"Jess! Jess!"

Jesse looked up- just in time for a brown-haired blur to barrel into her and plow the two of them to the ground, gray ears and tail twitching.

"Ow," Jesse complained teasingly, head tilted back before she looked back down. "Hi, Jesse."

Her brother beamed at her, bouncing up and down. Which hurt a little, since he was sitting on her, but whatever. "Guess what, guess what?" he said. He really was quite energetic.

"What?"

"Miss... um... the red-haired woman gave me a nickname!" the brown-haired boy bounced up and down some more, green eyes crinkled up happily and looking very pleased. "She called me Jace!"

Jesse blinked at her brother, before a thoughtful look came into her eyes. "Jace. Huh." A small smile curved on her lips. "I like that name."

"I like it too!" 'Jace' said, bouncing up and down some more. "Can that be my name now? Can it? Can it?"

Jesse thought about it for a couple seconds, and then smiled up at her brother. "Sure, Jace."

Jace beamed happily.

"Now can you scoot? You're giving me a stomachache."


Jesse squirmed in the machine. Her brother wasn't there. Where was her brother?

"Give her the DNA now."

It was a quiet voice, but it made her squirm even more as she tried to sit up to see who was talking. A hand pressed her back down, not to hurt her, just keeping her there, before something entered her arm. A moment later, it stung and made a squeezing pain hit Jesse's arm.

Jesse let out something somewhat akin to a whine, kicking unhappily to get the person go away. Thankfully, the thing went away.

And then suddenly, her sides were hurting, and her eyes were hurting, and she was kicking even harder now- were they doing the thing to her sides again?

No, because that had only hurt a little bit, and only for a second. Now it was growing even stronger, as if an iron clamp was squeezing her, and she kicked even more furiously and thrashed around, hitting something hard. She opened her eyes seeing nothing but white, white and clearness, except she could see her face, reflected back at her, and what was this thing?

"I hope the glass doesn't break..."

And suddenly the pain, the worst pain yet, hit Jesse so hard that all the air was sucked out of her lungs, and her sides were being put through a blender, and she was screaming and kicking the glass so hard that she felt it crack under her hands as she thrashed, screamed, screamed until the air in her lungs was gone and she was gasping for more air, making knives and needles and fists slam into her as she desperately inhaled, sucking in air-

And then something brushed against her, and Jesse turned to the glass, still screaming, still trying to get this to stop, get the pain to stop, and saw herself, only not herself, because she didn't have a red eye, and she didn't have these strange- strange bumps- she didn't have these bumps that were beginning to poke through the white shirt the people gave her-

And then everything was going black and Jesse didn't feel the pain anymore.


Jace was screaming, screaming his head off as he thrashed on the scientist's shoulder to get to his sister, his twin sister, and the pain was mounting as Jesse clung to her head, which felt like it was about to explode all over the floor. She had to get to him, she had to stop this awful headache and go protect her twin, but the headache wasn't stopping, it was getting worse, there was a high-pitched whining that was starting. What was happening, what was happening, why did this hurt?!

A low voice came over the screaming and the pounding and the pain that was making her world go blurry.

"I'm... I'm not sure causing her this type of pain is safe-"

A low, calm chuckle, cutting over the man's voice. "She'll be fine. These hybrids were created with durability in mind."

And with that Jesse fell to the ground, the words she couldn't recall before echoing through her head, accompanied by the pounding of her head and the scream that shattered her world.

"JESSE!"


Jesse bolted upright, sweat pouring off of her, her throat raw and eyes bloodred. A pair of hands was clinging to her shoulders, and saying things that her screaming was drowning out, and someone was screaming, why didn't they stop-

"Jesse! Jesse! Calm down!"

Jesse's lungs ran out of air, and the spider hybrid was panting as the screaming came to a close, and she realized that it had been her who was screaming the whole time.

Everything came into focus. Lukas was clinging to Jesse tightly, his hands holding her shoulders and claws digging into her skin slightly, painfully, blue-green eyes wide with fear. "Jesse? Are you okay?"

Still a little groggy, Jesse made to get up, but was pushed back down. In the background, the multicolored portals illuminated everything, including Cassie, who was blinking and her hands were twitching as if she wanted to grab something, eyes going rather red- and then concerned, as she spotted Jesse. Petra was on her feet, looking rather disoriented, and Ivor was rummaging through a bag.

A potion bottle was shoved under her, a potion that was filled with almost clear liquid. Only the clear liquid was tainted a faint, pale blue. "Jesse, drink this."

Jesse shakily looked up into Ivor's blue eyes, not reaching up to take the potion.

"Jesse."

Jesse just swallowed, every muscle in her body so tight that it felt like she was about to explode, staring up at Ivor, eyes probably filled with fear.

"C'mon, Jesse."

Jesse's upper arms slowly reached up, taking the bottle, making the liquid inside vibrate as her hands shook, putting the cool glass bottle to her lips and draining the whole thing.

Immediately, her entire body relaxed, and Jesse felt okay. More than okay, actually, she felt pretty relaxed.

"Jesse, what was that?" Petra asked, still looking rather groggy.

"Nightmare," Jesse said, rather serenely, looking down at the potion bottle and blinking at it before back up at Ivor. "Calming Potion?"

"You needed it," Ivor said shortly, "that sounded like some nightmare."

Jesse had to think about that. "I guess it was okay at first," she said, thoughtfully. "But then it turned into a nightmare after not too long. Kind of a jumble of memories is all." She still sounded oddly serene.

Cassie blinked at her as Jesse leaned into Lukas, lower arms instinctively engaging in petting. Ivor started rubbing Jesse's back as well, in circles that made Jesse's already rather relaxed body go even calmer.

Petra was blinking disorientedly, and Jesse reached out. "I think I need a hot water bottle after all that," she said mildly, as Lukas started purring, curling up next to Jesse. Winslow padded over, sniffed his blonde ocelot friend, and then curled up next to him. Cassie crept closer, facial expression rather nervous.

Petra plopped down next to Jesse, leaning up against her as Ivor leaned into her as well, putting some pressure on his hands. The warmth spread over Jesse, making a calm smile come over her face.

It took quite a while, but Jesse managed to get back to sleep, with Cassie leaning against the wall and watching them as Petra snoozed, using Lukas as a pillow while Lukas purred like a car engine, Ivor still patting her quietly and the colored lights of the portals illuminating the whole hallway dimly.

A/N: Huh. I actually kinda like how this turned out. Major fluff chapter.

Good thing I have email.

RapidSammi: Lol xD

BirdnColds: (thumbs up)

angelwings: Nope, he's one of my favorites too xD

DemonCatLady: (grins evilly) Oh, I was planning to :)

rebekahtpe: Feet. Once again, writing and drawing xD And well, the reviews aren't working but my emails are, so :)

TheRealRedGaming: Well, Cassie was thinking and scrambling to think of a good reason, and so she wasn't really thinking when she said that. :) And I'll see what I can do.

Boggie445: Lol xD AND HERE IS MORE

ChoyofBonk: Hmm, that's a good question, actually.

GuestPerson13: Lol even he ships it xD And that WILL be fun :)

NoItsBecky: Actually, I should probably edit that or something, but I was just estimating when I chose ages. Besides, these guys are all half monster xD so even though a normal 16 and 17 year old might have problems, these guys might be okay. They're about 16, 17, 18, and up to 19 I think it's reasonable. No younger than that though. I dunno (shrugs)

x.X. A.L. X.x.