Hoskins's back is thrown against the tree so hard that something cracks. If it's another bone or two, it's hard to tell over the unholy, excruciating pain of his leg, which lands like a wet sock and makes him scream all over again. He can't remember when he stopped screaming.
Why his hybrid had come back for him in a dungeon half-buried beneath burning rubble, Hoskins still doesn't know. But somehow he doubts it's because the magical switch has finally flipped and turned the savage beast into a loyal companion. Omega had dragged him by the neck all the way out of the compound and into the deep jungle and then tossed him at a tree like a rag doll, and Hoskins can barely tell what is happening now, nearly blind with pain, but he doesn't want to die on this island.
"You..." he gasps, "...you don't have to do this, boy. You know that. Things got rough, that's all--" Oh Jesus, the pain is shooting up through his body in bolts of lightning, taking the wind out of him. But he's gotta appeal to the raptor's reason. He's not dead yet. That's gotta mean something. Maybe humanity has finally started to kick in.
"You did good here," Hoskins insists, trying to blink through agony, trying to sound as soothing and proud of his animal as Owen always did with his. "What a... what a hell of a plan, huh? Didn't see it coming. But this is what I... ugh... this is what I always wanted for you. You see that? I gave this to you. I'm on your side. Everything you have now... thanks to me... you and Blue--"
A fist slams into the tree just above his head, sending down a shower of splinters and chunks of bark, and Hoskins chokes on his own words. Omega's teeth are inches from his face, and bared.
"If you say her name again, I'm going to rip out your tongue and feed it to you."
The deliberate emphasis of those words is so much worse than the feral shrieks Omega used to make endlessly within the bars of his cage, and Hoskins can't meet the look in those burning blue eyes. He shuts his own tight, ashamed of being afraid in a tiny little corner of his mind, but every other part of him hurts and can't take whatever's coming. He wonders for a wild second if he could just start crawling away. Maybe he could find a hole, or get under the roots of a tree, stay there until Omega goes away, until someone else comes to find him--
Suddenly, something wraps around his throat and jerks him back against the tree. He gags.
"You know you're going to die here, right?"
Omega's voice is hard, but almost conversational, and coming from somewhere behind him. Hoskins scrabbles at his throat -- feels like vines, real thick and slippery, and it's hard to tear into the growth with blunt fingernails.
"I used to dream about the day I'd get to do it." Leaves rustle on the other side of the tree and the vines tighten. Hoskins' head knocks back against the trunk. Omega's tone actually turns fond. "Hearing that she hated you too was the first thing I liked about her."
The knife--! Blinking away stars, Hoskins fumbles at his belt, but the leaves crunch and the dark shadow in his peripheral vision kicks him in the side, and he yelps.
"Even after I got off the island, I would imagine coming back to find you, just to claw that ugly smirk off your face," Omega continues like nothing happened, stopping to yank the knife out of Hoskins's belt and toss it aside. Hoskins can feel another vine being lashed around his wrist, jerked sharply back against the tree, as Omega circles around again to bind the other as he talks. "We used to talk about it sometimes. But you weren't worth our attention, you fat sack of guts. I had a better life. What you and your InGen sycophants did to me, I would have hated you until my last day on earth, but I could've put it behind me. I never would've thought about you again. But then--"
The bottomless pit of poison and black fire that opens up beneath Omega's words causes Hoskins to reel back, expecting death in that very instant, as frantic as an animal in a trap who only gets caught tighter when they squirm. Omega's voice comes closer, that shadowy mass filling Hoskins's blurred vision.
"...you tried to do it to her."
Omega crouches down in front of him, and Hoskins chokes, wanting to say something that will let him get out of this alive, or at least stall a little longer. But he can't find any words. This must be what it's like for a bird or a rabbit to be paralyzed by a serpent.
"Now, one of two things will happen." Omega's voice is very calm -- an alien sound to Hoskins's ears, and horrifying. "My personal preference is for you to get a very slow, very painful death right here, tied to this tree, even if it means we simply let that leg rot off and the jungle crawl through your skin and eat you. But it's not up to me." He tilts his head away. "It's her decision. And your only hope for any kind of mercy is if she is too fucking sick of looking at your disgusting half-corpse to keep you around another second. So we're going to wait, very patiently, and see what she wants to do."
Then Omega leans in, and his voice drops lower, a hideously quiet purr, and Hoskins can finally see him as clear as a flame in darkness.
"And you'd better hope she recovers," Omega whispers, with a tension that Hoskins perceives as death hovering inches from his throat. "Because if she doesn't, I'm going to keep you alive, just so I can tear off pieces of you, one little strip at a time. If you're lucky, every wound will fester and your fat body will start eating itself faster than I want to pull you apart."
Hoskins feels like he is staring at death from a far distance; he can't think straight, can't breathe, can only try to speak. "...Please--"
"No," Omega says. Then he suddenly grabs for Hoskins's belt -- inspiring a moment of fresh, pure terror -- and jerks it out of the loops, in nearly one quick motion wrapping it above his knee through the buckle and jerking it almost tight enough to amputate. Hoskins screams so loud the jungle vibrates.
But Omega just straightens up. "Don't die yet," he orders, and then disappears.
+++++
In the distance behind him, the compound is slowly consumed by fire; on the horizon is another tropical storm, turning the sky dark and rolling steadily closer. Isla Sorna will survive his wrath, but InGen's presence won't. He should go to the beaches and deal with the other troops, but for now he's not going any farther. Besides, ACU can't track them this time.
Omega returns to the burrow in the earth where he'd left his mate, a bitter relief instantly flooding through him once he's beside her again. He immediately drops to his knees and crawls over her, touching her face and pressing his forehead to hers, nuzzling her to smother back the panic rising in his chest behind that relief. She's in bad shape. Omega has never seen her like this, couldn't even have imagined it until now, and he can scarcely wrap his brain around the reality of it as it is. His mate is fierce and proud; he knows that whatever they did to her, she went down fighting. But...
He looks her over, and realizes that he still has to take the chains off her wrists and ankles. Hoskins didn't have this key on him. There isn't much he can do about the shackles -- without the risk of hurting her -- but Omega takes the chains, and with concentrated strength bends the very last link at the cuffs until they snap. Soon enough, Blue has four coils of loose chain lying around her like metal snakes. Then comes back to settle beside her, drawing his unnaturally vulnerable mate into his arms again, ignoring the pounding of his own heart in an effort to keep track of hers.
Not a single word to Hoskins was exaggerated. Omega knows how strong Blue is, but he also knows just as well what InGen is capable of. Blue should never have come here, should never have had to see the inside of that compound; InGen's hands should never have touched her, not for one goddamn second. Looking at her now, Omega remembers very well how it feels to be suffocating under an overdose of MORO-709. But he'd been dealing with the stuff for years. They gave her too much. All of Omega's scars and vivid memories of a life spent here are old... not nearly as important as the ones he's made with Blue since then, the marks she's left on his skin.
What they've done to Blue is different. They hurt her on the inside, in more ways than one, and Omega doesn't know how that heals, he doesn't know what he should do besides keep her safe and get her home.
no subject
Why his hybrid had come back for him in a dungeon half-buried beneath burning rubble, Hoskins still doesn't know. But somehow he doubts it's because the magical switch has finally flipped and turned the savage beast into a loyal companion. Omega had dragged him by the neck all the way out of the compound and into the deep jungle and then tossed him at a tree like a rag doll, and Hoskins can barely tell what is happening now, nearly blind with pain, but he doesn't want to die on this island.
"You..." he gasps, "...you don't have to do this, boy. You know that. Things got rough, that's all--" Oh Jesus, the pain is shooting up through his body in bolts of lightning, taking the wind out of him. But he's gotta appeal to the raptor's reason. He's not dead yet. That's gotta mean something. Maybe humanity has finally started to kick in.
"You did good here," Hoskins insists, trying to blink through agony, trying to sound as soothing and proud of his animal as Owen always did with his. "What a... what a hell of a plan, huh? Didn't see it coming. But this is what I... ugh... this is what I always wanted for you. You see that? I gave this to you. I'm on your side. Everything you have now... thanks to me... you and Blue--"
A fist slams into the tree just above his head, sending down a shower of splinters and chunks of bark, and Hoskins chokes on his own words. Omega's teeth are inches from his face, and bared.
"If you say her name again, I'm going to rip out your tongue and feed it to you."
The deliberate emphasis of those words is so much worse than the feral shrieks Omega used to make endlessly within the bars of his cage, and Hoskins can't meet the look in those burning blue eyes. He shuts his own tight, ashamed of being afraid in a tiny little corner of his mind, but every other part of him hurts and can't take whatever's coming. He wonders for a wild second if he could just start crawling away. Maybe he could find a hole, or get under the roots of a tree, stay there until Omega goes away, until someone else comes to find him--
Suddenly, something wraps around his throat and jerks him back against the tree. He gags.
"You know you're going to die here, right?"
Omega's voice is hard, but almost conversational, and coming from somewhere behind him. Hoskins scrabbles at his throat -- feels like vines, real thick and slippery, and it's hard to tear into the growth with blunt fingernails.
"I used to dream about the day I'd get to do it." Leaves rustle on the other side of the tree and the vines tighten. Hoskins' head knocks back against the trunk. Omega's tone actually turns fond. "Hearing that she hated you too was the first thing I liked about her."
The knife--! Blinking away stars, Hoskins fumbles at his belt, but the leaves crunch and the dark shadow in his peripheral vision kicks him in the side, and he yelps.
"Even after I got off the island, I would imagine coming back to find you, just to claw that ugly smirk off your face," Omega continues like nothing happened, stopping to yank the knife out of Hoskins's belt and toss it aside. Hoskins can feel another vine being lashed around his wrist, jerked sharply back against the tree, as Omega circles around again to bind the other as he talks. "We used to talk about it sometimes. But you weren't worth our attention, you fat sack of guts. I had a better life. What you and your InGen sycophants did to me, I would have hated you until my last day on earth, but I could've put it behind me. I never would've thought about you again. But then--"
The bottomless pit of poison and black fire that opens up beneath Omega's words causes Hoskins to reel back, expecting death in that very instant, as frantic as an animal in a trap who only gets caught tighter when they squirm. Omega's voice comes closer, that shadowy mass filling Hoskins's blurred vision.
"...you tried to do it to her."
Omega crouches down in front of him, and Hoskins chokes, wanting to say something that will let him get out of this alive, or at least stall a little longer. But he can't find any words. This must be what it's like for a bird or a rabbit to be paralyzed by a serpent.
"Now, one of two things will happen." Omega's voice is very calm -- an alien sound to Hoskins's ears, and horrifying. "My personal preference is for you to get a very slow, very painful death right here, tied to this tree, even if it means we simply let that leg rot off and the jungle crawl through your skin and eat you. But it's not up to me." He tilts his head away. "It's her decision. And your only hope for any kind of mercy is if she is too fucking sick of looking at your disgusting half-corpse to keep you around another second. So we're going to wait, very patiently, and see what she wants to do."
Then Omega leans in, and his voice drops lower, a hideously quiet purr, and Hoskins can finally see him as clear as a flame in darkness.
"And you'd better hope she recovers," Omega whispers, with a tension that Hoskins perceives as death hovering inches from his throat. "Because if she doesn't, I'm going to keep you alive, just so I can tear off pieces of you, one little strip at a time. If you're lucky, every wound will fester and your fat body will start eating itself faster than I want to pull you apart."
Hoskins feels like he is staring at death from a far distance; he can't think straight, can't breathe, can only try to speak. "...Please--"
"No," Omega says. Then he suddenly grabs for Hoskins's belt -- inspiring a moment of fresh, pure terror -- and jerks it out of the loops, in nearly one quick motion wrapping it above his knee through the buckle and jerking it almost tight enough to amputate. Hoskins screams so loud the jungle vibrates.
But Omega just straightens up. "Don't die yet," he orders, and then disappears.
+++++
In the distance behind him, the compound is slowly consumed by fire; on the horizon is another tropical storm, turning the sky dark and rolling steadily closer. Isla Sorna will survive his wrath, but InGen's presence won't. He should go to the beaches and deal with the other troops, but for now he's not going any farther. Besides, ACU can't track them this time.
Omega returns to the burrow in the earth where he'd left his mate, a bitter relief instantly flooding through him once he's beside her again. He immediately drops to his knees and crawls over her, touching her face and pressing his forehead to hers, nuzzling her to smother back the panic rising in his chest behind that relief. She's in bad shape. Omega has never seen her like this, couldn't even have imagined it until now, and he can scarcely wrap his brain around the reality of it as it is. His mate is fierce and proud; he knows that whatever they did to her, she went down fighting. But...
He looks her over, and realizes that he still has to take the chains off her wrists and ankles. Hoskins didn't have this key on him. There isn't much he can do about the shackles -- without the risk of hurting her -- but Omega takes the chains, and with concentrated strength bends the very last link at the cuffs until they snap. Soon enough, Blue has four coils of loose chain lying around her like metal snakes. Then comes back to settle beside her, drawing his unnaturally vulnerable mate into his arms again, ignoring the pounding of his own heart in an effort to keep track of hers.
Not a single word to Hoskins was exaggerated. Omega knows how strong Blue is, but he also knows just as well what InGen is capable of. Blue should never have come here, should never have had to see the inside of that compound; InGen's hands should never have touched her, not for one goddamn second. Looking at her now, Omega remembers very well how it feels to be suffocating under an overdose of MORO-709. But he'd been dealing with the stuff for years. They gave her too much. All of Omega's scars and vivid memories of a life spent here are old... not nearly as important as the ones he's made with Blue since then, the marks she's left on his skin.
What they've done to Blue is different. They hurt her on the inside, in more ways than one, and Omega doesn't know how that heals, he doesn't know what he should do besides keep her safe and get her home.