4
Kai awakens to a loud ringing sound. For a second, he is confused about where he is, but then the previous day(s?) come flooding back. He snarls under his breath, regretting his extremely poor life choices. Below him, Nya growls and rolls over, mumbling something about blue tails.
"Good morning, specimens!" Cryptor's voice blares in their room and Kai spots a tiny box on their ceiling that appears to be the source of the sound. He chucks his pillow at it to no avail. "Your handlers will be around to pick you up soon! You should have enough time to shower and eat before then. Get moving, it's going to be a busy day!"
Cole rolls out of bed and heads for the bathroom. Kai slides down to the ground, and is surprised to see Jay already up and bustling around the back of the room. The flap in the wall that he had been investigating the other day is open and bowls of food are waiting on a rack below it.
"It's oatmeal!" Jay says cheerfully, passing a serving and spoon to him. "My favorite, and they gave us extra maple sugar too!" Kai prods the unfamiliar food with the spoon and slowly inserts some into his mouth. It is not too bad, but he wouldn't admit it for anything less than freedom from this place. As he finishes his meal, Nya rolls out of bed, looking exhausted, her ears low and droopy.
"Couldn't sleep?" Kai asks as she grabs some breakfast as well.
"Nah, kept having weird dreams," she replies with her mouth full. "There were these little mosquitos wearing black coats and they had super annoying voices, just like that one." She nods at the tiny box that Cryptor's voice had come from.
Jay laughs before picking up his own food and digging in happily. Kai feels a bitter mixture of emotions swirling inside him as the monkey hybrid chats with Nya and tries to ignore them. It's alright for Nya to talk with someone other than him. He's just going to have to deal with it.
Cole emerges from the shower dressed in a white T-shirt and matching pants, wet hair clinging to his forehead, his ears twitching to rid themselves of water. "Is that food?" he says, sounding eager for the first time since Kai has met him. "I'm starving, give some here."
Jay's smile twitches larger, and he slides the bowl over. As Cole spoons food rapidly into his mouth, the others take turns showering and changing. Kai fingers the hem of his new clothes. They are softer than he's used to, but for some reason he wants to put his old ones back on. Maybe he'll switch when they get back from... wherever they're going.
As Nya rejoins them, the last one to use the shower, shaking herself off so that her tail fluffs out, there is a knock on the door and two white-coated people come in. One, a woman with cold blue eyes and dark brown hair, holds out what appear to be bracelets joined together, but her partner, a young girl slightly older than them with bleached white hair puts a hand on her shoulder.
"Kate, can't we just bring them through?" she asks quietly. "They're just kids."
"Hey, watch who you're calling a kid," Kai growls, flattening his ears slightly.
The woman, Kate, glares suspiciously at him. "I don't think that's a good idea, Harumi. Remember what they did to the recall team? Matt had to get stitches 'cause he bit him." She nods Kai.
Kai tries not to remember the feeling of sinking his fangs into skin, but he can't help it. "I'll do the same to anyone who threatens me or my sister," he snarls. The girl, Harumi, shakes her head vigorously at him, moving her hands slowly as though trying to call a wild animal, which only makes his fury burn hotter.
"He doesn't mean that!"
Kai feels a jolt of shock as Nya slides in front of him, eyes wide and innocent. "Ignore my brother," she continues, and he tastes disgust at the pleading tone she's using. "Sometimes his temper gets away with him. We won't attack you, I promise."
Kate eyes her skeptically and sighs. "I'll let the rest of you go, but the fox boy has to be cuffed. He's just too dangerous." Harumi sends her a pleading look, but Kate shakes her head firmly. "Harumi, he'll shred us to bits. He'll have to be cuffed. If we were actually going to do our jobs, he'd have to wear a bite guard too."
"Okay. Just... let me tell him what you're going to do," Harumi says, as though Kai can't understand. She draws close and Kai prepares to scratch her face, but Harumi whispers, "I know you don't like what's going on, but just go with it. Stay calm and you'll be in a better place." Kai doesn't know why; maybe it's the trust in Harumi's big green eyes or that she seems to know how Kai's feeling inside but he obeys, even as Kate snaps the metal cuffs around his hands. At least they're in front of him this time, Kai thinks as they walk blindfolded through the halls.
"Sorry about this," Harumi's voice murmurs next to him. "Kate's a stickler for rules."
"And you're not?" Kai breathes back.
Harumi laughs, a quiet breathy noise that she immediately stifles with a hand. "Nah, not so much. Look, I know you guys are in a rough spot right now, but I know some people in the cafeteria. What food do you want?"
Kai tries to remember what the others said they liked. "Chicken, fruit, and... cake."
Harumi makes another muffled laugh. "You hybrids have odd taste. Those definitely aren't things I'd mix."
"Not together!" Kai protests. "Individually, y'know?"
"Don't worry, I got it," Harumi whispers back. "Just so you know, the first day's always the roughest, but it'll get easier, once you're used to it."
"Do you know what they're having us do today?" he asks, his stomach jolting unpleasantly.
"Well, you'll be getting your tracker today, so that won't be a whole lot of fun, but first you should be having intelligence training, and that's not so bad. The difficulty of the training depends on how obedient you and your Cluster, or group are. Trust me, you want to be on Doctor Cryptor's good side. Some of the others are... not pleasant to watch."
Kai doesn't know how to feel about that, but before he can think about it too long, they stop, and the blindfold comes away. The metal cuffs snap off as well and he shakes the feeling back into his hands. He's in a bright room, filled with strange black objects that are making odd noises and small cubes formed of smaller blocks in lots of different colors.
"Welcome to your first day of training!" Harumi says cheerfully, waving a hand as though presenting them with something special. "Today, we're testing how strong your mental abilities are. You'll be solving puzzles so we can see how quickly you learn." She picks up one of the bright cubes and tosses it to Jay. He makes an impressive catch without losing his balance and turns it over, inspecting it on all sides.
"Oh, I saw someone solve these once!" he says excitedly. "You have to match up the colors on all sides! I always wanted to try one of these."
"Hang on a second," Kate orders, walking across the room to a large screen that is flashing scarlet zeros. "Harumi, grab your notepad." The girl picks up a wooden panel with paper on it before handing each of them a cube. It feels strange in Kai's hands, oddly smooth and resistant until he turns it. The side clicks into a new place, following his grip. He glances over at Nya who is studying the cube with confusion. Cole is staring skeptically at the one in his hands.
"How is this a test?" he asks, tapping one of the tiny colored components of the cube. "It's just a toy."
"Nothing in science is 'just a toy'," Kate says, pursing her lips. "I'm going to set the clock and then you will attempt to solve the cube. Ready?" She waits for them to reply and then clicks a button on the screen. Immediately the numbers begin changing upward. Kai sets his gaze on the puzzle cube and grits his teeth. He is going to solve this.
Five minutes later, Jay crows, waving his completed cube over his head. Kate nods sharply and Harumi scribbles even faster on her notepad. "Keep going," she encourages them. "Primates tend to get this done faster than anyone else. Just keep trying."
He does. He turns and turns the cubes, trying to match them until he's hot and sweaty and anger is burning in his chest. Two hours later, Cole and Nya have theirs done and he's left struggling alone. Finally, he chucks the cube on the ground, breathing heavily. "I'm over this!" he snarls, longing to shred the toy to bits.
Kate sighs, but presses the button on the screen again. "Write 'did not complete' for the fox boy," she tells Harumi with something like contempt in her voice. Kai smolders, ready to snap, but Nya shakes her head at him, tail twitching nervously, and he breathes deeply, trying to calm himself down.
"You guys did great!" Harumi says cheerfully, though Kai can't tell if she's being honest or lying between her teeth. "Especially you, Jay; I don't think we've ever had a Tamarin score this high before on their first try!" Jay beams, his tail held high and despite the irritation burning in his chest, Kai knows that Jay deserves the praise. "You're going to get your trackers next," Harumi informs them as she holds up the blindfolds again. White descends over Kai's head, and he wants to rip it off, but he stays calm for reasons unknown to him.
"Kai."
It's Nya's voice, right next to him, and just hearing it calms the flames pumping through his veins. "Nya? What's up?"
"We need to t-"
But she's cut off as hands grip their shoulders and steer them away. He can feel the handcuffs around his wrists again, but doesn't resist. If there's a chance, they'd be put through training worse than those terrible cubes, he's going to stick to the rules. Just hearing that in his mind makes him growl under his breath. Who is he turning into? Just a night in this place and he's already giving up? Well. He won't have that.
The cuffs and fabric come away faster than he expects, revealing a white room with lights bright enough to blind him. He quickly focuses on the only stranger in the room: a man with greying brown hair and – Kai's ears twitch uncomfortably – long gruesome scratches down the left side of his face, his eye permanently closed. "Y'can leave 'm here, lassies," he growls to Harumi and Kate, and his voice sounds as animalistic as any Kai's heard. "This won' take long."
"We'll stay," Harumi says firmly, nudging Kai forward. For some reason, he senses something wrong about this room. There's a weak scent underneath the harsher ones – fear and pain. He digs his heels into the ground, but it's too late. The man is squinting at him, a grim smile on his torn face.
"U're a fox," he notes, messing with something Kai can't see. "Never liked them much. Too small and flighty."
For some reason, this makes Kai smile. "I bet you haven't met one like me then," he retorts.
"Heh," the man snorts. "Guess we'll see, kid. Close yer eyes; this'll take a sec." Reluctantly, Kai obeys. He can feel Harumi's hands tightening around his collar bone and fear grips at his stomach. He tries to pull away, but there's a click and a burst of white-hot pain blazes through his left fox ear. And then it's gone. But the shock is still there, making his limbs tremble until he wants to sink to the ground, so he resists, gritting his teeth.
"'E's done," the scarred man says, but before Harumi can turn him away, he whispers, "'ou weren't lyin', kid. Yer stronger than you look." Kai, still trying to shake the pain away, barely registers his words before he's sitting on the ground, Harumi murmuring about how the stinging should ease up soon. He's so out of it, he doesn't even register the others, though surely, they were just as shocked as he is. Funny, he never noticed those black spots in the ceiling before...
Kai wakes up after who know how long, his vision blocked yet again by that annoying blindfold and his hands trapped in metal. He's seriously debating testing his fangs on the restraints before they are removed and he's back in the shared bedroom. He turns around sharply to see Harumi shut and lock the door. He hisses between his teeth before throwing himself back in bed.
And then immediately jumping out of it when he sees Nya and the others on the ground, eyes closed and so, so still. If they – If she -
Blood roaring in his ears, he presses a hand to her wrist, winking back the stinging in his eyes. But -
There's a pulse.
They're all alive.
He breathes again.
And wants to shred Harumi and Kate and whoever that scarred guy was. The heat doesn't leave his face and something wet slips down it and he climbs back into his sleeping spot, burying his face in his pillow as sobs shake his body.
He isn't sure why it's coming out now; the flames are burning just as hot as they were before and just as many feelings are churning in his stomach, but now tears are flowing and don't seem likely to stop anytime soon, so he just keeps crying into his pillow, waiting for something to change. Someone fix my life.