-Zōngakure Ch. 3 START-

So...it was even darker than it was earlier...

"...Uzu?"

"Ya know, for once I have nothing to do with this, nor do I have any idea what's going on..."

"...you're kidding, right?...Right?!"

"No. I seriously have no idea whatsoever what in the name of the Beasts is happening."

Then, being called forth by the darkness, the three fell into memories. Ones of their last 'tests' before they were placed in this place.

? #1's 3rd POV

He was floating. Suspended. Where was he? Everything was blurry. All he could make out was that he was in a room. Another white room. Why he'd he switched rooms? He couldn't think clearly enough to even try to answer that question. His thoughts were murky, few and far apart.

But his mind was just barely clear enough to make out that something wasn't right. He felt alright. It didn't feel life-threatening. But it. Felt. Wrong. And it originated from his back.

Something swayed behind him. It wasn't something else entirely that was occupying the chamber with him, he could tell that. He could finally tell he was in a test tube. But the thing swayed again. What was it? Suddenly, he realized that it felt like something was part of him. Another thing. Another piece of him...another limb.

He got hold of his motor functions, to move it in a way so that, if he were to look as far to the left as he could, he would be able to see it. He could tell it was long enough to be able to be seen. And he looked.

A tail. He had a lion's tail. Stronger than a regular lion tail, he could tell. It was more bulked with muscles. The fur was, for some reason, like a zebras. So many strips of black and white, it was impossible to tell if black were dominating, or the white. The tail also had feathers. At the tip. Spread into a fan-like shape, and he could somehow deduce that they were for stability. Like the feathers on an arrow. The feathers were alternating. Black, white, black, white, black, white. What was with the mixed colors?

He looked forward, ahead of him with half-lidded eyes, at the ever so slight reflection of himself on the glass, barely visible enough to make out details through the blur. Strands of black and white hair drifted in front of his eyes, and two slightly glowing eyes looked back at him. The left green, the right blue. His eyes drifted shut.

Wait.

What.

His eyes shot wide open, his mind suddenly racing. What the hell happened!? What did they do!? He was supposed to have blue eyes and black hair, or green eyes and white hair! Not all four! His hair was as mixed in color as his furred tail had been. Black and white fighting for dominance. His eyes were glowing with weakened power, the lights and darks of their respective colors swirling around.

Then, his body throbbed. With a start, he noticed that, to his extreme dislike, border lining horror, he was hooked up to nearly countless wires. They were attached to him like oversized IV's. The comparison felt appropriate, somehow. Then he noticed it. He could feel the nutrients being pumped into his very system.

And a throb in his back reminded him that something was wrong. And he felt it. He could feel four large bones in his back, under his skin. Four bones that didn't normally belong there. And they were folded in themselves. The bones were in pairs. Two arm bones and two forearm bones, like two huge, dormant arms with no hands resting within his very back. He felt the nutrients from the tubes he was connected to going straight to the two bones, and he felt pressure adding and adding upon itself, like it was going to burst all in one fell swoop, like an opened soda can right after it was given the shake of its life. Absentmindedly, he also noticed that his already existing bones felt...lighter. More flexible...hollow.

And the pressure finally released.

Two huge needles of bone suddenly grew from his back, ripping through his flesh into open space. The rest of the bones that had been in his back followed, ripping his skin apart, pushing themselves free. Then, they hung, slightly floating, lifelessly, from his back. The six bones, three on each side, were just that. Bones. The only reason as to why they weren't drifting away from his body was the fact that they were attached. Attached by tendons. No muscle to move them, but tendons to keep them in place.

As he began to drift off into his pain-induced sleep, he felt his back itching. From the corner of his eye, he could just make out some muscle building itself into the new bones as skin followed closely behind. The last thing he could make out before drifting off was small, fuzzy feathers. Growing out of the painfully acquired wings.

? #2's 3rd POV

Waking up, the first thing he saw was pure black. Despite it having happened what felt like so long ago, his training kicked in, and he was immediately aware of his surroundings. He was suspended in a test tube. What he was in seemed not to bother his eyes one bit as he looked from left to right. He saw he had a breathing apparatus on his face, and, embarrassingly enough, he also noticed his lack of...ahem...clothes. Looking in front of himself, he expected to see a blond with blue eyes looking back at him from his reflection. Instead, he saw a red eyed blond, the eyes having slits. Atop the boy's head, was a pair of long, blond ears, with the inner fur being pitch black. (Think of them being like Inuyasha's ears. I'll probably draw this anyway, but, meh.) He looked down at himself. His nails, all of them, had turned into dull, orange claws, each with a strip of shining gold in the middle, and something told him it wasn't nail polish. A slight bit of black on the skin of his arm reminded him of what was there, and he moved to make it not be in his perspective. Then he noticed the tubes.

Nearly countless tubes sprout from his back, full of something red, and he didn't think it was blood. The red...stuff...was flowing into him. And he felt a pressure on the bottom of his spine. Building. Building.

Pop.

Suddenly, bones shot out from the end of his spine. Tail bones. Linked together by flimsy tendons. His high pain tolerance was barely keeping him awake as he screamed silently into his breathing mask. Before his eyes, muscle built itself upon the newly acquired tail, and then fur. Fluffed, shining, golden fur covered his tail, and he was finally forced to sleep from the agonizing pain.

? #1's 3rd POV (again. But this is short!)

When he finally came to, he was much more attentive than he had been earlier. Immediately he noticed the iron collar around his neck, and two chains coming from it to both link to the same iron ring on the wall of the new room he was in. His new wings, one black and the other white, rested limply behind him. He looked in front of himself, and saw two of them. Two men in white suits. The army-like kind. And between them, they held a giant dream-catcher. The two began to carry it towards him, and the last thing he could remember was the strings of it, glowing poisonous green, looming over him.

Present time. 3rd POV

Then, a shout jerked the three out of their memories. The door to their cage was wide open, and the leader of the facility they were in was standing in the doorway.

"Well? Do you want out, or are you going to sit there gawking?"