A/N:*lightning flare*


All she was aware of was pain and motion. The pain flared in her gut, spreading out to heat her bones. She felt herself pitching and rolling. Something was covering her face so she couldn't see. She was cold. She slipped into unconsciousness again.

When Blue woke, she could see, though not very much. All there was to see was the inside of the shipping container. She was tied down and couldn't move. Blood was leaking from her stomach and pooling underneath her body. A dusty tarp had been loosely thrown over her legs. There was a young woman bending over Blue. Although her hands were controlled as they moved over Blue's body, pressing gauze to the wound and feeling her pulse in her neck, she smelled of fear. Blue's breathing sounded loud and far away.

She slipped in and out of awareness. The woman fussed over her. She dreamed of playing with her pack when they were young and small and could be amused with treats and toys. She dreamed of fighting the Indominus. She dreamed of Owen. She dreamed she was back in the jungle. The pain was one constant, sustained note, present even in her sleep.

Raised voices roused her. Blue rolled her eye around the cargo container and saw Owen, face pinched in sadness and worry and righteous anger. He reached out and placed a warm, steady hand on her head. There were other people in the container too, all of them speaking, but Blue was too dizzy and nauseous and tired to do anything but look up at Owen and breathe. A pair of hands pressed firmly on her stomach and the pain spiked. She groaned and tears leaked from her eyes.

Then Owen was gone, and she sank back into darkness.


Beeping, hushed murmuring, harsh chemicals, cold metal. A lab. Blue knew where she was without even opening her eyes. The pain was still there, but bearable, a dull ache with intermittent sharp flares that she could tolerate, just barely. She heard the tense, angry voice of the woman who had been fussing over her before. She feigned unconsciousness for some moments more. Clinking instruments, a squeaky wheel. She opened one large, orange eye. Through the bars of her cage, she could see men covered in stark white head to toe shuffling around between tables of beakers and electronics, conferring with their heads close together. The woman was handcuffed to Blue's cage.

Blue abandoned all pretense of being asleep. She stood and rammed her skull against the bars of her cage. The bustle of the lab paused, and Blue let out a series of sharp barks, giving the cage another rattle. The scientists resumed their work. She growled and shrieked and hissed until it became clear she was being ignored.

Zia snorted from where she sat, as far away from Blue's cage as the handcuffs would allow. "You and me both."

Any attempt to break out of the cage was a waste of time. In Blue's experience, she would get out when the humans wanted her out. She paced back and forth in the cramped space, breath coming in angry huffs. Zia watched her with an edge of nervousness. There was a faint odor wafting around that Blue recognized, it was the big rex. She couldn't identify where it was coming from. Herself?

Blue could hear a swarm of activity beyond the walls, vehicles and voices. She wondered where Owen was, where he could have gotten off to. Why would he leave her here, so soon after finding her? Maybe he had wanted her to be brought here, maybe she would never see the outside of a cage again. She snapped her teeth together, and Zia jumped. Trusting Owen had been a mistake. How quick she had been to forget the trouble humans brought.

Blue paced and Zia watched, until Dr. Wu barged in. He was angry, on edge, firing off orders and forcibly pushing one scientist who wasn't moving fast enough. That was when the trouble started.


Blue was accustomed to being indoors. She's spent her fair share of time in cold labs. But this was something different. The wood-paneled walls, carpets, furniture, and curtain-framed windows were new. The distant screams of human panic and bellows of animal agitation were not.

Head still ringing from the explosion, she navigated the halls of Lockwood Manor, skidding around corners, tripping up stairs, and slipping on rugs. She knew she should be focused on escape, but she couldn't curb her curiosity; she paused to investigate every new discovery: a marble bust sitting on a shelf, a taxidermy tiger that smelled like dust, a ticking grandfather clock, a full-length mirror (this last held her attention for several moments). That was why, instead of sprinting miles into the forest, she found herself following the sounds of Owen's shouts.


A/N: I anticipate having one or two more chapters to this fic