason why it would not work.

Suddenly, the sound of boots thumping drifted down the hallway. A patrol was coming. I frantically snapped my head up to look at Katie who had not yet heard them coming.

“Katie! Quick, a guard is coming. You need to hide, now!” I urgently whispered to her.

Her eyes went wide as she looked around the completely barren room before stopping to look at the door that was still completely open. I knew what she was thinking.

“Quickly, quickly!” I started to shout as she raced over and reached outside to slap her hand onto the control panel, whispering the magic phrase to close the door.

The door slid down when commanded to, a satisfying click sounding as it locked shortly afterwards. Katie then darted back to me and took refuge behind me. I did my best to stretch out and provide as much cover as I could, which proved to be easy. I was far larger after all.

The guard came into view and lazily stared through the window for a minute, grimacing at the sight of me. He must have been one of the ones who faced me before or at least heard about it. I gave him a toothy smile which he took to heart and decided to carry on. Once the cost was clear, Katie popped up from behind me.

“That was close. Thank goodness for those ears of yours otherwise we would have been in some trouble.” She said with relief.

“Well, do not count your blessings just yet. You locked us both in here. Looks like we are still in quite a bit of trouble if you ask me.” I realized, looking first at her and then back to the doorway. The heavy still door was very much shut.

“Do not worry Crim. I managed to get the last one open, right? I just need to reach through the bars and…” she stopped mid-sentence as she took a closer look at the door. It had no bars for her to reach through.

“As I was saying. We need to both get out of here and fast. Ozark needs to keep me alive until he can figure out how to retrieve whatever it is he wants from me, but I do not know what he has in store for you.” I said bleakly, not wanting to think about what may happen to Katie if she were caught with him.

“Well, apparently, they want to keep me alive as well. An Old One asked me questions, a lady instead of the brutes patrolling around, said I was to be kept healthy. I found it strange, but they must want something from me.” She added, placing her head into the palm of her hands.

“Leverage against me according to Ozark. He was going to threaten your lives to get me to cooperate and it was working. I do not want any of you to suffer because of me.

I waited for one of Katie’s usual remarks about how she was capable and could take care of herself, but it never came. She was instead bent down inspecting one of my paws, more specifically one of my claws.

“Hey Crim.” She started, her attention back on me. “Your claws. Do you think they would work on the runes?”

I thought about it and said, “Yeah, I imagine they would. They seem to work on everything else. Only problem is I can’t reach any of the chains.”

“What if you did not have to?” she said with a smile.