Jurassic World
Life and Death of a Titan
(DISCLAIMERS: I do not own Jurassic Park, or Jurassic World in any way or form. Jurassic Park/World is property of Universal Studios, Amblin Entertainment, Legendary Pictures, and the following directors: Steven Spielberg, Joe Johnston, Colin Trevorrow and Juan Antonio Bayona.
Also, this story itself is a massive spoiler of Jurassic World Fallen Kingdom, so, if you haven't watched the movie yet, this fanfic will spoil a heartbreaking scene of the movie. The writing is on the wall.)
Hello, everyone, I'm AurelianAce, and this is my first non-Ace Combat fanfic, Life and Death of a Titan, based on a scene everyone who has watched JW:FK is way too familiar with, the death of the Brachiosaurus when the Arcadia left Isla Nublar during the eruption of Mount Sibo. This story will be narrated from the Brachio's POV, in a not so omniscient perspective, which means I'll try to avoid naming the dinosaurs in the island, and instead try to describe them.
For those who are familiar with me, you might be wondering why I have written only one chapter this summer, and here are the reasons.
First, and this one concerns this one-shot, I had to rewatch the final moments of the giant protagonist of this fic before writing the story, so I get it as right as I can.
Second, for those who have not been reading my Ace Combat fanfics, I had a nasty run-in with a nasty piece of work nicknamed Yura on early-mid July, who bashed my Ace Combat Joint Assault and Ace Combat: Brave New World fanfics, and myself, beyond the limit of what's socially acceptable, just because they didn't like how I wrote them. To make matters worse, when I called him out on their behaviour in a reply, Yura did not only dig their heels, but kept bashing the stories and me even more, and abusing of their right to dislike my fanfics to excuse their impolite behaviour and not even apologise for that, while also crossing out my reply as sarcastic. After another reply, which I wrote in a chapter in AC:BNW to avoid flooding the reviews page with an useless conversation, they washed their hands, stating that "[I] somehow managed to misinterpret almost every sentence of [theirs]". Well, if instead of insulting, showing disdain, misquoting my fanfic and even another author's review, and even accusing me of stealing a quote from a game I hadn't even played to begin with, they had shown a little bit of empathy, this situation would have never happened. The comments have since been deleted (with the exception of my first reply, which unfortunately I'm not going to be able to delete), but they are all posted in my DeviantArt account in screencaps. Take a look at them and you'll see how far Yura went in their disrespect and why I will be unlenient with toxic and elitistic reviews and messages. This doesn't mean you can't express your discontent or dislike of my fanfics; it only means that you need to be respectful and polite when writing your reviews and messages. After all, I have posted a small set of rules in my bio page. I don't think it's too much to ask to follow them.
Third, while I was still reeling from that setback, on August 12th, my pet boxer Bolt started suffering a series of seizures which he didn't recover from. After two days of terrible and continuous seizures, after which he even ended up losing his sight and hearing while also not even being able to stand up, on August 14th, we had no other choice but to call the veterinarians to put him down. Bolt had been suffering seizures for over a year, but he had only suffered a case that serious some months ago. This time, unfortunately, he wasn't lucky enough to endure them, and, according to the vets, he had a tumor in his brain. This fanfic is dedicated to him. Rest in peace, Bolt. For the 7 years, 9 months and 12 days you lived with us, you made our lives at home a lot happier.
Finally, without trying to mark a precedent, I was going to post here a selection of soundtracks to listen to while you read this fanfic, since at first I thought there were no songs in the JP/JW franchise that would fit the theme of this fanfic. However, I remembered "Jurassic Park – Remembering Petticoat Lane" would fit the fic just right. You guys can listen to it if you want while reading the story; the choice is up to you.
Sorry for this overdrawn author note. With all that out of the way, let's begin the story...
The bright, hot, red smoke was lurking closer and closer behind me, and I already knew that I would not be able to escape it. The whole island was burning, and the only hope of avoiding death was drawing further and further into the sea. As I walked over a path of smooth rock, I started remembering bits of my life.
My first memories were those of utter darkness and claustrophobia. I felt myself enclosed in a dark, tight space, and my first instinct was to break out of it. As I broke the dark walls of darkness, I got my first glimpse of light, and with it, I saw a white creature. The creature sounded overjoyed when they saw me poke my head into the light, and with gentle caresses, they started cleaning me. Since when had I been dirty and covered in slime? I didn't know. The creature had a rounded head, stood erect on their hind legs, and smelled funny, but they seemed to be harmless. There were other creatures, similar to them, lurking around, probably of the same kind, but to me, it was that first creature the one who I imprinted on. I instinctively knew I could trust them; after all, if they wanted to eat me, they wouldn't have waited until after I was born.
Soon enough, I learned how to stand on my own legs, and I started seeing the creature I had seen on my birth less and less, and the other ones more and more. They seemed to make weird sounds I could not understand. I also saw some beings that looked like me. These ones, which had brown skin, had long necks, long forelimbs, shorter hindlimbs, and a rather short tail. Their head was funny, with their nostrils over their eyes. I assumed I was like them, for they seemed comfortable around me. All of them seemed to be what the white creatures called "female", and they also called them other things, like "brachiosaurus". What did they mean with those sounds? I couldn't care less. All I wanted was to livein peace and freedom. The crammed space we were in was slowly but surely becoming smaller by the day.
Shortly after, we were taken away from the space we were in and into the wild. It was not long before I could feed on the top of the trees. My body was well-suited for the task, since my head was placed high enough to reach them, and the finer leaves usually were on the treetops. There were some other creatures on the place we lived in, which walked on four legs, or two, were much smaller than us, with green and blue bands across their bodies and a strange head that seemed to draw backwards. These new creatures emitted some weird sounds, different from our calls. I could communicate with my kind from a long distance, and I was happy to know that I could spend time with creatures of my kind. Sometimes, those now little bipedal beings, which called themselves "humans", came over and spent time watching us.
One day, however, things soon took a turn for the worse.
It all started with some new humans coming over to the place we lived on, during a sunny day. These ones seemed to be amazed at my mere sight, and I recognized one of them. It was the human I had seen when I was born. I was minding my own business, eating from a small group of trees in a large clearing. After calling a couple of my kind, which were on the other side of a lake, I reared up on my hind legs. It was something that took a lot of effort on my part, since the shorter hind legs were not made for this kind of task, but the reward of fresh leaves at the top of the tree outweighed the pain. The other two creatures on the lake shore had gone into the water to cool down a bit, and soon after that they left the water, close to a place where more of the weird-headed creatures were drinking.
That afternoon, I heard a sound I was a bit familiar with; the sound of thunder. A large storm was coming. I had seen rain and heard thunders before. However, something wrong started happening that night; I could smell something that could only be called death. My kind clustered together in the jungle, and we kept on touch with each other at all times. That night we also heard something imitating our call. It was somewhat strange, and at the same time, it was as if it was one of us. It brought some confusion to the group, but soon we returned to eating.
The next morning, I was eating leaves when I saw a small bunch of humans on the tree. One adult and a couple of smaller younglings. One of them seemed scared, and the other two looked more interested. I let out a booming roar to scare them off and returned to my feeding. The adult human had grabbed the same branch I was intent on feeding upon and held it tight for a moment, frustrating my attempts, but let go afterwards. As I ate the leaves, the adult and one of the youngsters started touching my snout. It was a feeling I was familiar with, and it was a bit comfortable. Eventually, the other youngster tried to pet me, but their timing was awful. I started feeling a tingling sensation in my nose and suddenly, I sneezed, covering the poor creature in snot.
During the rest of the day, the scent of death drifted again across the island. I never knew what happened, but something had gone wrong, and the humans ended up leaving the place. I could feel that the human I had imprinted on was about to leave, and called them, trying to stop them from doing so, but it was all for naught. I would never see that human again.
The years passed, and I saw more and more new creatures every day. Some of them had strange heads with three horns, others were small ones with long necks and short forelimbs that ran very fast, others had weird things on their back and tail... And they all looked harmless. There were, however, other creatures that seemed dangerous. There were some small things that could prevent their prey from getting away at a distance, others seemed to be able to feed upon the creatures in the water, but none of them was dangerous to our kind. There was another one, though, that might had been able to take one of our kind down if given a perfect chance. This creature had a large head with a mouth full of large teeth, ridiculously short forelimbs, and powerful hindlimbs. My kind stood tall over this one, but I instinctively knew it was a better idea to stay clear of that creature, for it seemed lethal. Despite the dangers, me and my kind were happy, free from the restrictions of the place we had been taken to. The entire island was our home, and the only thing that kept us from leaving was the sea, which stretched as far as our sight allowed us to follow.
Some years after the humans left, they returned. This time, however, these took us to a different place, where they left us to live for a similar purpose as the last time: to serve as an amusement for the humans they called "visitors". Why did they do this to us? We had enjoyed freedom, and just when we had adapted to living in such conditions, they took us back into an enclosed area. However, we were taken good care of. Freedom and security not always come hand in hand, but its price was our happiness.
A handful of years later, again, the scent of death plagued the air. This time, however, it was more intense, like a great malice intent on blanketing the island and destroying all life. A series of bloodcurdling roars were heard that fateful day, which marked the second time humans left the island. My kind and I left the area we had been kept in, and only then, when we were free again, we realized the extent of the tragedy. Everything was in ruins, there were dead bodies everywhere, and the few that had survived were about to meet a tragedy the likes of which we had never faced before.
Some time after the second leaving of humans, the ground started shaking time and time again, and the large mountain of the island started spewing black smoke. Plants died bit by bit, and the water started tasting weirder and weirder. Some animals died off; amongst them, many of my kind. Predators, both known and new to me, had a better time, feeding from the dead ones, while the plant eaters struggled to survive.
Eventually, for the third time, humans came back to the island, this time to take some creatures off here. They took all sorts of animals: the horned ones, the weird-headed ones, the plated ones, some armored creatures with a club on their tail, even a bunch of long-necked ones similar to us, except these ones were smaller, had shorter forelimbs, and longer tails. But none of my kind. I'll never know why didn't they take us with them. I had an ominous feeling about the tremors and the changes in the area, and my instinct was rarely wrong.
That fear, tragically, turned out to be founded.
It all started like everyday, with the sun rising, while the ground shook every now and then.
I was walking near a bunch of destroyed buildings, looking for the last few of my kind, which were far away from me that day. There were a bunch of humans nearby, but I didn't pay attention to them. I was busy looking for the others, and I had already made peace with the fact that I was not going to be leaving the island. If only the ground stopped shaking, if only the mountain stopped spewing smoke and rocks...
However, all hopes went out with a terrifying bang in a matter of hours. The ground started shaking for the umpteenth time. This time, however, it was much worse; all the island seemed to be ripping apart, and the mountain was spewing what could be called liquid fire, along with a red cloud that seemed to burn eveything in its path. Every creature on the island panicked, running for their lives towards the sea. Some of them even jumped into the water, only to try to swim away, get tired, and drown. The ones that weren't fast enough to escape died, either choking on the poisonous somke or burning to death in the liquid fire.
I could hear the last of my kind dying in the debacle while I headed for the east side of the island. Apparently, humans had an area where they congregated there, and I hoped to reach that spot before they left. However, that didn't turn out to be the case. I was late reaching that area. There was a strip of smooth rock leading to the sea, where a large sea vehicle started moving away from the island.
I desperately tried to catch up with it, but by the time I got closer, the vehicle was too far away. Whatever few hopes I had to survive were mercilessly crushed. I could feel the heat emitted by the red cloud, and I knew what was going to happen when it caught up with me.
I reared up one final time, calling into the empty world at nothing in particular, while the humans that once brought me to life left me behind, and the red cloud made contact with me, the searing heat burned me alive...
I hope you liked this small Jurassic World one-shot. I had a good time writing it, and I hope you guys have an even better time reading it, even if it makes you shed some tears. Remember that feedback and constructive criticism are both welcome, just please avoid unnecessary curses and personal attacks. Good luck and take care. See you next time