Claire was no stranger to pain. She had been battered and bruised nearly to the point of death multiple times, but never before had she been tortured. This was the first time someone was causing her pain simply for the fun of it, and of all the torment she had endured up until now, this was the worst. Everyone who had hurt her prior to this had been aiming to kill her, but Tesseract Goop wanted her to feel pain for the sake of pain. Claire was still unsure why this woman despised her, but she certainly didn't think she'd done anything to deserve this brutality. The circus lady was lashing into her with the black cane, which was clearly a magic wand. Every time it struck her scales, it felt as if lightning was cutting into her flesh. And it never ended. She just kept going and going, and it wasn't long before Claire lost the ability to think clearly. Her own screaming was background noise. It barely existed. There was nothing outside of the pain.

Or maybe there was, because she could see something crawling towards her. It was Blue. Despite the fact that she had been shot twice and had fallen down a cliff (not to mention wounded in the fight), she was still determined to put an end to Claire. She very well could, too. Blue had been created in a lab, so she was not woman-born. Perhaps she was the one Tesseract Goop had summoned. But that wasn't important.

Claire was close to death. She could feel it. In her pain-fogged vision, she could make out the shapes of her deceased family members. She saw her mother, her grandparents, Rock, Sandy . . . but the pain grew duller, more numb. Tesseract Goop was distracted. Someone had caught her attention. And there he was. Owen was sliding down the cliff, coming to her rescue. He knew that Blue was trying to finish what she started, and he had come all this way to save his wife. Little did he know that she was already in trouble. Ah, well. He was here now, and Claire was starting to regain her lucidity.

But something didn't feel right about this. Well, first of all, there was the fake Owen, who was sitting guiltily at the base of a tree, but the real Owen was unaware of something very important. Tesseract Goop had a wand. A magic wand. And . . . and that wasn't good.

Claire's eyelids drooped. She was half dead. Owen's shape was rippling in her vision like agitated water. He was getting closer. The only pain she felt now was what was left over. That meant Tesseract Goop wasn't focused on her anymore. She wasn't using the wand. She wasn't-

Owen lifted his revolver, but Tesseract Goop beat him to the punch. She flicked her wand, and a shimmering bolt caught him square in the chest. Claire knew for sure that the evil woman had been watching her for a very long time, because she had changed Owen into a jerboa. She knew. She knew everything.

Owen tried to grab the gun, which was now larger than him, but Tesseract Goop grabbed him by the waist and flung him against a nearby tree. When he hit the wood, he let out a pained squeak, then fell to the ground motionless. Claire screamed. She broke through the spell that was binding her and leapt to her feet. As she charged forward, she slammed the circus woman with her horn, sending her flying. Her wand landed nearby, but before she could grab it, Charlie sprung out of the bushes and snapped it up in her jaws. Claire winced, her energy spent after her burst of enthusiasm. She crawled over to Owen. One of his ears was folded in a funny way. He wasn't looking too good. She picked him up gently, and noticed that he was breathing rapidly. He coughed, and she saw blood on his lips.

"Owen! . . ."

She could only see one of his eyes. It flicked over to her, then closed slightly as he wheezed. She cradled his tiny body in her palms, tears stinging at her eyes.

"Owen, no . . ."

"Claire . . . Take care of Lily . . . Take care of our daughter . . ."

She held him against her cheek. His paw brushed across her scales. Blue, meanwhile, was still trying to approach her, but for a different reason. She screeched in agony, reaching out for Owen. Claire sniffled and scooted away from her.

"Don't touch him! He's hurt!"

"You idiot! Don't you think I know that? Give him to me! I have as much right to hold him as you do!"

It was then that Lily caught up with the group. She saw the strange scene in front of her and put the pieces together.

"DAD!"

The fake Owen lifted his head as she ran past him, wondering if she had made the same mistake as Claire, but she knew her real father, even as a rodent. She whined miserably and tried to nuzzle him, but he gave a light shudder.

"Lily . . ."

"Don't die, Daddy! Not now! I just got a sister! We were supposed to be a family!"

Owen smiled and placed his paw on her lip.

"You'll still be . . . a family. You have each other. Don't need . . . me. Just be brave . . . be strong . . . I'm proud of you."

Lily whimpered. Claire turned to Charlie with pleading eyes.

"Find the others. Hurry!"

She nodded, grabbed the wand, and scurried away to rally her friends, stepping over Blue without acknowledging her. Claire laid Owen on the ground, and Lily placed a thick twig beneath him to support his head. He draped his hand over his fluffy chest.

"Don't bury me . . . in a shoebox . . ."

Claire sniffled.

"Owen . . ."

There was a deep cackle. Tesseract Goop stood up, wiping blood away from the corner of her mouth.

"This is a pickle now, isn't it?"

Claire growled.

"Murderer!"

She scoffed.

"Oh, I'm the murderer? Look who's talking!"

Claire stamped her foot.

"You're insane! I've never killed anyone as long as I've lived!"

Tesseract Goop shook her head.

"You're wrong."

She reached into her coat pocket and pulled out the crystal ball. After staring into its refractive depths, she dropped it at her feet and closed her eyes.

"It's time to tell you the truth."

Shadows emerged from the ground, curling around her like vines. She grew, changing into a shape that Claire recognized. She stared in horror at the stegoceratops standing before her. She was ebony with a frill and plates that seemed almost purple under the moon's light. There was no doubt that she was a pure hybrid, because she had five toes on her front feet and only two horns. Her tired eyes met Claire's from inside their dark lining, and she let out a deep breath.

"This is what I am. I am a stegoceratops, unlike you."

Claire stepped forward slowly.

"You survived . . ."

"The massacre? No, I was never there. But I remember the first attack."

She rolled the crystal ball over to Claire. When she touched it, she saw an image of a tiny, dark stegoceratops playing in a meadow.

"My name was Penumbra. I had a happy life. My family was poor, because my father died plowing the fields, but my mother was able to support me just fine."

Claire saw a larger stegoceratops sitting with her arms spread. The child jumped into them and hugged her neck.

"I loved her more than anyone in the world. No matter what happened, we always had each other. You might have heard that our race lived peacefully with humans. This is true. But all of a sudden, everything changed."

The image shifted to a night scene. A group of men were lassoing stegoceratopses and loading them into a train.

"The leader of the humans blamed us for the hardships both races faced. His name was Joninashiparthua Wala. He rounded us up in labor camps. My mother and I were deemed fit for work. They allowed us to live. Like our brothers and sisters, they branded us with the dictator's initials. They had to try a few times before they realized that it wouldn't show up on our black flanks. But they found a way."

Claire looked at her present shape and saw that the scales on her thigh had been scraped away to reveal pink tissue. Two letters, a J and a W, were burned into her flesh.

"After months of toil and pain, my mother and a group of males came up with an escape plan. My mother and I were the only ones who made it past the gate. The others were shot down."

Claire watched the stegoceratops and her daughter run into the forest. Penumbra dashed across a log that bridged the gap between two ends of a canyon. She stood safely on the other side while her mother looked down at a whitewater river with fear.

Mama, hurry!

Penny, hide in the forest.

No, Mama, I need you to show me the way. Come on, Mama, it's not that far.

The old stegoceratops placed her foot on the log uncertainly. She pulled herself up and began to cross the gap. The log shifted under her weight, but she kept going.

That's it, Mama! You're almost there!

Suddenly, a human soldier appeared from the woods. He lifted his gun and shot Penumbra's mother three times.

MAMA!

She watched in horror as her mother's eyes rolled back into her head. She slipped from the log and was swallowed up by the river, leaving her daughter screaming on the ledge.

"I lost everything," the present Penumbra recalled, "I was left to wander the woods alone, praying for a miracle."

Claire shook her head. She was still wrapped up in the vision.

"Penumbra, you never saw what happened after that. The soldier didn't know you were there. He only noticed you when you started crying. He spared your life . . . and . . ."

She turned the crystal ball.

". . . and he saved your people. He overthrew Wala and made the humans leave your valley. It sunk into the ground . . ."

Penumbra sneered.

"I know what happened to the valley! I watched my people change over time, until they were less and less recognizable. We lost our pride, our culture, our shin-claws . . ."

Claire stared at the toes hanging from the inside of her heels.

"But that would take a long time . . . How are you still alive?"

"My journey led me to a mountain," Penumbra explained, "There was a genie there. He said that I could have a wish. I told him I wanted to be safe from the curse of old age, that I may one day see the three-horned Queen who was destined to save us. Oh, yes. We knew about the prophecy. And no one believed it more aggressively than I. I knew that if I was patient, I would one day see my people liberated. But as time went on, I lost hope. I wished to return to my herd, as destitute as they were, but I couldn't find a way back into the valley. I was desperate. I begged for help, and it came to me in the form of a bull. He promised me that I could use the crystal ball to look upon my people from the outside, and that I could make magic with the wand to protect my identity. I gave him my soul. I wanted nothing more than to see my valley restored to its former glory. I waited for an eternity to look upon the glorious, righteous, heavenly Queen the ancient prophecy spoke of. An then you came along. You are not a Queen, you are not a stegoceratops, and you are not a friend to my people. Because of you, they were slaughtered by war elephants. I had to watch my brothers and sisters die once more. This time, there were none left."

Claire felt tears sliding down her cheeks. She lowered her head and took a shaky breath.

"I'm sorry. I wish I could have been the Queen you waited for, but you have to believe that I didn't intend to lead them to their demise. All these years, the thought of what could have been has haunted me, and knowing that someone shares my pain only makes it worse. The guilt hasn't been lifted from my heart, and it never will be. I won't forget my mistake until the day I die, but I wouldn't want to. Knowing that I was the cause of so much suffering makes me strive to be better. I will never make the same mistake again, and I will try to do as much good as I can to prevent another disaster from befalling innocent people. Just like the man who let you go, I will never be free from my remorse, but as long as I bear that cross, no one else will get hurt."

For a moment, Penumbra's face softened, but then she glared at her with more contempt than she'd ever seen in her entire life.

"I don't want your apology. I want this to end."

"It already has," Claire said, "I made a mistake that led to the deaths of my truest friends. Right now, I'm doing my best to make sure that it never happens again."

Penumbra dug her toes into the earth.

"This will only be reconciled with your death!"

"Why?" Claire asked, "I'm not going to provoke another massacre. Killing me won't change anything. All it will do is make you a murderer."

"I'll have my revenge-"

"What purpose does that serve? I'm not your enemy, Penumbra. If it were possible, I'd create a world of free stegoceratopses, just like you wanted."

"You can't say that! You're not one of us!"

Claire looked up at the sky.

"I'm not so sure. Penumbra, before your people were forced into camps, they bred freely with humans, producing fertile offspring. The first stegoceratopses were sent back in time from a place I called home. They came from Jurassic World. I don't know what Henry Wu was up to, but somehow, he managed to create dinosaurs whose genetic code was not too far from humans'."

"What are you saying? Did he use human DNA to synthesize hybrids?"

"I can't say for sure, but regardless of whether or not he intended to make us so close, that's the way it happened. I mean, every living creature is made up of the same four things. It's not that crazy, right? So we really are the same, you and I. We're the same species."

Penumbra seemed to be calming down. Claire smiled at her sadly, holding out her front foot.

"Come home with us."

Penumbra's eyes flicked up to her face.

"You're saying we're family?"

"Yes."

"Right . . . We're sisters, you and I . . ."

"Of course."

"You want what's best for the stegoceratops race?"

"Absolutely. I'll do anything to prove that to you."

"Good . . . you can start . . . by dying!"

She lunged at Claire, who dodged her attack. Penumbra wheeled around, undaunted, and gave an irate trumpet. She snorted, and the breath puffing from her nostrils was like smoke. Claire adopted a submissive pose.

"Please, Penny. Don't do this."

"Don't call me that! You have no right!"

She charged again, and Claire knocked her to the side reluctantly.

"You were supposed to be our savior!" the stegoceratops roared, "You're a sham! A lie! A traitor!"

Claire blocked her attacks, praying that she'd relent.

"I didn't mean to! Please, believe me!"

She didn't. She kept charging and charging, leaving Claire no choice but to fight. Still, she couldn't find the strength.

"Filthy human! I'll kill you!"

Lily, who had been watching in horror, left her father's side to stand firmly between the two hybrids. She bellowed and stomped her foot.

"STOP! Don't you see that my mother is right? We're the same. All of us. Me, my dad, my mom, Charlie . . . and Blue."

The raptor lifted her head. Lily continued her speech.

"We're family. Just because someone doesn't look like you doesn't give you the right to treat them like an animal. That's how the stegoceratops were driven to extinction. There is a way to ensure that humans and stegoceratopses and raptors can live together in peace, but we won't get any closer to that goal until we stop blaming each other for what happened in the past. Killing for revenge is still killing. If we proceed with violence, nothing will change."

Penumbra scoffed.

"Fine talk, coming from the girl who wanted to be human."

"I changed my mind," Lily said, "I don't care what I am, as long as there are people who accept me."

Penumbra smirked.

"Your parents may have chosen to ignore your mutant genes, but I doubt the world will be as understanding as they are. What of your carnivorous friend? Didn't he say he'd give anything to be a real raptor?"

There was a loud bark. Penumbra turned to see Liam standing with a very healthy-looking jerboa on his shoulder.

"I changed my mind too. Kind of. When all is said and done, no magic can make me a real raptor. It's up to me. That's why I've chosen to save Lily's father with my wish: a real raptor defends his packmates."

Penumbra quirked a brow.

"You know your soul belongs to me now, right?"

Liam shrugged.

"I guess. In hindsight, it wasn't a very good move on my part, but I'm willing to do this for Lily, and besides, the others are coming to back me up."

Claire nodded.

"It's over, Penumbra. For now, anyway. If you choose to let go of the past, we can move forward together. It's up to you now."

Penumbra shook her head.

"You don't fool me with your lies."

"I'm not-"

"WHORE!"

She charged forward, and Claire pushed her away. Penumbra snorted, then turned her head to glare at Lily, who was standing nearby. Claire mooed in panic as she changed course, and grabbed her tail with her beak. She fought back. Now that Claire knew she wasn't the only target, she found the courage to face the raging hybrid. They locked horns, pushing each other across the clearing. When they clashed, the force seemed to send shock waves through the night. It was like living thunder. Their muscles rippled and swung in a display that tore through time itself, slowing every second to an eternity. Their bellows were heard for miles, echoing through the twisted mountains. The impact of their battle was felt by all who looked on in horror as the titans slammed feet against belly and frill against shoulder. They were matched in skill and strength. For a moment, it seemed like there would be no winner, that they would keep fighting until the end of time. But then it happened. Claire reared up on her hind legs and tossed her head. She plunged forward, and her horns slid into Penumbra's eye sockets. A mix of red and white fluids poured down her cheeks. She screamed. Claire realized what she had done, and pulled back in horror. The stegoceratops fell on her chest, moaning in anguish. Claire started hyperventilating. She placed her front foot on Penumbra's cheek.

"No, no, no, no, no! Hang on! Just hang on!"

The blood was trickling over her toes. She tried to wipe it away.

"Don't die on me. Not now. You're the last. I can't live knowing that I've killed the last . . ."

Penumbra's hollow eyes bore into her soul.

"You can never escape it. Their blood is on your hands. All the world's oceans can't make you clean. You're a murderer. You may lie to yourself, you may claim that you're trying to do good, but you can never forget . . ."

Her last breath escaped her in a dry rasp, and she slumped forward. Claire let go of her face and backed away from the eyeless corpse. She stared forward vacantly, then returned to the present when Owen placed his tiny paw on her ankle.

"You tried."

Claire nodded, but she didn't seem convinced. Although she was not ready to move on, she forced herself to do so when Lily gave her a hug.

"It's okay, Mama. No one else has to get hurt now."

Claire sighed.

"Yes. It's over."

Suddenly, an unfamiliar raptor leapt into the clearing. She gasped when she saw them, dropping a black stick that she had been carrying in her mouth, and scampered away fearfully. Claire picked up her lost artifact and recognized it as Penumbra's wand.

"That was Shmlaire!" the fake Owen shouted as he crawled out from behind a rock, where he had been hiding, "She's changed herself into a raptor!"

Claire frowned.

"Why would she do that?"

"Because she wants two things: to run far enough to escape her problems and to silence herself so that no one else has to get hurt."

"What if she attacks someone?" the real Owen asked in his high-pitched rodent voice.

"She wouldn't. She wants to be free. There's nothing she can do to interfere with you now."

He looked down, lacing his fingers together.

"I . . . I know you don't trust me. I wouldn't either, but all the same, I feel the need to ask . . . I mean . . . When I'm with her, it's unlike anything I've ever felt before, and to think that she'd be all alone in the wilderness . . . I . . . I just . . ."

Claire nodded.

"I understand."

She tapped him with the wand, and he became a raptor too.

"Go. Find her. Whether she knows it or not, you need each other."

The raptor Owen nodded, then pursued his accomplice. Claire smiled gently.

"Good luck."

Liam frowned.

"You're just gonna let them go?"

Claire nodded.

"They deserve a chance to live as much as the rest of us. In this form, they won't bother anyone."

Owen hopped up to her and tapped her toe with his claw.

"Um, Claire, if you're handy with that wand, maybe you could . . ."

She smiled and changed him back into a human. He spun around to make sure that he no longer had a tail, then gave her a hug.

"Thank you. And thank you too, Liam. You saved my life."

The raptor grinned.

"No problem. Maybe you can keep that in mind in the near future, seeing how I'd like to invite Lily out on a date sometime soon."

Lily squealed with glee and gave him a hug, and Owen's eye twitched.

"Um . . . Give me a minute to think about it."

Claire nodded.

"Yes, let's not jump into things when we're all recovering from . . . this. Once the others get here, we can ask for their input as well."

Owen looked around.

"Yeah, where are they?"

"They had to carry Echo," Liam explained, "They should be here soon. Unless they run into trouble."

Claire shook her head.

"No chance of that. We're safe now, considering everyone who was trying to kill us is . . . you know."

"Except Blue," Owen said bitterly.

The raptor looked up at him with glazed eyes, now completely drained from her injuries.

"I'm sorry. Things got out of hand."

"That's not an excuse," he mumbled, "You're not coming home with us."

Claire gulped.

"Owen, don't you think that's a bit harsh? She's too weak to hurt me, and besides, Penumbra is gone, so she has no reinforcements."

Blue narrowed her eyes.

"I'm not on her side, Claire."

"You're not?"

"No! I only met her a few hours ago, and besides, she's a stupid hybrid . . . um, not that that's a problem for me, exactly . . ."

Claire frowned.

"But if you weren't on her side, who was she talking about when she said she was going to summon a friend?"

THUMP.

The blood in her veins turned to ice.

THUMP.

The others heard it too.

THUMP.

It was a footstep. Bigger than a T-Rex. Bigger than the I-Rex. Bigger than anything Claire had ever heard.

THUMP.

The sound of splintering trees echoed through the woods. It was getting closer.

THUMP. THUMP.

A gob of saliva big enough to fill a bathtub landed by her feet. Slowly, her eyes traveled from a massive foot to a bulky leg to a gargantuan body to a sneering, toothy snout. The blue monster, cracking with dark lightning, looked down at her, revealing two horns above his blood-red eyes. Owen's face fell.

"Um, Claire . . . would you call that a projection?"

She shook her head.

"Ah, no. I'd call that a giant, demonic carnotaurus."

And it roared.