No Owen for this chapter, but we got a nice reunion scene :)

"So, Miss Brennan," Eric began. The two of them had been making idle chat as they walked, something to help pass the time as they began their long journey. "Indulge me on something?"

"Of course, Mr. Kirby," Maria answered, giggling at the groan he gave at the name.

"Is self sacrificing the Brennan way, or was Billy just an outlier?"

Maria snorted. "It's a family trait," she said immediately. "It just manifests differently. Billy with the stupid parachute, me at Lockwood's when Ripper got out. My parents would do it when the other caught us doing something we weren't supposed to. Even my other brother would do it, if I was getting into something he'd take the fall." She thought for a moment and then let out a soft laugh. "The only outlier is Chase, my younger brother. Doesn't do anything bad, and won't take the rap for anyone."

Eric let out a soft laugh. "I see, so now I have to keep an extra good eye on you," he teased as he bumped her side with his.

"I'm sure Ripper has you beat," Maria said as she casted a glance up at the hybrid as he walked in front of them. After the incident with the giga's, he had taken to being more observant of their surroundings. If a territory seemed to belong to a giant, he steered them around the edges. It made their trek longer, but she appreciated it nonetheless. "He'd drop dead if I tried to pull a stunt."

"He wouldn't be the only one," Eric supplied.

They walked again in comfortable silence, taking in the sounds. There were roars in the distance, nothing too close to be worried about. If Ripper wasn't concerned, the two allowed themselves to not worry about it. Ripper, for his part, was having the time of his life being around these new smells and sounds around him. This was the most exploring he'd done since the Lockwoods two years ago.

"Did you ever keep your raptors' claws?" Eric asked suddenly.

Maria nodded, swallowing thickly before she spoke. "We all did, when they lost their sickle's as babies. Owen kept Blue's in his pocket from day one, he still doesn't leave the house without it. Called it his good luck claw. Barry kept Delta's, used to keep it in his pocket but with his little kid now getting into stuff he's taken to locking it up in a lockbox in his room. And I," Maria pulled out a necklace with two claws on the end, "I kept Charlie and Echo's."

Eric looked at the tiny claws together, even in death she thought bitterly. "They were yours?" he asked softly, taking note of her melancholy expression.

"Yeah," Maria said softly as she cradled the claws in her palm. "Charlie was my first baby, and Echo was my second. I adopted her shortly after the other," she thumbed the claws when the memories flooded. "Echo loved to fight with Blue," she added with a soft laugh. "Whenever Blue would pick on Charlie, Echo was right there to end it."

Eric smiled as he listened, taking note that Ripper was walking slowly now, almost next to Maria. He must like listening to her and her stories, the man thought as he smiled at the two. "I don't know if I remember Echo too much, I'd seen most of your videos on the website regarding the girls."

"She was the one with the crooked jaw," Maria supplied, smiling at the recognition flooding in his eyes. "She got it in a fight with Blue," she supplied as she guessed his next question. There weren't many questions people had about Echo past the usual "how did it happen?". "We think she was going to play the role of beta, which Blue didn't take kindly to."

She still remembered getting the frantic call from Barry that her girl was fighting Owen's. She had run all the way from the plaza to the paddock, nearly running into their vet as he watched in horror at the fight. She'd stayed with Echo during the surgery and the recovery after her jaw was reconstructed. She had almost gotten into a fight with the surgeons when they suggested just putting her down.

She never gave up on that girl, and had earned her loyalty and love up until the end.

"What were they like?" Eric asked now, a question not too many asked now that she thought about it. Most assumed that they were all bloodthirsty, their reputations were tarnished after reports from the first parks raptors came in.

"Charlie was as sweet as could be," Maria said as she allowed herself to talk about her girls. It had been years since she last spoke on them, but she was in a better place now. "She loved with every bone in her body, used to vibrate as a baby when I'd come into the hatchery. She was the most excitable," Maria let out a little laugh, "she'd used to do this little skip whenever she'd start running."

"And Echo, Echo was headstrong," Maria spoke fondly now as she thought of her girl. "But she was sweet in her own way. Charlie was the last raptor to survive her clutch, and Echo was the first to take her into the pack. She loved to be cuddled, and I was so glad that Charlie let her join cuddle time whenever I'd sneak in earlier." Maria looked down as she remembered her second girl. "She liked being in the back after her fight with Blue, I think she wanted people to forget about her after some of the temps started calling her Elvis."

"But you never did," Eric said as he looked at the claws, so tiny but so much importance in them.

"No, never," Maria said as she finally retucked the necklace back into her shirt. She was glad when Owen gave Echo's claw to her shortly after the Lockwood incident, it made her feel more complete. "Why'd you ask, anyway?"

Eric blinked like he'd forgotten before sheepishly rubbing the back of his neck. "I was going to show off my own," he said as he averted his gaze. "But now it seems stupid, I don't have any attatchment or special story for it."

"I want to see it," Maria said reassuringly, Ripper grunting beside her. He liked stories, even if they came from other people.

Eric glanced at her and nodded, pulling out a huge claw from his pocket. "It's my good luck claw too," he said, referencing Owen's own claw. "Got it when I was here those eight weeks, two males got into a fight and it got torn off."

Maria looked at it in awe, her girls claws weren't anything like this. "It's huge," she said as she eyed the wear and tear. "Our girls' weren't even close to this size."

"I think the raptors here are different now," Eric said as he thought that over. "They're a couple generations of wild born, could have made them bigger than the ones on Isla Nublar."

It made sense, she almost wondered if the indominus hadn't escaped if the next few raptors they received would have been like the ones on Sorna. She would have loved to see her girls with proper sickle claws. She stopped suddenly, a large dome in the distance.

"Is that…?"

"The aviary," Eric confirmed. He gently placed a hand on Maria's shoulder to draw her closer. "We don't have to go into it, we just have to be careful as we go around. They could have made a whole in the dome to get in and out easier."

Maria nodded and they continued down, stepping carefully as they eyed the aviary slowly approaching. They could see the pteranodons flying around in there, and as they came up next to it the screeches were now near impossible to ignore. She didn't want to look over, didn't want to accidentally challenge one if it saw her. She had avoided the aviary back in Jurassic World like it was the plague, far too nervous about her brother's stories.

Eric's hand tightened a bit on her shoulder as a particularly loud screech reached them. She could hear his breathing pick up, feel his hand tremble slightly. Maria swallowed and took his hand, squeezing it as she began to walk a bit faster. "I'm scared of them," she whispered to him, she wasn't lying.

Eric threw her a grateful look as he took the lead again, holding her hand in a deathgrip almost. One of the pteranodons flew out of the aviary with a screech, causing the both of them to curse and duck down. Ripper looked at them confused and looked up at the flying creature in wonder as they peaked out. It hadn't seen them.

"We just gotta go past that building," Eric muttered, he wasn't sure if he was reassuring Maria or himself at this point. He supposed it didn't matter.

"It's only… twenty feet off," Maria whispered. "Don't run, it'll get their attention." She remembered the plaza and the swarm that hit vividly. "We go steady paced, and we'll be past it."

Eric swallowed and nodded. "Yeah, yeah. Okay, let's go," he grabbed her hand again and took the lead. The last twenty feet were a nightmare for them both, the pteranodons were more active around this area. Each squawk, each screech, it all ended in taking a year off of their lives.

By the time they reached the building, they let out collective breaths of relief. They weren't exactly out of the woods with the pteranodons, but they were out of the line of sight for the majority in the cage. Only a few flying out would spot them now, but if they kept the pace then they'd be okay. At least that's what Maria kept whispering to herself.

"What's with the fences?" She found herself asking as they drew near the large structure. It was like something had broken out of it, with such great force.

"Spino," Eric whispered, as if the very name was taboo.

Judging from the stories she heard, it was a sensible reaction.

"Is this its territory?" The last thing she wanted was to run into the crazed behemoth.

"Was," Eric said as he nervously looked around. "Could be dead by now," he added hopefully. It didn't exactly reassure her. "Let's keep moving, we can hit the lab by today." He readjusted his grip on her hand and led on, casting uneasy looks towards the break in the fence.

Maria opened her mouth to say something when a loud, enraged roar came that shook her to her core more than the giga's ever did. This was a roar with power, with ferocity. It was a roar that felt wrong, it sent chills down her spine. The two of them jumped and looked around in fear, they had no idea where the animal was and that was what scared them more than the roar itself.

"Ripper, where?" Maria looked towards the now tensed hybrid. She watched as he tasted the air and looked off to the side where a facility stood at the bottom of the hill. She tugged on Eric's hand to get his attention from the trees and pointed down at the building. It looked small, but the fence around it led further into the trees for it to be considered just a shed. "Was that there last time?"

"No," Eric frowned. "Did someone cage... ?" Who would be out of their mind to go and recage the spinosaurus?!

"We need to check," Maria said with furrowed brows. "Wu could be there."

"Or it could be empty and just a recording," Eric tried to reason.

"Eric, the last thing I want to do is go down there. But if that building is new, it could be where Wu spends time at," Maria looked at him. "Just a quick look inside, and then we run off to that laboratory."

Eric looked like he just wanted to drag her off to the abandoned lab right here and now. But he finally nodded and allowed her to take the lead down the hill. Another roar sounded as they reached the bottom, it sounded angrier and angrier. They reached the door and paused, they could hear a voice inside but it was too muffled to distinguish who it was.

"Ripper, stay out here," Maria ordered softly, and looked at the hybrid expectantly. "Don't come in unless you hear me call for you, understand?" Ripper gave a hand knock. Pleased with that, she looked at Eric. "Ready?" At his nod, she turned the door and slipped in with him hot on her heels.

The dim light was hard to see at first, but as their eyes adjusted the light they saw a man standing with his back to them by a large window. It took her a second to recognize him, the two years had not been kind to him. She had seen the photo of him months ago, but it hadn't prepared her for just how awful he looked. Hair cut short, scars littering his face and arms. His posture, once tall and proud now was slumped and defeated.

"Henry," Maria whispered softly as she took a step forward, only to stop when Eric placed a hand on her arm to stop her.

"I'm glad it was you," he whispered as he bowed his head. "I'm sorry, about everything from before and now."

"Henry, what were you thinking?" Maria asked, not daring her voice to go any higher. "How could you do any of this? The dinosaurs, the hybrid?"

"I used to care about it all," Henry said as he raised his head to look at the trees in the paddock. "The dinosaurs, they used to be more than just coding on a computer. Then the Big One, and the incident at the park. It just stopped mattering."

"They're being hurt," Maria said softly as she tried to get closer again, finally gaining ground with Eric following her. It was something at least. "You can fix that, Henry."

"That's why I wrote your name down," he said softly. "I'd rather see you than emotionless bastards." He took a breath and steeled himself before asking, "why don't you ask the question I know you've been waiting to."

Maria sucked in a breath, eyes wide as she raised her head in surprise. He knew? Of course he did, their three years together in Lockwood's manor created a deeper understanding of one another. She took a shuddering breath and squared her shoulders.

"Who's in this hybrid."

"Echo."

The name hit her like a pile of bricks, her hand grabbing her claws like a lifeline as Eric tensed beside her. Echo, of course it had to be Echo. Her baby always got the short end of the stick, even now in death she couldn't get a better life.

"Why?!" Maria couldn't stop the exclamation as it spilled into the tense air, and was pleased that Henry winced. "You gave me back Charlie and you decided to destroy Echo all over again?!" She shook off Eric and advanced on the man, grabbing him and shaking him. "Tell me why!"

Henry had the nerve to look apologetic as he let her shake him. "I couldn't find another sample in such a short time," he said apologetically. "I didn't want to do it, I swear-"

"But you did," Maria blinked away the tears that were welling up. "You put her in the second hybrid and then you let it be abused!"

Henry winced again. "I know, no trainer would take her and Mills wanted to see the difference between the two environments and I-"

"Stopped caring," Maria finished as she let him go. "What else has happened because you stopped caring?"

Henry looked to the side, paling ever so slightly as footsteps sounded. Maria followed his gaze and gasped as the culprit came into view. Eric grabbed her arms and pulled her closer to him and away from the window as he stared it down in shock and fear.

"She was my first hybrid," Henry said softly as the spinosaurus regarded the building. "She was unstable even after hatching, we thought she'd die out here in her first few months. Imagine my surprise a few years back when I found out she survived, and was just as unhinged as ever. It seems I can't help but make unhinged dinosaurs."

Maria glanced nervously at the strangely serene dinosaur on the other side. "Rexy wasn't unhinged," she said softly now, not wanting to attract any more attention from the dinosaur. "My girls weren't either."

"No, they weren't," Henry agreed as he faced the spino. "I am sorry," he said again, barely flinching when the spino let out a roar that shook the building. He didn't look over as Eric and Maria took a few steps backwards. "You should probably leave, she's getting angrier."

"What about you?" Maria whispered as Eric began walking them backwards to the door.

"I'll stay a bit before heading off myself," Henry said with a nod. "As much as I don't mind being caught, it won't be here." He turned his head slightly and gave her a ghost of a smile. "It was a pleasure to meet you again, Maria. We'll see each other again."

Before Maria could say a word, the spino let out another enraged roar as she advanced towards the building. Eric opened the door and pulled Maria out as the loud snap of the powerful jaws came. He slammed the doors shut and leaned against them breathlessly as he looked from her to Ripper and then to the sky.

"This is going to be a bigger nightmare than I thought," he said softly as he looked back down at her. "Are you okay?"

Maria swallowed and looked at Ripper as he sniffed around her concerned. Someday soon, the two were going to be in a fight to the death as much as she didn't want it to come to fruition. And deep in their genetic code, was her two babies. Her two girls, who she loved the most in that park.

She grabbed her claws, and let out a shuddering breath.

"No."

There's gotta be some angst here, I always kicked myself for not adding more Echo despite showing her as another one of Maria's girls in the earlier chapters. So, here we go :)