Chapter Text
Tommy can’t remember much, all he really knows is the weight on his back. New, foreign, and oh so heavy. He was sore and in pain all over. Radiating from his back, sending pain throughout his body.
Vague memories flashed into his mind. The majority of it covered in pain, wrapping him and dragging him down into darkness. A feather, falling.
Tommy turned his head to try and get a view of his back, that’s when he saw what they had done to him.
He let out a sob, for what else was he supposed to do? He wanted to scream and curse out anyone in the vicinity. There was no one, just him in a white padded room. Nothing was in the room with him.
Tommy noticed blood drops on the floors, some smearing the walls.
He was on his knees now, limbs screaming at him to just go back to sleep. Slip back into unconsciousness away from this nightmare.
His head pounded along with the sore pain that engulfed him. Slowly he reached behind him to touch it, his hand came back with slight redness. Just a couple drops of blood.
It made his heart drop, Tommy’s blood ran cold with realization.
A door opened suddenly. Sending even more blinding light inside. He closed his eyes, tears were running down his cheek now.
An anger bubbled in him, he remembered his urge to scream and curse out the nearest person. It was a lady in a white lab coat, she had deep brown hair. That’s all Tommy could recognize before she started to come closer, holding something in her hand.
She was speaking, her mouth was moving, yet Tommy was too confused to understand. His mind was racing too fast to know what was happening.
The coat lady was right next to him, nearly on top of him. Fear, he needed to be afraid of the white coats. Tommy was too tired from the pain that he felt.
A buzzing warmth set in.
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It was fuzzy but all Tommy knew was he was being dragged. Almost led down a hall where he had no idea where he was going.
Vaguely a thought registered in his head, one that made him wish to cry out. Feathers were being strewn about the floor as he was dragged from the back.
Someone was trying to comfort him as he tried desperately to say something. To curse out these people dragging him down a hall like he was an animal.
It was like he was drowning in his own body, unable to move or talk. Only able to relax, the one thing he didn’t want to be right now. This was not a moment he needed to be relaxed, he needed to run.
The feeling of drowning flashed in his mind. They have done this many times before. This was different though, Tommy was more conscious than every other time he was forced somewhere. To do thing he didn’t want to do.
They took things from him, and added things. A memory of his blood getting drawn. Of someone applying different medicines to his skin, making it turn red and burnt.
How long had it been? Of these people keeping him just under the surface, aware of the pain but unable to plead for them to stop.
This thought made him want to cry again, but he couldn’t gather the strength to even care. The thought fell through his fingers fast as the people dragging him stopped.
A hiss of a door, they were going again, through a door. This room was colder. Metal lined the floor, cool to the touch. Tommy was placed on the ground on one side of the room. It was so cold in this room.
He let his thoughts wander to his back, the weight that they now held. Absently he noticed that he wasn’t alone in the room, across from him a blonde man sat with black blobs behind him.
A sense of familiarity overtook him, a whisper in the back of his mind willing him to go to the random guy. A sympathetic ping rang out in his chest, they were similar in what the people of this place had done to them.
As the man started to creep closer, Tommy wanted nothing more than to sleep. Yet the man became more clear the closer he got. Thats when the realization set in that this guy had wings.
Wings, just like Tommy.
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It was slow waking up, yet it felt nice to finally have a hold on consciousness. To finally be fully aware after so long being in a blurry state. Phil looked around at his surroundings, it was a padded white room like one of those old mental asylums he would see in shows. He was wearing white scrubs.
Where the fuck was he? His back. It felt odd, heavier than usual. A dull soreness was radiating from it. He was too exhausted to get up from where he was curled up by the wall, instead he tried to turn his head around.
What.
A door swung open, bringing in light along with a person in a white lab coat. Was he in a hospital? No that couldn’t be right, something wasn’t right.
“What did you do to me?” His voice was scratchy, a dull rage started to bubble. Phil pushed it down, now was not the time for rage. He needed to figure out what was happening. His throat had hurt from ill use.
“Odd, you shouldn’t be this awake yet.” The voice was soft, yet held a tone that made him want to curl up into a ball. It was familiar to him. The guy was tall, he had short brown hair. “Interesting.”
He started to step closer to Phil slowly looming, as though Phil was prey. This man was the predator in this situation, holding the power. Phil’s thoughts roamed to the new weight on his body. He could barely see much, his vision kept being blurry. What he could see was the looming blackness on his back.
His vision cleared for a moment, and that was all Phil needed for everything to register in his mind. Wings. Giant black wings were on his back, ones that weren’t there before. Phil was sure no human had wings, yet here he was. A human with wings.
He looked back to the man in the white coat who had gotten closer, Phil noticed a syringe in his hand.
“So, what do you think?” he seemed nice, and the voice was familiar. He had probably worked with Phil while he wasn’t as conscious.
Phil just looked at him, staring at this man who seemed excited by Phil’s awareness. It pissed him off. “I think that someone is going to get hurt.”
Confusion flashed over the man’s face, before he could ponder on Phil’s words he was already lunging. The new weight put off Phil’s balance and it pained him to move that fast at the man. He pushed him down, pinning the man’s weight underneath his knees.
His whole body screamed at him to stop, to just go down and rest. Phil grit his teeth, so much for pushing down the anger. He dug his knees into the guy’s stomach and chest, causing them to wince.
Before Phil could move to pin down his arms, the man swung straight at him. Phil expected to be pushed off, for the fight to really begin. Instead he felt a pinch on the back of his left shoulder. A buzzing warmth grew from the injection point.
Immediately Phil stepped off the guy, trying to stand up. Phil fell to the ground in two steps, he tried to blink away the blurriness that was coming into his vision. He liked being this aware, this awake. Yet now his consciousness slipped past him like sand through his fingertips.
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When phil awoke again he was in a colder room. It was mainly metal, the floors were cool against his warm skin. He started to blink off the blurriness, trying desperately to grasp onto consciousness once again.
It all came slamming back to him when a door flung open. Two blurs of white were dragging someone. Two people dragging in a person with small white limbs on their back. Covered in feathers.
The person they were carrying had blonde hair, their back faced Phil as they came in. The white coats placed the barely conscious person across the room from him. Quickly leaving without another word, the door slammed behind them. Phil watched as it closed, a buzz could be heard on the other side.
Phil looked back at the person in front of him, sitting across the room he examined the guy. He looked young. A kid.
Something in his mind told him it was a chick, a fledgling. Phil shook that off, in front of him was a winged child.
He took in an uneven breath, they had done this to a kid. Phil shakily stood, slowly making his way over to the kid. The blonde child looked exhausted and in pain. In rougher shape than Phil was.
Fledgling, help the fledgling.
Phil sat near the kid, he looked at them and saw just how young they truly looked. Their face was lined with exhaustion, barely clingy to consciousness.
“Hey mate,” Phil spoke softly, even with his raspy voice he was gentle. Trying to hide away any anger, because that wouldn’t help the kid right now. “What’s your name?”
The kid blinked up at him for a couple seconds, seemingly debating what was happening. Shakily, and just barely audible, “Tommy.”
“Hello Tommy, I’m Phil.” He smiled at Tommy, trying to send some assurance to the fledgling. “You don’t seem to be in good shape.”
Instead of responding, Tommy looked distant and stared at the new limbs behind Phil, “You have wings.”
It hurt Phil that the kid was obviously out of it, his voice was scratchy from over use. Possibly from screaming too much.
“So do you, mate.”
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The room was full of subjects, all of which could have failed or succeeded. There was no way of knowing until they turned on the switch. No one would admit it but they were terrified, scared of the thought that not one test subject succeeded past the origins phase.
It was a dark room, the only light came from the tubes. Giant vats of liquid that has a slight yellow glow to them. They lined the walls of the dark warehouse. Technically it was the first classified floor, apart from the ones beneath. The more experimental subjects were down below.
Still, the scientists buzzed with excitement and fear as a button was pressed in another room. The warning lights started to flash overhead, telling them that the subjects should start waking up soon.
Inside each vat was a test subject, chosen mainly on size. They needed people who were smaller yet stronger. Something that wasn’t fragile or delicate.
The first stage was changing their minds, adding and removing different hormones. The second stage was changing their internal layout. Adding equipment that would help inhance each subjects internal organs. Bettering them to take the changes. The last stage was the hardest, many subjects failed. Yet there were still enough successes to fill ten vats.
The subjects inside each varied, testing which methods would take or fail. All were attached to a breathing tube at the top of the vat.
They had been turned off in the attempt to wake the subjects, some monitors beeped letting them know of the immediate failures.
One started to move within the yellow glow. His insect like wings shifting. Trying to grab fo the tube on his face. Another beside that one started to twitch as well, both grabbing and thrashing around aimlessly.
The first one started to feel around, noticing the containment it was in. It banged on the glass, it would be very hard to break. Yet a crack started to form from the force.
The one next to the first had stopped thrashing, going limp as its monitor beeped out the failure.
The glass started to break more and more, as heavier force was applied. This one was a fighter. Glass shattered, and yellow liquid quickly poured out. Pulling the text subject out along with it.
The nearest scientist walked up to it, noting how it struggled to get the breathing tube and face mask off. Eventually it ripped it off all together.
The woman noted how strong it was for its size. She simply stared at it as the subject threw a glare at her. The clear insect wings dripped of liquid, twitching at every breathe the subject took. It was the only successes for this level.
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Tubbo had woken up submerged in some liquid, looking back on him made him want to panic. The feeling of being so close to death, submerged in somewhere unknown. Now he stared across the room at some odd creature.
It was tall, and its skin was fully black. The eyes were bright green and they simply stared at Tubbo. They were in some metallic room sitting across from each other at a table. The room was warm at least.
This was Tubbo’s new normal, staring at this creature in front of him. Both not saying a word, it was kind of awkward.
Tubbo felt uncomfortable being stared at by the guy, and honestly he tried to not stare at his eyes. It made his skin crawl.
There was a mirror to the right of them, Tubbo knew the people were watching. Waiting to see how they would interact.
Tubbo took a deep breathe, the light wings behind him buzzed. He enjoyed that sound.
“Hi.” Tubbo waited for a response, as the creature just stared at him. Shifting its head to the side, it didn’t say anything after a minute. He tried again, “I’m Tubbo.”
The things face shifted to something curious, it almost seemed happy. A scratching sound came from its throat, “Ranboo.”
At first Tubbo thought he didn’t quiet hear the guy, maybe he didn’t speak English or something. Tubbo looked around nervously, landing on his reflection in the supposed mirror.
“I’m Ranboo.” Oh he could speak, that was good to know.
A million questions flooded his mind, he wanted to ask if Ranboo knew what was going on. What had happened to them exactly? Why did they look so different, so not human?
His face must have given away his curiosity because Ranboo responded to the unspoken questions, “I don’t know.”
They both fell silent after that.
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Somewhere underground, beneath Tubbo’s Level yet before Ranboo’s, there was a growl. A deep growl that shook the scientists of that level. It was coming to life. The thing had practically died and come back to live.
Now it sat hunched over itself, simply trying to catch its breathe. From the observation mirror they could almost see the spine that faced them. The boney wings that spread and tucked back in rhythmically.
It looked practically transparent from where they stood. They should be cheering over the fact their experiment had somewhat succeeded, yet it was the hard part now. Getting the thing through all the tests and training.
It kept its boney wings out, they resembled a bats wing of pure skin. It didn’t tuck them back in as it whipped around, practically lunging at the mirror. A shriek from the back.
It stopped before hitting the glass, apparently intrigued by its own reflection. Something in its eyes shifted as it let out a whine.