II

The Trial

A group of five doctors stood over an examination table. However, their patient was one unheard of by the common people: a fully shaved Grimm. Serap and a collection of scientists watched from an observation room as the doctors set about removing the shards of its bone mask buried in its face. The leading doctor spoke as they were finishing up.

"Specialist, the shards have almost been fully removed." He said. "However, it appears that one of the shards cut across its left eye, rendering it partially blind."

Serap hummed in reply.

"This would explain why most of the rounds that landed in the Grimm found their new home in its left side, as it would be less likely to see them coming."

"I understand, doctor." Serap replied. "Once you've removed the rounds and shards of its mask, I want you to determine its age."

"Yes sir."

The leading doctor returned to working with his comrades in removing the Dust rounds buried in its hide, his talk with the Specialist taking just long enough for the others to finish removing the bone shards in its face. Once the rounds were removed, the leading doctor touched one doctor on the shoulder and gestured towards a table with his head. The other doctor nodded as the first received a scalpel from a third doctor. He cut back some of the black skin just as the doctor he sent away came back with a card. The card had rectangles of varying shades of red, going from a bright crimson to a deep red. From all the medical trials they had conducted, they learned that a great way of determining a Grimm's age, aside from its size, was to look at the pigmentation of its "Red Matter", as they had taken to calling it. The darker the red matter, the older the Grimm was. The first doctor grabbed the color swatch and held it next to the red matter of the Alpha they were operating on. Serap slowly leaned forward to confirm his suspicions. He saw the leading doctor gulp before turning towards the observation deck.

"Sir…it appears that we don't have a red this dark on our swatch." The doctor stated nervously.

"Pull out the scanner." Serap ordered.

The doctor nodded as he pointed at a doctor and then pointed at a console close by. The doctor walked over and began typing away. A mechanical arm descended from the ceiling, just in reach of the first doctor. He grabbed a handle on it and positioned a strange, ovular camera right above the red matter. He gave a thumbs up towards the doctor operating the console, whom pressed a button. A loud click was heard, before the first doctor pushed the camera away.

"Sedatives." He ordered.

The doctor moved back over and they all dug into their coat pockets to pull out a case of syringes. They each removed one and took a position around the Grimm. The leading doctor was by the neck, two more were by its elbows, and the other two were by its knees. They simultaneously stabbed the needles in the Grimm and emptied its contents. They passed the needles to the doctor by its right knee and, as he moved to dispose of them, the leading doctor moved towards a television screen. It was displaying the results from the picture. The closest match to that red was from a Goliath they had captured solely for recording its age. The Goliath's red matter seemed bright in comparison to the Alpha's.

And that Goliath was only a few years shy of being a millennium old.

"Incredible…" the doctor muttered before turning towards the observers. "Sir, it appears this Alpha Beowolf is the oldest specimen we've captured. The readouts have been transferred to the science team in order to determine an age."

"Thank you, doctor. Proceed with phase two of the procedure." Serap replied.

"Yes sir." The doctor replied.

A doctor walked towards the back of the room and moved through some curtains. The other doctors stood by the Beowolf, awaiting her return. When she came back, she was wheeling in a cart with boxes, trays, and jars on it. A doctor walked over to the console once more, but instead of bringing down a strange camera, they brought down a laser. The doors leading into the examination room opened to reveal a tanned man striding in. He shook hands with each of the doctors before turning towards the observers.

"How great you could join us for this monumental point in history, doctor Watts." Serap greeted.

"Please, the pleasure is all mine, Specialist." Watts replied.

"You may begin when you're ready." Serap said.

Watts nodded in reply before turning towards the Alpha. He walked around the table and grabbed the laser. Carefully, he centered it at the back of the Beowolf's neck. With the press of a button, the laser began automatically cutting out a shape. The tunnel bored its way into the Beowolf's skull and, satisfied, Watts turned the laser off and moved it to the side. He turned towards the cart.

"Brain, please." He asked.

The female doctor that wheeled the cart in walked towards a jar and twisted off its lid. She carefully slipped her hands inside and pulled out a human brain. She walked over and handed it to Watts.

"Who was this fellow again?" Watts asked as he made his way to the incision. "An Atlesian commander, yes?"

"Indeed he was, doctor." Serap responded.

Watts hummed before slowly sliding the brain into the cavity created by the laser. After settling the brain, he fished into his coat pocket and pulled out a case of syringes. However, these did not hold sedatives. He pulled out one needle and inserted it in the red matter. He emptied its contents and hastily pulled it back out, allowing the chemical to do its work. The red matter pulsated before quickly rebuilding itself around the brain and filling the tunnel burned into it. Within two minutes, it looked as if there was never a hole to begin with. This syringe contained a chemical they referred to as "Red Matter Growth Stimulant", or RMGS. Watts never shared its secret with anyone, but did say that it kickstarted a natural healing factor Grimm possessed and then shifted it into overdrive. Once the cavity was sealed, Watts handed the emptied syringe to another doctor to dispose of it before moving towards the Beowolf's face. He opened up its mouth and turned towards the cart and opened a box. Inside it was a tool tray. He moved the box aside and placed the tool tray in an accessible location. He pulled a strange sander-looking tool off of it and pressed a button on it. It whirred to life, and its cylindrical roller spun. He turned it back off, satisfied with the test, and brought it into the Beowolf's mouth. He rested it against the upper jaw and turned it back on. It sanded away some of the red matter lining the inside of its upper jaw and turned the tool off. He put it back on the tray and held out his hand.

"Venom sac." He stated.

The female doctor fished into another jar and pulled out a venom sac. It was a fleshy sac with three separate tubules attached to it. One was a smaller tubule in the back, while the other two were longer and in the front. The rear tubule was much thicker than the front ones, which were designed to travel through teeth. She handed it to Watts and he rested it against the inside of the jaw, where he had applied the sander. He held it there with one hand as he slipped a hand into his coat pocket and pulled out the case of RMGS needles. He retrieved one and stabbed it into the matter under the sac. It bound the sac to the jaw. He handed the needle back to the doctor that disposed of the previous and turned towards the female doctor.

"Deathstalker venom."

She hovered her hand over a collection of vials before grabbing the one he requested and handed it to him. Carefully, he held it over one of the tubules and emptied its contents into the sac. He handed her the empty vial and grabbed a probe from the tool tray.

"Commencing venom test."

The doctors stood to the side as Watts held the three tubules in one hand and the probe in the other. He applied pressure to the sac, and sure enough, venom sprayed out of the tubules and onto the floor.

"Venom test is a success." Watts stated. "It's time for sedatives."

He stepped back from the table as the doctors took their positions around the Beowolf. After injecting him with the sedatives, Watts moved back towards it jaws and let the doctors dispose of their needles. He grabbed a scraping tool and scraped away a small portion of red matter by the rear tubule. He held the end of the tubule there before he placed the tool back on the tray and retrieved another RMGS needle. He emptied its contents into the scraped red matter and let it grow around the tubule. He handed the needle to a doctor and grabbed a strange drilling tool from the tray. He drilled a small tunnel through the tips of the two upper canines, and then drilled from the back of the canines into the ends of the other tunnels. Once the tunnels were completed, he placed the drill on the tray and carefully pushed the tubules through the sharp teeth. After making sure the tunnels allowed the tubules to travel all the way through the teeth, he lifted up part of the tubules and grabbed his scraping tool. He scraped away a trench under the tubules and put the tool away before grabbing another RMGS needle. He applied it to the left fang's trench and rested the tubule against it before grabbing another needle. He repeated the process with right trench, and soon, the venom sac was fully integrated into the Beowolf's system.

"My work here is almost done, ladies and gentlemen." Watts stated as he walked towards the Beowolf's chest. "Hand me Subject IOTA's remains, please."

The female doctor by the cart pulled out a jar that had the mask of a Geist resting in it. If one looked closed enough, they could see faint wisps of black smoke curling off of it. After IOTA had passed, curiously, its mask remained behind as if it was still faintly alive, somewhere in there. Watts pulled down the laser and centered it on the chest of the Beowolf. He pressed a different button on it, and it played through the program made by Watts. It carefully cut out the shape of the Geist's mask into the Grimm's chest and shut off. Watts pushed it into the ceiling and held out his hands. The woman opened the jar and let Watts retrieve the mask. He held it up for the observers to see before resting it in the chest. Thanks to the still mysterious nature of red matter, the Geist mask required no RMGS to bond. It settled and, slowly, its faded red glow began to grow brighter. Black smoke curled off of it before dissipating, signifying the bond had succeeded. Watts turned towards the observers.

"My work here is done." He said with a bow.

The observers clapped as he took off his gloves and left the room. Moments later, he opened the door into the observation room and sat down close to the Specialist.

"Thank you again, doctor Watts." Serap said as he turned to the doctor. "Your contributions to the Grimm Control Program have been nothing short of astounding."

"Hold your thanks, Specialist. My work here isn't done." Watts said as he raised his hand. "After all, the GCC still has its second phase it wants me to take part in."

The two turned back to the doctors before Serap leaned into the mic.

"Begin the final phase, doctor." He ordered.

The leading doctor nodded before walking over to the Beowolf's face.

"Bring out the enhancers." The doctor ordered.

The female doctor by the cart opened another box and pulled out a tray of five needles. They were labeled "SE", "OE", "OlE", "AE", and "EE".

"Sedatives." The doctor ordered.

They all fished into their coats and retrieved the next to last set of needles. They injected them in the normal places and were disposed of before the leading doctor grabbed the SE needle. He moved over to the Beowolf's chest and injected the needle at the border of the Geist mask. He emptied its contents and handed the needle off before moving back to the cart and grabbing the OE needle. He also grabbed a set of eyedrops and carefully squirted them into the Beowolf's eyes. This would numb them enough that the Grimm wouldn't even react to the needle. He carefully injected measured amounts marked on the syringe, so as to not have one eye be stronger than the other. Due to its partial blindness, the left eye required more of the enhancer in order to be on par with the right. He handed the OE needle off after injecting it and retrieved the OlE needle. He injected it directly into the snout of the Beowolf. He handed the needle off and retrieved the AE needle. Making sure to follow the measurements on it, he injected half of it directly beneath the right ear and half of it beneath the left. He handed off the needle and retrieved the last one, the EE needle. He moved back to the Grimm mask and emptied its contents on the other side of it as the SE needle. He handed the needle off and stepped back.

"The enhancers have been injected. Wheel in the spike donor." He ordered.

A pair of Atlesian soldiers walked through the curtain with a cage between them, holding a sedated Ursa Major. They unfortunately did not have the time to capture another Alpha Beowolf, so they had to settle for one of the Ursa Majors in Storage and Distribution. One of its spikes was sawn off by the leading doctor and brought over to the Alpha. However, it refused to bond with the stumps. He disposed of the spike and motioned for the soldiers to take the Ursa back out. They nodded and wheeled the cage back out, and came back in moments later with a new cart. This one had multiple metal spikes on it, fashioned and painted to look like the originals. They had planned around such a setback and premade these artificial spikes. The spikes were slotted over the stumps and the few natural spikes left. Then, an engineer came in and bolted the spikes into place. Once that was done, the soldiers and engineer left the room and took the cart with them.

"Sedatives." The leading doctor ordered.

The doctors all took their places one last time and injected the final set of sedatives. The needles were disposed of and the leading doctor pulled down the laser and centered it over the center of the Beowolf's forehead. He pressed a button on it, and went to work on the final step of the procedure: branding. It burned in a symbol on the Beowolf's faceplate: the Ohm, symbol of the last letter of the ancient Sanusian alphabet. Then, it ran over the burned symbol with an air hose, blasting away any stray chips. It followed through again with a jet of water to round off the symbol. Finally, it ran over it, very closely and slowly, with red dye. The laser moved back and shut off, knowing its job was complete. The leading doctor pushed it into the ceiling and they all turned towards the observers.

"The procedure is complete. The OMEGA Subject should wake up in approximately five hours, and he will need another hour to recuperate before he is back at peak performance." The leading doctor stated.

"Well done, doctors. You may all leave." Serap replied.

The doctors saluted and left the room, and not even a minute after they had left, soldiers walked in and deactivated a lock underneath the table. They wheeled the examination table out of the room and into the corridors of the GCRE, hurrying towards Testing Area 01. Serap turned to Watts.

"Thank you once again, doctor Watts." The Specialist congratulated.

"Oh, you haven't seen everything yet, Specialist." Watts replied. "Believe me."

They all turned and left the observation room, unaware that they had just created the death of them all. They had forgotten just what it meant to be the Omega. Yes, it meant the last in line, the ultimate in a series.

But, it also meant to be the end of everything.

So, chapter two is now a thing. Honestly, I never expected to have a favorite or follow this early on, especially two! So, ARangeroftheOrder and DimondDog, you two have my sincerest thanks, as well as everyone one of you that's taken the time to read this story! Really, you guys don't know how warm this makes me feel right now! That being said, I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter, and once again, I ask that you give reviews to tell me how I'm doing and if there's anything I should change! Also, I'll be willing to answer any and all questions, but in no way will I spoil the story. Thanks!