Aaron woke up suffocating.
"AHERGH! Ahuk gha hllllllrt!"
There was fire in his throat and his tongue felt like it was covered in ash, sucking out all sense of moisture as he spat and spat without anything coming out. Somehow he rolled over onto his knees as tears poured from his eyes and managed to hack the rest out, ending with a billowing wheeze as he tried sucking down whatever air he could before slumping there on all fours.
When he eventually managed to force himself upright and back onto his heels, the first thing he did was blink to try and clear his eyes, even bringing a sleeve up to try and wipe them clean only to then yelp as it brushed across his skin like sandpaper, scoring long, stinging lines into his skin as he yanked it away and fell back down to shudder through the pain.
After what felt like an eternity his tears washed the crust from his eyes and the fear, the sense of unknowing pushed him to ignore the voice in the back of his head telling him to just stay down as he sat up once more and forced them to open.
But he couldn't see a thing.
Fearing the worst, Aaron tentatively brought his hand up to his face and gave it a wave, almost crying out in relief as he confirmed that no, he wasn't blind, it was just really, really, really fucking dark. As in, he could see the movement of his hand, but none of the details beyond that. He couldn't see what was crusted around his sleeve or the state of his nails, but he could feel the moment that all of his body's nerve endings decided to stop holding back and screamed.
"Ughhhhhh…"
Even his groaning sounded hoarse as he folded in on himself and tried to move as little as possible. Everything, from his neck to his back to his legs and his arms ached, the brutal throbbing almost driving the air from his lungs as he forced himself to tilt his head back and open up his chest, taking deep, whimpering breaths as he waited and waited for the pain to subside. When it finally did, he lifted his head and stared into nothing with one strangled question on his lips.
"What happened?"
The words came out a little bit firmer this time, strong enough to echo off the walls around him as Aaron tentatively reached down and brushed his fingers along the ground, feeling cold and ungiving rock against his skin as he clamped his eyes shut and tried to think back past the pounding in his head.
"Where am I?
With every breath he took the pain faded a little, only making room for the panic to set in. The first shot of adrenaline accompanied the rapidly increasing beating of his heart as he wildly whipped his head around only to cry out at the protest he felt in his neck. Learning his lesson he went slower, blinking his eyes to try and get them adjusted faster as slowly but surely, the details of the room around him started coming into focus.
There wasn't much to see. He was in a cave, with roughly hewn stone surrounding him on all sides including the ceiling, the mixture of varying shades of grey almost making him dizzy before he forced himself to take it in more carefully. As he did, he noticed the state it was in.
"A cave-in?" He muttered, brow scrunching as he glanced over the halo of broken rocks and gravel around him. "But… but I wasn't in a cave… was I?"
Looking up showed him a hole in the roof that the rest of the rubble had fully filled in, blocking any hopes of escape as he glanced at the small specks of light filtering through with a lichen-like glow in dread and numbly turned to pan his gaze across the circular walls surrounding him. He almost slipped into despair as he realised there was no obvious way out, before stilling and snapping back to a spot about two metres to his left as he realised it was jutting out unevenly across the ground.
Hope clawing at his chest Aaron tried scrambling across the floor, only to come crashing down as his clothes caught around his limbs, tripping him up as he smacked head first into the ground with a solid "Gah!" before rolling forward and clutching at his head.
"Mother of FUCK!" He seethed, frantically rubbing at the sore spot on his skull before snarling and whipping his hands around to rip at the fabric wrapped around his hands and knees. Confusion replaced anger as he stared at them and began pulling at the ends of his sleeves. They were as rough as he remembered them from earlier, coated with dust and chalky to the touch, but that wasn't what had him puzzled. Stretching his arms out in front of himself, Aaron held them evenly with each other and stared as the tattered, ruined remains of what could only have been a jumper saggily hugged his forearms until it suddenly ended at the wrists and dangled.
"... What? Am I…" He couldn't even finish the thought. Now feeling a new kind of dread Aaron pulled back his sleeves, fighting with them to stay rolled up before doing the same to his legs and exposing the very thing he feared.
Thin, twiggy arms and legs, with knobbly knees and pudgy fingers. He gave them a wiggle, almost like he didn't believe they were his until he saw for himself that they responded to his mental command.
"I'm… smaller?"
He felt something scraping annoyingly against his side and he reached down to pluck it out, rolling back the hem of his sweatshirt and finding a label that he had to squint and trace with the pad of his finger.
"El, el… Large?" He hazarded, still squinting furiously as he pulled back and tugged at the edge. "I'm… I'm not a large? But I've always been-"
He'd always been a large. He'd been a large since he was fourteen. Ever since his Mom took him shopping for the first time at… at….
'I can't remember.' He felt cold as the realisation set in. 'I can't remember my Mom. But that, that's my Mom. I know my Mom, her name's-'
Like a bullet to the brain his headache came back, thundering around the walls of his skull as Aaron clutched either side of his head and gasped while forcing himself to remember.
'Her name, her name is-? My… my name. My name's Aaron, I'm a l, laa, LARGE!' He grit his teeth and keened through his lips. 'I'm a LARGE and my MOM'S NAME IS-'
He woke up again.
A strange sort of calm flooded him as he regained consciousness and lay there, sweat beading around his neck as he stared up at the rock above and softly nodded his head.
'Don't do that.' He gulped and shuddered. 'Got it.'
It wasn't just that which had him sweating though. Everything, the entire room was so hot it was stifling, almost instantly covering him in a thin layer of perspiration as he wiped it from his forehead and steadied himself with a deep breath.
The whole lying still in pain thing was starting to feel a little old as Aaron rolled himself over and tried to keep his overly huge clothes out of the way. Finding his original target he carefully crawled his way over, feeling about for stray rocks with his hands as he moved closer and closer until finally he reached the strange lip and felt his stomach lurch as his hand touched nothing but air and he almost tumbled forward.
Jerking back from the edge of what he was now realising was a hole, Aaron forced his chest to steady with a few deep breaths before daring to peek back over, only to scoff as he realised that what he thought was a great big cavernous abyss was actually more of a small alcove, the floor barely a foot away as he dropped down with a light thump and found himself staring out into a tunnel roughly carved out of the surrounding rock.
And the first thing that caught his eye? The walls. Patterns ran as far as he could make out in the gloom and bore such a startling resemblance to something you'd see from a drill that it was enough to make him hope… but they were wrong. No matter the pattern or how uniform they seemed, none of it was perfectly even. It twisted and curved like someone, something had crawled along scraping it out as they went. A lump appeared in his throat as Aaron looked out into the darkness thinking that if it wasn't a human… then what was it?
Only one way to find out.
Ducking down before his nerves could get the best of him, Aaron felt the now familiar texture of stone against his palms as he crawled forward, occasionally cursing as his head bumped against the roof before he learned to shift his body with the dimensions around him. He almost stopped and turned back once he realised that whatever little vision he'd had before was now gone, but he pushed on anyway, knowing there was nothing left for him back there as he steeled his will and forced his arms and legs to move, one after another. His efforts were eventually rewarded with a soft, steady glow from ahead and he sped up, scrabbling over rock and dust until he came to a small vent, almost a crack between the floor and the wall above.
His brain was screaming at him that it was far too small… but his brain was wrong. Something he was burying in the back of his mind and choosing to focus on later as he flattened himself against the floor of the tunnel and wriggled forward, seeing it was just tall enough and wide enough for him to squeeze through, feeling the first waft of moving air since he'd awoken here brush his scalp as he stuck it through the hole and-
'CRUNCH!'
Almost got turned to paste...
Having only just managed to jerk his head back at the whistle of something big and heavy, Aaron opened his wide, trembling eyes towards the opening and found it filled from edge to edge with a three-clawed foot bigger than a dinner tray. Coated in thick grey armour-like plates, Aaron lay there too scared to even breathe as the colossal foot shifted with the weight of its owner and ponderously revealed the rest of the room. Softly glowing green lichen coated the walls, bathing the area in light and reflecting off of a sparkling blue pool of water tucked away in the corner. Opposite him, in a nest made of crushed sand mixed with dry and crunchy algae sat five powdery white eggs, each of them the size of a football and dotted with large black spots as what could only be their behemoth of a mother padded as softly as a monster like that could towards them and nudged the shells with her nose.
"What… the fuck-?"
Despite the hoarse way he whispered the words, she heard, stilling on the spot halfway between her nest and the pool before softly turning her head…
A terror unlike anything he'd ever known gripped Aaron's heart as the unholy offspring of some Jurassic titan and a tank rotated its bulky body with a predators grace, the thick, segmented sections of its tail silently swooshing through the air behind it as that eight-foot frame did an about-face and made the cave around them shake with a single, thunderous step.
His heart was pounding and his muscles had turned to jelly under the adrenaline he lay there, paralysed with his chest aching for the sweet gift of air as it prowled closer and closer. Before he knew it that foot was back in front of his face, the tip of its longest claw almost stabbing him in the eye where it jutted through the opening, and like the bellows of a forge he heard it sniff.
With a sinking feeling, he watched its barrel-like legs flex, joints grinding together as it bent forward at the waist and followed the trail of his scent down the wall. Powerful forelimbs pressed into the ground and Aaron begged his body to move as the white of its jaw became visible. It was like something out of a horror movie, the part of him not drowning in hysterics thought, just as its chin brushed the stone and he caught the flicker of blue at the edge of its eye.
'SKRRRRRK'
And then it disappeared.
Moving faster than anything that size had any right to, the monster whipped back up to its tallest state and angled itself towards the cave entrance where the echo of grinding stone had originated, its overlapping neck plates shuddering with a haunting 'Shkashkashka' as its hackles raised and air blasted out of its nose vents.
"GOOOOOOLEEEEEEEEM!"
The bellow of something large, angry and inhuman blasted down the corridor outside and Aaron watched, partly in horror, partly in awe as the beast standing less than mere feet away reared up and gave an answering roar.
"AAAAAGGGROOOOOOOON!"
(o)(o)(o)(o)(o)(o)(o)(o)(o)
It felt like days before he found the courage to move. At least, that's what the crippling sensation of hunger felt like. After… whatever that was? Aggron, apparently, had charged out and met whatever had angered it so much, Aaron had been stuck right where it had left him. With nothing else to do, he'd started categorising the different monsters by whatever sounds they made, with every instance of something showing up in the original "Aggron's" territory sticking to the theme of only screaming its name in challenge. There were a lot of challenge's. With nowhere to go he'd ended up soaked from the waist down in a humiliating display, but couldn't find it in himself to care. Not after the truly ridiculous echoes of what sounded like fists colliding with the force of wrecking balls, exploding rocks and even tremors so strong he thought the cave was going to come down around them had ended and the great big lizard had waltzed right back in. Aside from a few scuffs on the spiked shoulders of its armour, it looked just fine, more irritated than anything as it huffed and went to grab a drink before curling up next to its eggs.
A pattern established itself then, where what Aaron could only deduce as once a day the great big thing would reluctantly leave its eggs to seemingly go hunt. What it brought back was another surprise altogether as he realised with a sort of distant disbelief that the screeching sounds of its jaws tearing through what appeared to be rock was actually it chomping on iron, the ore coming apart with ease between its jaws as it ate a portion of each chunk it brought back before tucking the rest away as a sort of stockpile next to the nest.
It was on the third day that Aaron's stomach decided it wouldn't be ignored any longer, that and the cloying thirst that left his throat feeling like parchment. Nervous with his eyes darting between the pool and the entrance of the cave, he forced whatever strength he had left into his arms and legs and scrambled out of his little nook like a spider, hissing as the painful aches from his uncomfortably kept position made themselves known while he desperately hobbled over to the edge of the pool and plunged himself face first without a second thought.
It was deeper than he'd thought, so deep he couldn't even see a bottom, but for a moment complete and utter bliss suffused him, the cool water briefly robbing away all his aches and pains before the burning need for air made itself known and he reluctantly tore himself away with a gasp. Cupping the water in shaking hands he brought it to his lips, gulping as it washed down his throat until it said no more and forced it back up, leaving him to cough and splutter painfully as he was made to clear his pipes.
He learned his lesson after that, sipping more carefully until the sharpened edges of his stomach went away and he was allowed to slump back, relaxing for the first time since he'd awoken… but he needed answers.
A part of him didn't want to, but he silenced that part with the understanding that he needed to know. Still, his eyes clamped shut, refusing to open for a minute as he leaned forward over the lip of the pool. Eventually, knowing that his safety wouldn't last forever, Aaron snapped open his eyes and stared… and stared… and stared…
…
That wasn't him.
The faint stirrings of a headache made themselves known but he ignored them with the single-minded surety that the person, the boy staring back from the surface of the water was not him.
But it moved when he moved. When he brought a hand up it did the same. Fingertips brushed across the layer of solidified grime that had refused to be washed away before it came to the thin tear tracks tracing from his eyelids down to his jaw on either side exposing pale, unblemished skin. Rust-coloured hair fell over his forehead and it was wrong because his hair was brown and his eyes…
His eyes were supposed to be hazel. Not… not grey.
Cold, steel grey.
"Who are you…" He murmured with a heavy heart. A dark thought told him he'd never know.
A faint scuff travelled up the corridor of stone outside and Aaron moved before he even realised it had registered. Running away from the pool he threw himself back into his hole just in time for the beast to come thundering back inside, its head whipping to and fro suspiciously as it searched the room for intruders but found nothing. Aaron wasn't going to risk it again.
Once he'd reached the hole he'd slid inside and ignored the burning scrapes it resulted in, focusing the entirety of his attention on making his way as quickly and quietly as possible back up the tunnel to the room he'd originally woken up in. Once there and sure that thing wasn't somehow giving chase, he slumped onto his back and stared blankly up at the ceiling, chest rising and falling rapidly as his new image burned itself into his brain while he silently battled the realisation that was settling in.
He wasn't him.
So he started to cry.
(o)(o)(o)(o)(o)(o)(o)(o)(o)
"You know," Biting down with a damp crunch and chewing thoughtfully, he spoke through the mouthful muffling his voice. "This seaweed stuff?" He brandished the green and brown clump in his hand. "It's actually pretty good!"
Unsurprisingly, the bundle of large eggs didn't respond, though Aaron was sure he'd seen a few of them give a subtle twitch here and there over the course of his stay. It wasn't like he had anything better to do. Time was hard to keep track of, but the few hours of painful, stiff-necked sleep he managed to grab now and then told Aaron that it had been possibly weeks since he'd arrived, days filled with eating nothing but slimy, poorly textured pond plants before washing them down with surprisingly clean cave water.
"Your mom's really cool by the way. Yesterday, I'm sure you heard it, but that thing she was fighting? The one that kept screaming Onix? Man, that thing sounded heavy. It's kinda crazy how she can keep doing that day after day and not even get tired. Those things sound strong too, but it's like she barely even notices them. You think you'll be big and strong like that one day?"
The eggs all shivered and he giggled, idly imagining them all jumping and shouting saying they were going to be that big and strong while simultaneously ignoring thoughts of the pool. A one-time attempt at washing himself had ended with him learning that it was not shallow and in fact, had a current, the strength almost pulling him under before he'd managed to desperately hook the side and drag himself out. He still couldn't look at himself inside its reflection outside the occasional glimpse forced upon him, but with time it bothered him less and less. He still had questions, sure, but they just seemed so… insignificant when compared to the problems he had now. Knowing who he was and how he got here wasn't going to help him get out. The familiar muffled sound of metal scraping over stone reached his ears and he sighed before wiping the back of his hand across his mouth.
"Looks like Mama's back. Guess we'll have to pick this up again later?"
The egg didn't respond but he patted it fondly all the same, luxuriating in the brief brush of heat and the rush of awe he felt at being close to something so surreal. Originally he'd thought there were only five eggs, but hidden in the back was his favourite. It was so tiny, far smaller than its siblings but it made up for it with energy. He'd feared that it being so small meant it was pre-mature, or that it wasn't going to survive to take its first breath, but day after day the little egg had proved him wrong, always rocking and greeting him with a wiggle. Before long he'd found himself talking to it, until inevitably he came to see it as his only friend in this stifling little hell hole. He didn't ignore the others, of course, always greeting them and using a bit of water to wash away the dust and grime until they were squeaky clean, something their mother had definitely noticed if the curious snuffling they were subjected to at the end of each day was anything to go by, but at least she didn't mind. Was it risky? Absolutely. But he was trapped and knew he needed something, anything to keep him occupied. To keep him from going insane.
The sound of his unknowing roommate grew closer as he clambered to his feet and quick-stepped it over to his little hidey hole, settling in with an ease that would have shocked the him of before as he lay down and waited for the inevitable post-hunt ritual.
But something was different…
Aaron sat up with narrowed eyes as instead of its usual powerful gait, the Aggron burst through the cave entrance with a lumbering shuffle. Its eyes were narrowed and the vents across its body were working overtime, releasing thick jets of steam as its cavernous chest dragged in gale-like breaths before pumping it out as if… as if it was in pain. The reason why was evident.
A chainsaw-like growl rattled Aaron's bones as it reached down with one thick paw and bashed against something thin and black that he hadn't seen jutting out between two of its chest plates. He grimaced sympathetically at the distressed whine that rumbled in the back of its throat, then watched in awe as she hit it again, and again, until FINALLY whatever it was came spinning out.
It sparked and bounced across the floor, landing against the wall less than a foot away from Aaron's wide eyes where he lay as silently as possible. Luckily Aggron didn't seem interested in investigating the jagged object further, narrowing her pale blue eyes at it in annoyance and ignoring the faint trickle of blood wetting the seams of her armour as she turned away and headed for the pool. That left Aaron free to look between her and the absolute weapon she'd so casually dragged out of her body in disbelief. Because it was a weapon.
He had to look closely at the bloody red edge and black body of its scythe-like shape before he realised with a gulp that it was some kind of tusk. It must have been three feet long at least, and a nervous sweat broke out across the back of Aaron's neck as he imagined what kind of beast it had come from. Peering at the shaft where it must have been torn free his jaw dropped and he gaped as the shattered bone coated in still-steaming meat and gristle told him that despite whatever tremendous force had been applied to it, the tusk itself hadn't broken. No, it had been forcibly ripped out of whatever poor beast had run headfirst into Aggron's armour.
Not without getting a bit of its own back, however.
Even now, the seemingly unbeatable behemoth he'd been forced to observe over the last God knows how long was breathing heavily, clearly in pain while doing its best not to show weakness as it slowly bent down and sipped from the pool with panting grunts. It had just pulled itself upright with a clear amount of trouble before a wave of noise, unlike anything he'd heard so far, made itself known.
It started softly, a light scratching like claws against rock that quickly turned into a storm of ever-increasing intensity, the scratching soon accompanied by the beating of so many wings that Aaron couldn't even try to count them. Aggron apparently recognised what they were though, her wariness transforming into readable concern as she looked out towards the entrance before her eyes drifted down. Aaron followed them, and just like her, he saw the still-warm trail of blood she'd left in her wake. With a sinking feeling, he realised that whatever was coming had smelled weakness, and it was hungry.
That black and white helmet of Aggron's swung between whatever was coming and her eggs, clearly unsure of what to do. The mounting noise of leathery bodies forced her hand, however, and Aaron had to stop himself from crying out as he watched the look of grim determination settle across her muzzle as she turned and put her back to the nest.
'H-hey, what are you doing?' His heart felt so loud in his ears as he watched her take that first step. 'You can't-? You can't just leave us here!'
His silent protests were summarily ignored as she moved to the entrance and braced herself. Taking one last look at the nest, Aggron clenched her jaw and swept out of the room, releasing a roar loud enough to rain dirt and dust across the room as Aaron covered his nose and sneezed. The answering cacophony of screeches made his ears ache and it wasn't long before the symphony of flapping wings was replaced by the enraged cries of a rampaging dinosaur entering the fray, the familiar sound of screeching stone and the heavy crashes of combat echoing thunderously out of site as Aaron lay there listening to it raptly.
It carried on for so long that he feared the very walls around them would collapse, their shaking and trembling like something out of an earthquake as the battle outside grew more frenzied, more turbulent, before slowly, inexorably the invisible frontlines were pushed back.
Aaron didn't need to see to know that despite the victorious roars and growls that came with every instance of ripping flesh, Aggron was being pushed back… and he had nowhere to go. He could crawl back inside his little cave, sure, but if the walls came down then there was no chance he would survive. He would either run out of oxygen to breathe or he would starve, but no matter what the only end that awaited him crawling away would be long, drawn out and painful. So he had to stay. He had to stay and watch as the origin of flickering shadows edging their way into the innermost cave was revealed to be a creature so similar to what he knew, but also so, so different. A bat, but one without claws, hands, feet or even eyes. Its rounded blue body was coated in short blue fuzz, complete with two long protrusions from its rear end and large purple wings of a similar shade to its radar-like ears which turned and twitched as it fluttered into the room with a squeak to almost instantly… lock its eyes onto the nest.
"H-hey… HEY!"
It made odd little chittering noises as it settled down towards the edge of the nest, clearly mocking him as its ears turned to take him in before summarily dismissing him as a threat.
"Don't TOUCH those!"
His shout went ignored as it turned to lower its wide open mouth toward the nearest egg and Aaron didn't know what to do, but he had to do something.
So he sprung forward, throwing himself from hands and knees up to his feet before bursting into an unsteady sprint, adrenaline fuelling his muscles as his hand leapt out and wrapped around whatever was closest.
"LEAVE THEM ALONE!" He roared and swung.
The little blue bat flapped its wings and shot up almost contemptuously, before jerking back with a startled cry as a thin red line opened up along its flank, spilling blood all down its side and matting its fur. It hissed in pain before turning to face Aaron more head-on, all signs of mockery missing from its aura as it bared its fangs threateningly.
"Zuuuuuuu-"
He looked from the creature to the blade-like tusk his hand with wide, disbelieving eyes, the tremble in his arms causing it to waver slightly as Aaron gulped and fearfully lifted it up in front of his face.
"Shit."
"BAT!"
"FUCK!"
It suddenly darted forward with a single beat of its wings and on reflex Aaron leapt to the side, yelping as he wildly waved his weapon and tried to hit the nimble monster darting around his inaccurate swings.
"WHY!" Swing. "WON'T!" Swing. "YOU!" Swing! "STAY!" Swing! "STILL!?"
It dodged another desperate attack before readying one of its own, letting Aaron only just catch a glimpse of its fangs glowing before it shot forward and left a line of searing pain along his arm.
"GAH!"
The chittering returned as the beast took sadistic glee in hearing him cry out in pain before he stumbled and almost fell backwards onto the eggs. Twisting his body at the last second he managed to avoid crushing them under his weight and instead ended up with his face towards the back, pressed against the smallest of eggs tucked away behind its much larger brethren.
The burning in his arm started to throb, blasting waves of pain strong enough to rob the air from his lungs as he fought and struggled to breathe. Tears came to his eyes as he shuddered, but he blinked them away to focus on the littlest egg. As if sensing his attention it gave a lurch, shifting on the spot and then shaking.
The same mocking chittering scraped across him from behind once more, but Aaron forced down the need to whimper and readied himself. Instead of shying away from it, he let himself drown in the pain, absorbing the ragged line of torn flesh and using it to grind away at his fear as he strained to his feet and turned to face his foe.
The Zubat's response in the face of his bravery was an almost contemptuous dive as it tucked its wings and shot straight for his throat, fangs glowing that same sickening white as they opened up to clamp down before-
'SCHLICK!'
… Flickering off into nothing.
A rattling wheeze left its wide open mouth as its ears gave a final twitch and the spasming in its wings stilled. Standing with planted feet and wide eyes, Aaron stared at the foot-long body spitted on the end of his blade. Its warm blue fur shifted against his knuckles where they gripped the handle on the inside of the tusk before falling still as the life faded from its corpse. Then the dead weight and he gasped as its body tore the weapon from its hand so that they could both land with a meaty 'THUNK' on the floor, his knees soon following suit as the adrenaline faded from his system and he was left shaking, the pain in his arm almost unbearable as he quavered and gasped before freezing as a sound out of his nightmares scraped into the cave.
Too terrified to move but not too terrified to look, Aaron curled his head around and felt his stomach sink as not one, not two, but THREE Zubat bumbled their way inside. To his eternal gratitude they didn't seem capable of spotting their dead friend, but that didn't stop them from releasing a series of sharp cries to map out the room with their echolocation as he knelt there rooted to the spot. Almost comically they all turned their heads to him and the nest at the same time, seemingly unaware of any threat he could pose as they fluttered over with salivating mouths and released another wave of chitters that would haunt him for nights to come.
Aaron's arm throbbed and he moved without thinking. The scythe-like edge of his new favourite tool slipped out of its cooling resting place like the sword from the stone positively leapt at his command. The first Zubat didn't even know what hit him as it near silently whipped through the air and parted its head from its neck with a crescent-shaped arc of crimson, dropping it into two parts to both crash down into the dust as he moved on without missing a step.
The second bat heard the wet slap of its kinsmen hitting the dirt and squeaked in surprise as it reflexively jerked down and just so happened the dodge the worst of Aaron's follow-up swing. Not all of it though, as the agonised screech it made as he cut a slanted angle through both of its ears proved, leaving its head spouting twin jets of blood as it panicked and pumped its wings as hard as it could, sending it spiralling off to spend it death throes crashing from wall to wall as its killer whirled around on the back foot to try and dodge the third and last opponent.
Aaron managed to avoid the fangs piercing his skull but not his left shoulder, a howl tearing its way out of his throat as the Zubat clamped its mouth onto his limb and wildly shook its head as the same pulsing inferno from his arm flooded his nerves and lit his body alight. His screams picked up as he stumbled back and furiously rammed his body into the wall, crushing the clinging bat between him and the wall as it flapped its wings in panic but refused to release its hold.
"Just…" He slammed his shoulder back. "Fucking…" The fangs dug deeper into the muscle and he gasped before gritting his teeth and winding up further. "DIE!"
A final furious smack dislodged the creature with a pained squeal and Aaron saw his chance. He spun and shot his hand up to grab the fluttering Zubat by its wing and hold it steady as it tried to jerk away, fingers clawing and tearing at the flesh as he held on and dragged it onto his blade. The deafening screech it released numbed his ears and flooded them with an insatiable ringing, but over the pain, Aaron felt vindication. Vindication as he pierced the bat at the bottom of its body and proved he wasn't just a victim as he slid the tusk up, slicing a long, gaping chasm through its chest to let steaming hot organs spill out before he finished by jerking the point into its throat.
Its deafening caterwauling abruptly cut off as Aaron stumbled backwards and landed heavily on the ground with an explosion of air, grimacing violently and with a hint of disgust as he reached up to press uselessly at his still ringing ears while gagging at the stench pouring off of the viscera coating his front. His vision blurred as he pulled his fingers away to find them dyed red, and he fought back his renewed sense of worry at not being able to hear anything before a sudden blur snapped him back into focus.
Despite his fear, it wasn't another Zubat. A wobbly smile came across his face as the eggs filling the nest all began to shiver, rocking to and fro with the biggest example being the same tiny spotted white egg in the back. Ignoring the occasional intestine on the floor, Aaron crawled forward, shushing them as he reached out and gently placed a palm atop the tiny specimen.
"Hey, hey, hey, shhhhhhh," He soothed as its wobbling slowly calmed. A warmth unlike the kind in his wounds bubbled up in his chest as he reached out with tattered sleeves and tried wiping away the splashes of red marring the different shells. "Don't worry, we're okay. We're okay…"
It was a strange moment of peace in the nightmare Aaron had found himself in, and he took it for all it was worth, ignoring the stinging in the corners of his eyes as he gave a watery chuckle and let his palm settle on the vibrant little egg as it gave the occasional rumble.
"I think we're going to be just-... fine?"
With a start he realised that the ringing in his ears had finally stopped… and it wasn't alone. Everything, all the noise that had meshed into the background had ground to a halt, except-
"G-G-Gol, Golbat!"
The warmth he'd so briefly felt died and turned cold as Aaron looked back over his shoulder and came face to face with wide white eyes and a gaping, truly massive black hole of a maw.
"Golbat, Golbat, GOLBAT!" It screeched.
He watched it cry and allowed his attention to wander up and over the crown of its head to the dinner plate-sized paw clamped onto its head. Three formerly white claws now dyed scarlet pierced the mere surface of its skull and slowly started to squeeze…
Warmth flooded his inner thigh as he turned his head up and found a white-plated helmet facing down at him, the vents surrounding its giant, dinosaur-like jaw leaking steam as its pale blue eyes trapped him in a merciless glare.
"GOL, GOLBA-!"
With the ease Aaron would have scrunched up a paper ball, Aggron crushed both the Golbat in its hand and its terrified screeching, leaving them alone in the deathly silent cave as the now drooping body slipped from its grip to splatter against the floor.
Now alone, the two co-inhabitants (though unknowing to one of them) stared each other down in the deathly quiet that followed. The Aggron was unreadable, its unwavering stare gauging him for everything he was worth, while Aaron sat there and looked upon it like one might stare at their executioner. Initially with fear, but soon with an inevitable, miserable acceptance.
'This is it…'
A burst of air left its nose vents as he slumped back onto the ground without a fight.
'All of that, just to die here.'
It wasn't fair. But instead of simply crushing him underfoot, Aaron watched the armoured titan's eyes flick from him to the nest behind him. Deciding that he was dead no matter what, Aaron turned to see what it was looking at. Doing so revealed the desecrated bodies of the Zubat, the blood and guts painting a pretty clear picture of what had almost happened, leading up to the rather pristine looking eggs who's only damage seemed to be the harmless streaks of smeared crimson he hadn't been able to wipe away. Its eyes returned to him then, and he gave into the irrational urge to give a watery chuckle as the gleaming points of its lancelike horns tilted down at him curiously.
"They haven't even gotten to breathe yet." He gurgled, sounding pathetic even to his ears as he looked away from his inevitable death and missed the flash of surprise that appeared in its eyes. "It wouldn't… it wouldn't have been fair."
Aaron didn't know if he was talking for them, or really about him. It was a thought that had plagued him ever since he'd woken up after all. It wasn't fair. He didn't deserve to be here, he didn't ask to be here, he didn't even know where here WAS! And those eggs were the same. Almost doomed to a fate they didn't even understand.
After a few moments he spent expecting to have his chest caved in by an immensely heavy iron foot, Aaron looked up with tentative hope that morphed into shock as his look was returned with something so painfully visible, so human, that it took his breath away.
Gratitude.
Which made it all the more debilitating when he looked up with the first honest-to-God smile he'd felt in days, just to catch a glimpse of black-edged in red.
"NOOOOO!"
'CRUNSCH!'
The cry died in his throat, smothered by the horror as he watched pain bloom in Aggron's eyes as she threw her head back and roared. Steely grey light infused her tail as she whipped around and sent it hurtling through the air, only for her attacker to leap back and dodge the empowered limb before rearing up with a roar of its own. Yellow-green segmented plates covered its neck, back, tail and the outsides of its thighs, leaving thin black armour across its more vulnerable areas as it flexed its crimson claws and stared Aggron down with sheer red-eyed malice.
"HAXORUUUUUUUUUS!"
Its name slammed forward with visible force as Aggron stumbled back and tried to clutch at the jagged gouge taken out from the left side of her flank, exposing the torn flesh underneath as she snarled and lowered her head as if to charge.
Aaron's eyes trailed from the monstrous Haxorus' crest to the right side of its face where a single scythe-like tusk jutted out from its jaw menacingly. With sinking realisation he looked to its left where a nasty, barely healed chunk of flesh and bone sat, then at the near identical-looking blade in his hand. Dully he knew what had happened. It and Aggron had fought, maybe she'd won or maybe she lost, but regardless she had left it alive and that was a mistake. It must have tracked her down, following the scent of blood just as the hoard of Gol and Zubat's had until it arrived here to find an already weakened target.
That was all the time he had for analysis as the two titans charged and met each other in the middle of the cave with a thunderous crash, the force of their meeting knocking him head over heels as the Haxorus' remaining jaw blade slammed down against Aggron's horn w and sent sparks leaping off of her armour. For a moment it looked like she would hold, until her body on the left side buckled around her wound and she was thrown to the side with a loud cry.
Aggron recovered though, and Aaron was left frantically skirting around the edges of the room as they fought and threw each other around. From the corners of his eyes, he caught the light show of steel that coated and empowered her limbs, while on the other side the Haxorus threw around blue and purple flames with ease.
Because of COURSE the pre-historic-looking murder beasts knew magic, he thought hysterically, rolling and diving desperately to stay safe from whatever stray debris came flying his way, the occasional blast of fire hot enough to cauterise his cuts missing him by a hair as he spun wildly out of control to avoid it.
Directly into Haxorus' way.
The vile beast's eyes flicked to Aaron just as Aggron drove forward in a reckless-looking tackle, her armour swirling with some sort of power that added more speed and force than she should have been able to produce as she slammed into it amidst the victorious sound of shifting metal. Haxorus took the hit directly on its chest, chips of its armour flying away as it roared out in distress and was thrown bodily backwards into the wall to leave a destructive crater.
For a moment Aaron thought they'd won. A cheer was already rising to his lips as he turned to look at Aggron, only to stutter as he saw the bulky mother buckle. Whatever she'd done clearly had some recoil, especially on the wounded side she continued to favour as he turned fearfully to the far wall and locked his eyes onto Haxorus… just as its eyes found the eggs.
They were halfway across the room but in the face of those powerful legs, it meant nothing. With a single leap it bound across the cave floor and scraped to a halt with its sinuous neck poised over the shells like a guillotine. Aaron's cry left his throat just as Aggron's did, but neither of them were fast enough to do a thing as it raised a serrated foot which rippled with ominous purple fire.
His body was moving but it was already too late as that foot came down amongst the nest with a thunderous, murderous crunch, sending up a sickening wave of goo and blood as in one fell swoop it murdered the entire clutch of eggs with a single callous stomp.
Aaron felt his heart shatter as he took in the sight. Everything he'd done, every moment he'd spent coming to adore those wonderful little shells flashed through his mind as the sadness in his chest grew heavier until it was almost overwhelming. But while he succumbed to despair? Aggron was overwhelmed with rage.
Pure, unfiltered hate erupted inside the stern giant as it threw its head back and howled, pouring out all of the anger, despair and pain into the cave walls around them, shaking them threateningly as the Haxorus looked up gleefully just in time to catch two glowing horns to the chest.
They tore through it like butter and pushed the demon back and away from the ruin it had left behind, but Aaron couldn't look away. Slowly, almost like he was in a dream, he crawled towards the nest. In the background the two titans did battle, but he only had eyes for the broken eggs as his misery poured down his face, further scoring the marks under his eyes as he came to hover over it and sobbed.
"I'm sorry…" He choked up. "I'm sorry, I'm so, so sorry. This isn't, this isn't right." He pushed his hands through the shards, hair ruffling as a stone the size of his body missed him by an inch and slammed into Aggron's chest. "This isn't fair."
The enraged howl of a grieving mother echoed his sentiments, and Aaron collapsed forward into the nest with his head in his arms, the shoulder-rattling sounds of his misery spilling out as he cried for the lost life that could have been. Cried for the mother he'd never remember, for the life he didn't even know and the one he'd never get to live. Another crash threw him forward, bashing his face into the broken shells and smearing their guts across his face as he gagged. Sputtering and spitting to clear his mouth, he scrambled to lift himself out of the pit before freezing as something under his palm… shook.
Almost too scared to look, Aaron fumbled around with his hand, holding his breath as he mapped out the subtle curve of a shell and felt the constant, energetic rocking. It was halfway submerged in the soft sand surrounding it as he jerked around to stare and heard a sharp 'Crack!'
The battle going on behind him faded even further from his senses as fractures incrementally crawled across its dirtied white surface until with one final, desperate push the top half of the egg shattered.
The tiniest, high-pitched mewl leaked from beneath the shards. A snowy white head emerged, its curved surface shaking from side to side to clear the gunk from its vents before it opened its eyes to reveal a pair of large, bright blue orbs, innocently blinking as it briefly looked around before allowing its focus to settle on the kneeling human. He looked at the newborn with something verging on awe while it looked back curiously, seemingly unbothered by the violent noises of destruction shaking the room around them as they each took each other in.
Aaron broke first.
"H-hey there," He whispered the words, forcing a wobbly smile as the baby tilted its head to the side. "Hey there little, little guy? I'm ah, I'm… Aaron?"
Those large, expressive eyes blinked once as it seemingly absorbed what he said, then curved happily as it stepped up onto the edge of its egg and pushed its face towards him.
"Aron!"
His heart stopped in shock before melting as a blubbering laugh leaked from his lips, an odd mixture of delight and defeat as he lifted a shaking hand and pushed it towards the top of its head.
"Y-yeah hehe, that's, that's me! I'm Aaron."
His palm met its head and the innocent life cooed, its eyes sliding shut as it pushed into his hand and nuzzled the warmth provided. Time fell away from Aaron as he sat there, caressing the surprisingly metallic surface of its head, warm air puffing from its nose vents as it sniffed at his fingers until a roar of rage snapped him back to the present.
The Aron perked up as he whipped his head around and took in the room. Deep gouges and cracks threaded the walls as a result of claws like short swords and tails like wrecking balls, the occasional scorch mark painting the ceiling as he looked to the fight itself and found Aggron somehow pinning Haxorus against the wall. As he watched though, steam began to billow off the invading beast's skin, mystical purple swirls causing it to twist and curl as similar blue energy dyed its eyes before their pupils vanished amidst a sea of red.
"Oh no," He whispered with mounting horror as the energy around them physically intensified. "We need to go."
His hands swept forward to scoop up the newborn and he grunted at the surprising weight, muscles straining and a vein popping up in his neck as it gave an amused chuff, ignorant to the danger they were in while he hauled it up to lay against his shoulder.
"We need to go right now!"
The already stifling room temperature was rising as Haxorus growled, its struggles slowly forcing the snapping Aggron back as Aaron looked towards the cave entrance and cursed as he saw it had been blocked off.
That left only one answer.
With a grimace at how close it would bring him to the battle, Aaron steeled himself and hurried towards the pool, sticking as close to the wall as possible while flashes of fire began to burst from Haxorus' nostrils. His legs had only just splashed into the surprisingly deep pit as the blue glow intensified and he looked back just in time to watch the two behemoths explode, a wave of fiery force washing across the room and blasting Aggron back towards him as her opponent burst into a mindless, unthinking frenzy.
It spotted the mother fighting back to her feet and launched itself just as she struggled up on all fours, slamming her back down with a thunderous 'CRASH' as it roared into the nape of her neck and began raining down blows, slashing and hacking mindlessly as she weathered the hits with a pained groan and opened her eyes. Instantaneously they locked onto the stubby-legged, armoured newborn in his arms, the two of them bobbing just above the surface of the water as they watched the savagery with wide, frightened eyes.
As soon as her pale blues locked onto the similar pair in his arms, all of her pain drained away. In its place sat sheer and adoring relief, the warm look of a mother's love clouding her face as she crooned to her baby until it perked up in his arms and yipped back cutely. Then her attention turned to him, and Aaron felt his heart tear as she clenched her massive jaws and puffed.
'Save them.'
Maybe it was the heat cloying at his nose or maybe it was the delirium from having been trapped alone with nothing to talk to but eggs and his only meal being seaweed, but at that moment Aaron would have sworn he heard her.
She must have seen the acceptance on his face as her firmness melted back into that look of love when she took one last look at her child and started to glow. All of her, the entire surface of her armour turned a blinding white as the Haxorus carried on biting, stabbing, clawing and tearing at her back, turning it into a shredded, bloody mess as it howled mindlessly and the purple flames began to build between its jaws.
Even Aaron could see it wouldn't get the chance. Shooting one last look at the blinding white juggernaut he'd grown to admire he choked down his sob and slapped a hand over her baby's face, covering up its nose vents as it snorted and squirmed before he threw himself back into the water and let the current take him. His eyes never left the surface though, no matter how deep they sank as the light brightened further into a sky of burning white until with one last, muffled 'BANG'... it vanished.
The last thing he saw was the ceiling caving in above the pool and he wrapped his arms tighter around the struggling Aron just as the shockwave hit him and threw them into a tumble. His last thoughts were a desperate prayer that they'd reach air soon, before a clump of stone struck him in the head and the darkness swallowed him whole.