This story came about from a discussion with Elise and Nadin about Fallen Kingdom, where I started to propose "fixes" on solving some of the holes in the movie. Which then turned into a bit of a "what if" - What if the volcano didn't erupt? What if there was no Maisie? What if Claire wasn't so easily fooled? And all of that snowballed into this.
The beginning will most closely resemble Fallen Kingdom as I used a lot of the initial dialogue right from the movie (which is owned by FK) but, as you'll notice right here in the prologue, things aren't quite the same.
While this fic is Clawen, it is equally about the whole adventure. It is *not* anywhere near as angsty as Full Circle was (sorry to the angst fans) but it's not all sunshine either (they were broken up at the start of FK, remember?).
I really hope you'll join me on this journey. I'll be posting Chapter 1 later this week, and then plan to stick to a weekly update schedule similar to FC.
Prologue
The inky darkness off the deep water of the lagoon was only broken up by the high powered beams projected by the sub that was carefully being steered across the bottom.
Two men sat inside the sub, one focused on steering while the other communicated with the rest of the team above, where one man had boots on the ground, while the others were in a helicopter that was standing by.
Between the lack of visibility and the feeling of claustrophobia that was inevitable when in a tiny machine 50 meters underwater, the two men were tense. Sweat beaded on their foreheads, the temperature inside rising with their apprehension. The sound of heavy breathing echoed in the small enclosure.
"Relax. Anything in here would be dead by now," one tried to reassure the other, although, he wasn't any more confident in what he was saying. It had only been a couple of months since the tragedy at Jurassic World had taken place. They were on Isla Nublar as part of a covert mission to retrieve a piece of the skeleton of the Indominus rex.
The fallout from Jurassic World was still reverberating around the world, with new lawsuits being announced daily. But the island itself had been placed on quarantine since that fateful day. No one was allowed to step foot on it. Thus, instead of attempting this mission during daylight (not that the light would reach them as deep as they were), they were out there in the middle of the night during a rainstorm.
They had been told that there was no way the Mosasaurus was still alive, as no one had been feeding it its steady diet of daily sharks for weeks now. And on top of that, the lagoon that it swam in was not directly connected to the ocean. The Mosasaurus had relied heavily on the goodwill of its Jurassic World handlers to keep it fed.
The sonar continued to ping as the pilot followed its guidance. With a small swing to the left, stark white bones appeared to jump out at them.
"There she is. The Indominus rex," the other man breathed out, awed by the sight. The skull of the creature appeared to be roughly the same size as the sub they were sitting in.
The pilot positioned the sub carefully, and then directed a clawed, robot arm to reach out, grasping onto one of the ribs. Next, a saw followed, the whirling of it sounding muffled from within the sub. The bone was easily cut through, and a balloon attached to the claw inflated. Next, the claw detached from the sub, sending the freed piece of rib skyward propelled by the attached balloon.
Back on land, not far from what use to be Main Street, a helicopter was whirling as it sat off to the side. Jack was positioned at a bank of machines, where he'd been trying to access the Jurassic World system (a side mission that he felt was doomed to fail). His radio crackled to life, as the sub pilot announced, "Specimen collected. Sent to the surface."
Jack quickly replied, "Copy that. Air One, clear for takeoff. Begin tracking."
The pilot quickly answered with a succinct, "Roger," and Jack could hear the increase whine of the helicopter's blades as it lifted into the air, moving out over the lagoon to retrieve the bone fragment.
Jack distractedly encouraged them with a "go, go" as he turned back to the machines to continue his hacking attempt.
"Tracking on," the pilot informed everyone across the radio, but Jack barely heard him, the sound of leaves shifting and branches creaking drawing his attention to a set of bushes off to the side. Staring intently he couldn't see anything, and there was no more movement. Shrugging, he turned back to his task.
"Land One, the asset is secure. We got what we came for," the helicopter pilot radioed him. "We're coming back for you."
Jack paused in his task to acknowledge, "Marine One, time to go. Get up here."
It was only seconds later before he got a reply. "Understood. We're heading up."
Back underwater, the sub pilot backed the sub carefully away from the remains of the Indominus skeleton. They had been told to try not to damage it anymore than necessary. The lights on the rear of the sub were not as powerful as the front, and so by the time they two men noticed that there was something behind them, it was too late.
The Mosasaurus had been literally starving since its main meal source had been cut off. The Indominus had only supported it briefly, followed by the small fish that populated the lagoon. She needed a large meal, and she had been silently and stealthily tracking this large abnormal fish since it had entered her habitat. And when the opportunity finally presented itself, she pounced.
Back on land, Jack had been watching the lagoon for the signs of the submarine surfacing. He had expected to see it by now. "Marine One. We need to go. Confirm position." He glanced down at the tablet in his hand and was surprised to see the normal screen has been taken over by a giant, flashing red alert: Signal Lost. "Can you hear me? Are you coming up?"
The helicopter pilot had also been listening in, and now joined the conversation. "Marine One?"
A second member on the helicopter added, "Guys?"
As the helicopter lowered itself back onto land in its bid to pick up Jack, the pilot asked, "What is that?" He was looking over behind Jack. However, Jack was focused on staring out over the lagoon and didn't hear them. Near Jack, branches were snapping. There were flashes of lightning and those in the helicopter caught a glimpse of something big.
"Marine One. Seriously guys. I'm kind of exposed out here. Marine One. Confirm you're up, Marine One. Confirm position. Can you hear me, Marine One, where are you?" Jack continued to talk into his radio, peering through the rain expecting to see the sub bobbing out of the water. He could hear the helicopter landing behind him, and it sounded like there was shouting coming from there, too.
Turning away from the water, he looked over at the helicopter where the three men in the back were waving at him. He could tell they were yelling something, but he couldn't hear them. Why weren't they using the radio?
Pointing to the lagoon behind him, Jack yelled back, "I can't reach them."
The men just became more frantic, gesturing wildly at him.
"What?" Jack questioned. He looked behind himself but didn't see anything. "What is going on? I can't hear you!" He pointed to his ears as he raised his shoulders in question.
There's a large growl, and he turned around again, but this time more cautiously. A dinosaur, what one, he was not sure, stepped out of the bushes. He didn't understand why they were so frantic, as the dinosaur was barely up to his shoulder. It looked at him curiously, tilting its head to the size.
"Nice dinosaur. Good dinosaur," Jack said nervously, backing away towards the helicopter.
The dinosaur trilled at him, darting forward a couple of steps, causing Jack to scramble back faster. "Good dinosaur. Good dinosaur," he repeated.
The dinosaur paused, turning its head slightly as if in question and looking over its shoulder.
There was a brief pause, where it all goes silent, except for the steady sound of the rain pounding the ground. Then, everything happened at once. The small dinosaur took off to the left and from behind him appeared a bigger dinosaur, a dinosaur Jack did know the name of, a T. rex, came crashing out of the bushes.
Jack barely had time to pull in a breath before he was screaming, his legs churning as he turned and headed straight for the helicopter, only to see that it was already taking off.
"No, no! What! Don't go! No!" Jack yelled as he ran.
The pilot on the helicopter barked to the men in the back. "Throw him the ladder."
"Come on! Bring it down! Slow down! No, no, no! Don't go!" Jack continued to yell, racing after them. He watched as the ladder fell from the back of the helicopter, landing with a loud smack against the pavement. Whimpering, he took a quick glance over his shoulder only to see the T-Rex is keeping pace behind him, apparently not in a rush. "Oh god!"
The helicopter was now moving out over the lagoon. Just as it was about to pull away, Jack managed to jump on top of an old food cart. He took a flying leap, grabbing the ladder just in time.
His relief was short lived, as the T-Rex was barely a step behind him, and she grabbed hold of the ladder too, yanking it back towards land, and causing alarms in the helicopter to blare.
The pilot started to panic, "We're gonna stall! Cut it now!"
"Give him a chance!" One of the men in the back cried out.
"We're gonna die here!" The pilot reminded them.
"Come on! Come on!" Another man called down to Jack, wishing he'd hurry up.
"No, no, no," Jack whimpered, clutching tightly to the ladder. With the T-Rex pulling at it, it was swaying dangerously and he didn't dare attempt to climb higher.
"I said cut it!" The pilot demanded.
"Don't do it! I don't wanna die!" Jack yelled back.
The pilot tried again to pull away and rise higher, and this time the ladder snapped, leaving the bottom half hanging from the mouth of the T-Rex as the helicopter move freely and further out across the lagoon.
"Woohoo!" "Yeah!" There was laughter from the men in the helicopter. Certain death now avoided, they all breathed easier. The men in the back looked down at Jack, encouraging him to move up, as the T-Rex roared in frustration before stalking off.
Their laughter was premature, the Mosasaurus was still hungry and had realized that its earlier meal was not actually food. But this? This looks exactly like how it was used to being fed—by food dangling over its head. It leapt for the yellow morsel, giant mouth easily swallowing the food in a single gulp, before landing back in the lagoon with an enormous splash.
On the helicopter there was silence, the cheering and laughter cut-off as they all looked down at the lagoon in shock, before turning toward each other. A couple moments later, one man picked up his radio and stated calmly, "DNA sample secured. Tell the boss we're coming back home."
Hope the prologue got you intrigued and excited to see how things might change as we revisit Fallen Kingdom. I always love to hear from readers, so let me know what you think and any predictions you may have for what's to come.
