Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“Welcome to our humble establishment, intern,” one of the workers greeted Xisuma.

“I have a name,” Xisuma muttered.

The worker shot him a look, saying, “And we’ll refer to you with it once you earn it.”

Xisuma kept his mouth shut, realizing that it probably wouldn’t be good if he screwed over his chances of investigation in their first interaction.

Nobody knew anything about this place. They were selective, careful who they chose to work for them. Xisuma had been sent to investigate the place. His boss was starting to get worried that the reports of missing people might have something to do with the place.

“First things first, before we even step foot into the facility, I need you to sign this,” The worker said, pushing a piece of paper into Xisuma’s hands.

“What is it?” Xisuma asked.

“It’s an agreement to not speak of anything you see in here,” the worker said before shrugging, “It’s just a precaution.”

Xisuma didn’t like the sound of that, but he needed to get information.

He signed, handing the paper back to the worker.

“Perfect. Follow me,” they said, walking into the building.

Xisuma nervously followed them down a few very long, empty hallways before they reached an elevator.

They entered, and Xisuma watched as they pulled a key out of a pocket on their lab coat, pulling off one of the buttons of the elevator and pushing the key into its place behind it.

The elevator immediately started going down, but when Xisuma looked at the number display to see what floor they were going to, it read ‘???’.

That was unsettling.

After a few minutes, they seemed to reach their destination, as the elevator stopped and the doors opened.

They were immediately met with shouting.

“Get your hands off of me! Get away from me!” A voice shouted, “Help!”

“I suppose experiment one is acting up again,” The worker huffed, “We’ll have to see him last. Come along, intern.”

Xisuma quickly hurried after the worker, a growing feeling of unease snaking through him as he took in the place. It was dark, and he could see what looked to be a place to eat to the left, and a wall lined with doors on the right. There were large windows next to each door, showing the inside of a room.

The worker passed the first door and stopped at the window by the second, saying, “I suppose we’ll start here. Meet experiment number 2.”

Xisuma paled as he looked through the glass, eyes falling upon a figure.

They were the shape of a human, but the closer Xisuma looked, the more… off, it looked. They had seams and stitches across their body. When they looked up at the two, their eyes almost looked like buttons. They were made out of what looked like different patches of fabric sewn together. Their hair was truly the only part of them that looked somewhat human. They were wearing a plain white shirt over gray sweatpants.

They looked so scared. Xisuma already had an extremely bad feeling about this place before, but this confirmed it. 

What were they doing to these things?

“Next, we have experiment three,” the worker said, walking over to the window.

Inside was another guy. He had brown hair and bright green skin that looked almost pixelated. One of his eyes was completely black, almost like a hole, and the other seemed to have been replaced with a mechanical part. He was wearing the same outfit as the first, though theirs seemed to have the marks of an explosion left on it.

“Experiment four,” the worker said, moving again to the next window.

This guy had long brown hair and wolf ears on his head. He had a brown tail behind him and had patches of fur all over him. It seemed like the outfit the prior two were wearing was what they were all wearing. When he saw the two, he growled, his ears standing on edge.

“Experiment five,” they said, continuing to walk.

This time, the experiment seemed to be a girl. Her face was two toned, most of it a pale blue while a small portion was a pale yellow, shaped like a crescent moon on the right side of her face. Her entire body seemed to follow the pattern and she had small stars around her head. 

“Experiment six.”

At a first glance, this one seemed to be human. He had teal hair and pale skin, and on the outside there didn’t seem to be anything off about him. On closer inspection, Xisuma saw his red eyes, and when the guy glared at them Xisuma could’ve sworn he saw fangs in his mouth. 

“Experiment seven.”

This guy had bright white eyes and a small pair of blue wings. He had two scars going across his nose in the shape of an x, and he glared daggers at Xisuma and the worker when he saw them. 

“Experiment eight.”

This guy almost looked like he had been divided in half down the center of his body. One half, he looked normal, he had black hair and a gray eye and a mustache. The other side, mechanical parts replaced everything, his eye, his arm, even his leg were all robotic. 

“Experiment nine.”

This guy looked like something straight out of a fantasy. He looked like a human, but he had candy almost growing off of his hair and shoulders. His eyes looked like chocolate and his hair was multicolored. He stuck his tongue out at the two when he saw them. 

“Experiment ten.”

This was another girl. She looked like a calico cat, her hair divided so it was half black and half orange. She had blue eyes and one black cat ear and one orange one. Her body was white with black and orange spots. She had a tail as well. 

“Experiment eleven.”

This one looked the most human of all of them. The guy had brown hair with a green streak down the middle. He looked like a normal human until he noticed the two and shifted so he had six arms, flipping them off with every single one. Xisuma figured out pretty quickly that he was a shapeshifter.

“And, finally, our original experiment, number one,” The worker said, walking all the way back to the beginning.

There were three people in this room. Xisuma could pretty easily guess which one was the experiment. Two of them were wearing lab coats and were securing hand cuffs and leg cuffs that were fastened to the wall onto the third. The third was struggling against them. He had dirty blonde hair with white streaks throughout. He had five pairs of wings on his back, all combining into almost one pair. The feathers almost looked faded, dull. He had a few scars littered across his face, and he was still shouting at the workers that were currently restraining him.

“I said to let go of me!” He shouted, struggling against them.

Xisuma watched in horror as one of the workers buried their hand in his wings before pulling, drawing a pained gasp out of the figure. They dropped the handful of faded feathers to the ground.

“You listen to me. You’re going to stay here and stay quiet and maybe we’ll think about taking the restraints off,” they said, “And if I hear another peep out of you…”

They pulled out another chunk of feathers, this time the figure silently wincing, preventing themself from making another noise. 

“Do you understand me?” The worker asked blandly.

The figure nodded quickly, and the worker said, “Good.”

While that interaction was happening, the other worker had fastened one of the restraints around the figure's neck.

The two workers left, and the figure immediately curled up into a ball, wrapping their wings around themself and burying their face in their knees, ignoring the shackles around their wrists, ankles, and neck.

“Those are all of our experiments as of now,” the worker that had been guiding Xisuma around said after pausing to nod at the other two as they left.

“So there’s eleven in total?” Xisuma asked quietly.

“Yep,” the worker confirmed before looking at their watch and saying, “Actually, it’s about time we let them eat.”

Xisuma watched in silence as they pressed a button on the wall, shouting, “Come on, maggots, I’m not waiting all day for you to eat!” 

The doors on the rooms opened and in every room except the first one, the people from behind cautiously exited.

“You have thirty minutes. Go,” the worker said.

The group quickly got together and left to go towards the room on the left wall, which Xisuma had thought was a dining room.

The worker turned to Xisuma and said, “Watch over them. I'm going to go talk to some of the other workers about an… issue. Here’s a key card in case you need to get into any of the rooms.”

Xisuma nodded, taking the card before nervously following the group.

He saw the guy who looked like a toy talking to the vampire.

“Scott, do you know where Grian is?” The toy asked nervously.

“Not here, obviously. He probably just doesn’t feel like eating again, Jimmy. I wouldn’t worry about it,” The vampire, or Scott, said.

“I swear, if he’s trying to starve himself again…” Jimmy muttered.

“I’m sure he’s fine, Jim,” Scott assured him.

“I still have a bad feeling about it,” Jimmy said before lowering his voice significantly, “I’m gonna go check on him when the newbie guard isn’t paying attention.”

“Shouldn’t be too hard,” Scott snickered, “He looks so lost. He probably won’t even notice.”

Xisuma quickly pretended like he didn’t hear anything. It’s not like he was going to stop this Jimmy guy from going to check on his friend; he was far more on their side than the workers at this point.

He watched as the group all grabbed food and sat down together at a table, beginning to whisper among themselves.

He sat at another table, pretending he couldn’t hear their conversation.

“I need you guys to cover for me,” Jimmy whispered.

“What for?” The wolf asked.

“Who’s missing from our group?” Scott asked, gesturing around the table.

Everyone looked at one another before the moon girl gasped, “Where’s Grian?”

“That’s what I asked, Pearl. I’m gonna go check on him when the guard isn’t paying attention,” Jimmy said.

“He’s new, isn’t he?” The robot asked.

“Probably. I haven’t seen him around before,” the guy with the scars next to him said.

“Let’s see how long he lasts for,” the green guy muttered.

“Probably not long, let’s be honest,” the shapeshifter said.

“He looked like he had seen a ghost when he walked by my room,” the candy guy said.

“I’d assume seeing us for the first time would be pretty scary,” the cat said, “Not going to lie, you all freaked me out for a minute before I was certain you were nice.”

“I’ll be right back,” Jimmy muttered, “Gonna go check on Grian.”

Xisuma was impressed with how nonchalantly he managed to exit. He wouldn’t have even noticed had he not already known his plan.

It made him wonder how many times he had needed to do this before.

Realizing that the other workers had locked the door on “Grian’s” room behind them, he quietly got up and followed Jimmy, thankful the rest of the group didn’t notice.

He found Jimmy trying to open the door to the first room in vain, a frustrated sigh escaping him as he realized it was locked.

Xisuma cleared his throat and Jimmy jumped a foot into the air, quickly turning to look at him.

“Oh! I’m- I’m sorry for leaving, I’ll go back, please don’t tell the other guards-” Jimmy apologized profusely before Xisuma cut him off.

“I can unlock the door.”

Jimmy's eyes widened and he said, “Wha- what?”

Xisuma wordlessly got out the card he had been given, unlocking the door.

Jimmy looked at him in confusion, asking, “Is… is this a trick? Are you leading me on?”

“Nope,” Xisuma said before giving him a weak smile, “I’d hurry up, if I were you. I don’t know how long the others will be gone for, and last I checked you only have twenty minutes left.”

Jimmy bowed his head slightly, saying gratefully, “Thank you, thank you, thank you.”

Jimmy promptly dashed into the room, dropping to his knees next to the curled up figure, putting a hand on their shoulder as he exclaimed, “Grian! Are you okay?”

Grian raised his head to look at him, and Jimmy felt his heart jump into his throat when he saw the metal around his throat. His skin was a pale, almost grayish color, and his eyes were slightly unfocused and hazy.

“Oh, gods, did they make it too tight again?” Jimmy asked shakily.

Grian nodded weakly, and Jimmy quickly moved behind him and started messing with the restraint.

As soon as he had loosened it, Grian practically gasped for air, finally able to breathe again. Some of the color returned to his skin and he felt Jimmy carefully rub his back as he regained his breath.

“Thank- thank you,” he said to Jimmy between desperate attempts for air.

“No problem. Are you alright otherwise? Did they hurt you?” Jimmy asked as he made sure Grian could breathe before setting the restraint back, loosening it this time, so the guards wouldn’t get too suspicious but Grian would also be able to breathe.

“ ‘M fine. They pulled out a few handfuls of my feathers, though,” Grian muttered, “Haven't been able to realign the ones around it because of the restraints.”

Hearing that, Jimmy moved to be in front of Grian again, asking, “Which wing?”

“Seventh, I think,” Grian said.

Sure enough, the wing had a few patches of feathers missing, the feathers around the gaps mixed up in a way that had to be painful.

Carefully fixing the feathers around it, Jimmy was proud that he managed to straighten them out while only gaining one hiss of pain from Grian. It was a better ratio than some of the other times he had needed to fix his wings.

“Why do they keep going after you?” Jimmy asked quietly.

“They don’t like that I don’t know how to keep my mouth shut,” Grian said, giving Jimmy a weak smile.

“I still can’t believe how you can stand up to them so easily,” Jimmy said softly, “I’d never be able to do that.”

“That’s because you’re still slightly sane,” Grian muttered, “I’ve been stuck here for way too long. Death is starting to feel like a very favorable way out.”

“Please don’t,” Jimmy whispered quietly, “You’re one of the only things I have.”

Grian looked up at Jimmy again, and seeing the desperate look on his face, he sighed, “No promises, but I’ll try.”

Jimmy threw his arms around Grian, muttering, “Thank you.”

“No problem, Timmy,” Grian said, gently ruffling Jimmy’s hair as Jimmy released him from his grasp.

“Do you want me to grab something for you to eat?” Jimmy asked.

“Nah, I’m fine,” Grian said.

“You sure?” Jimmy asked hesitantly.

Grian nodded, “Yeah. I’m not very hungry.”

“Please don’t tell me you’re trying to starve again,” Jimmy said desperately.

“I’m not, I swear. I’m just not feeling great,” Grian assured him.

“You okay?” Jimmy asked in concern.

“Yeah. Probably some of the aftereffects of not eating for almost a month. I just feel kind of sick. I don’t think I’d be able to eat, honestly,” Grian shrugged.

Jimmy shot him another desperate look, “Please promise you won’t try that again? I’m worried about you.”

“I promise,” Grian said.

“…alright, I guess. Let me know if you need anything, okay?” Jimmy said, pulling Grian into one last hug.

“Always. See you later, Jimmy,” Grian said.

“See you later, Grian. Love you. Take care of yourself,” Jimmy said as he stood up.

He smiled slightly as he heard Grian reply, “Love you too. I’ll try.”

Jimmy left the room to find the guard from before standing there.

“I wasn’t listening, I swear,” he said when Jimmy exited, “I just knew I’d need to lock it behind you.”

“Why’d you help me?” Jimmy asked as the guy locked the door.

The guard hesitated before saying, “I’m on your guys' side. I’m supposed to be investigating this place. I’m not even a real worker. Just here to gather enough information.”

He hesitated before continuing, “We should probably head back. You only have ten minutes left to eat.”

Jimmy nodded, entering the dining hall. The guard followed a few seconds later, going back to sitting down at the empty table as Jimmy sat down with the other experiments.

“Did you get to Grian alright? Is he okay?” Ren asked, his ears standing on end.

“They put the restraints back on,” Jimmy said sadly, “Practically suffocated him. I had to loosen the one around his neck.”

“It’s like they’re trying to kill him,” Mumbo muttered.

“At this point, they are,” Doc said.

“Are we still going to be able to meet up tonight if Grian’s in the restraints?” Pearl asked quietly.

“They might take the restraints off before then,” Scar suggested halfheartedly.

“We’ll have to see how it goes, Pearl. Worst comes to worst, we can postpone the meeting or meet up in his room,” Scott said.

“Alright, everyone, back in your cells!” They heard one of the regular workers shout.

The group all shot one another looks before heading to their separate cells.

Before going into his cell, Jimmy snuck a look at Grian’s.

A worker was in there with him, hand buried in Grian’s hair. They were pulling on his hair to force him to look at them.

What Jimmy found the most impressive was the blank look Grian had. He barely seemed phased, even as the worker pulled harder.

When the worker let go of him and turned to leave, Jimmy quickly dashed into his own cell.

No matter how much he admired Grian for his ability to stand up for himself, he didn’t feel like also getting chained to the wall.

Jimmy had a few hours before he was supposed to meet up with the others, which meant it was just him and his thoughts.

He ended up thinking back on how he had ended up in this god forsaken place. He was their second experiment; Grian had been the first.

He remembered that he was about thirteen. Grian was a year or two older than him. He had been fine one moment, living his life as normal, and the next, he had woken up in that place.

He had obviously panicked, not knowing where he was or who the people surrounding him were.

Before he could react, a needle had been stuck in his arm and he had been injected with something.

He was thrown in a cell with another kid, though he couldn’t tell it was a kid at first. They looked like a monster, large wings on their back, and Jimmy immediately flinched away from them.

But then he heard their voice.

“Hey, hey, I know I look scary, but just breathe. I’m not here to hurt you,” they promised, putting their hands where Jimmy could see them.

They sounded sincere, not sounding like a soul sucking monster. It threw Jimmy off. Why did they sound so nice?

Jimmy groaned, grabbing his head as his vision blurred, his head pounding.

“Yeah, I know it hurts. I’ve had to go through it as well,” they said quietly before asking, “Can I come near you?”

Jimmy managed a hasty nod before wincing at how much it irritated his head.

The kid carefully sat down in front of him, putting a hand on his shoulder and asking, “If it’s too hard you don’t have to, but can you tell me your name?”

“J- Jimmy,” he managed to force out.

“Alright, I’m Grian. I need you to trust me, okay?” Grian asked quietly.

Jimmy nodded again, and Grian moved to be next to him and carefully had Jimmy lay his head in Grian’s lap. He started running his fingers through Jimmy's hair with one hand, grabbing one of Jimmy's hands in the other, while saying quietly, “I know it’s going to hurt, but it’s gonna be alright, okay? I’ll be right here the whole time.”

Jimmy shouted in pain, squeezing Grian’s hand tightly as he felt his body warping, reforming itself. It hurt more than anything he had ever experienced before. 

After about thirty minutes of pure agony, Jimmy ended up going numb, only able to see Grian, who was still running his fingers through Jimmy's hair while promising, “That’s it, you’re okay, it’ll be over soon.”

The last thing he saw before everything went black was Grian, still there, just like he had promised.

When Jimmy woke up again, everything was different.

He had rightfully started panicking when he saw the patches of fabric replacing his skin, stitched together. Grian immediately grabbed his hands, promising it would be okay and getting him to stop panicking.

To assure him that it was going to be okay, Grian ended up admitting that was how he had gotten his many pairs of wings.

That did calm Jimmy down slightly, now knowing that he hadn't been the only person to go through that horrid situation, but he was still almost in shock.

Grian sat down by his side, and Jimmy immediately curled up next to him. Grian smiled softly and wrapped his wings around Jimmy and himself, beginning to run his fingers through Jimmy's hair again.

Now that Jimmy thought about it, he realized Grian had been the only one of the group to ever actually witness a transformation. And he had been there for all of them. Every single time someone new would show up, he’d pull them into their cell and sit with them through their transformation. When they came back, they’d always be different. They’d also be slightly attached to Grian until they grew used to the others. Grian was always there because he wasn’t scared of getting in trouble. He had been there too long to still care.

(Jimmy felt like there was more to that than Grian was letting on, but oh well.)

Grian was almost like their leader. He had been there far longer than any of them, since he was taken when he was five. They had even come up with a series of codes, since his cell was closest to the elevator.

The most memorable one was the meaning of the word ‘help’. There was no hope of help in this place, meaning asking for it would be stupid, correct? While this would normally be the case, the group had decided that, when not followed up by the word please, it would mean that there was an inspection coming. Meaning hide anything the guards would take and act like you normally would. This was very helpful in some cases.

Jimmy was snapped out of his thoughts by the sound of the door on his right opening.

Oh. Right. The meeting.

He could only hope Grian would make it there.

Chapter Text

Carefully exiting his room and heading down the hallway, Jimmy headed to their designated meeting area.

Since they had people who knew technology like Doc and Mumbo, they had a hidden room down the hallway that they used to meet up every so often. When the workers left to go home for the night they’d meet up. They had no way to escape considering they were far underground and they needed a key that only one of the workers had to even get into the elevator.

Entering the room, Jimmy felt his spirits fall to see everyone there…

Except for Grian.

“No Grian yet?” He asked.

“Not yet,” Pearl confirmed.

“I say we wait for five minutes and if he doesn’t show up we go to him,” Doc suggested.

Everyone agreed, and so they sat to wait.

They were about to leave to go to Grian when they heard a voice say, “Sorry I’m late. I’m here.”

Grian entered the room, nearly getting knocked to the floor when Jimmy threw his arms around him, saying, “G! I didn’t know if you were going to be able to make it! Are you feeling any better?”

“I’m feeling a lot better,” Grian said, waiting for Jimmy to release him.

When he did after a moment, Grian sat in his normal spot and prepared himself for the inevitable moment when one of them would ask-

“Feeling better? Are you alright?” Pearl asked in concern.

There it was.

“I’m fine. Just felt kind of sick earlier. Now that I’m thinking about it, it might’ve been because I hadn’t gotten enough oxygen for a few minutes,” Grian said, laughing nervously.

“Hmm. You sure you’re okay? You do look kind of pale,” Scott pointed out.

“Yeah, I’m fine. I feel a lot better now,” Grian assured them.

He could see the skepticism on their faces. The feathers of his wings puffed up slightly as he felt all of their eyes on him.

“Can you all stop staring at me like that? You’re making me nervous,” Grian said.

The group all turned away at that, realizing they actually had started staring at him without meaning to.

After a moment, Scar asked, “Hey, G, if you were in your cell all day, did you see the new guard?”

Grian looked thoughtful for a moment before his eyes lit up in recognition and he said, “Ohhh, him. I saw him when the guards were putting the restraints on me. He looked ready to pass out.”

“He probably was, honestly,” Mumbo said.

“I don’t know how to feel about him, honestly,” Impulse said.

“He helped me get to Grian,” Jimmy said. Seeing his friends' confused looks, he elaborated, “When I left to go check on Grian the door was locked and I didn’t have a way in. He walked up and unlocked the door for me, and then closed it up when I left. If he hadn’t helped me, Grian might’ve died. He said he’s not even a real worker. He said he’s here to gather information!”

“That doesn’t seem far-fetched at all,” Grian said sarcastically.

“I think he was being honest! He wouldn’t have helped me get to you if he wasn’t!” Jimmy said, “I trust that he wants to help us.”

“You trust people way too easily,” Grian said.

“Sorry, Grian, but sometimes you’re just overly skeptical of people,” Ren said.

“Sometimes people need to be given the benefit of doubt,” Doc said.

“Fat load of good giving people the benefit of doubt has done for me,” Grian muttered, looking at the wall instead of the others, “That’s what happened when-”

Paling, he quickly cut himself off, realizing what he had almost admitted to.

“When what, G?” Joel asked.

“Nothing. Never mind,” Grian muttered.

“Griba, you can tell us anything,” Pearl said.

“You can trust us,” Scar said.

“I said it’s nothing. Drop it,” Grian said.

“Grian, what are you hiding from us?” Impulse asked.

“Dude, we already know a lot about your backstory, I’m sure it’s not as bad as you think it is,” Mumbo tried to comfort but, seeing Grian curl in on himself more, he realized it might’ve not been the correct choice of words.

“Thanks for minimizing my view of bad. I appreciate it,” Grian muttered.

“I didn’t mean it like that,” Mumbo said quickly.

“Grian, what’s going on with you?” Scott asked.

“You don’t need to hide anything, Grian. We just want to help you-” Lizzie started before Grian cut her off.

“Trusting people is what got me into this hell hole of a place!” Grian finally snapped, “You’re supposed to be able to trust your parents, especially when you're five, but no. They didn’t even care about me. They sold me to this experiment center just to make a little extra cash. ‘Just trust us, Grian.’ ‘We only want what’s best for you, Grian.’ ‘We’ll come back for you, Grian.’ All of those were lies! My own family didn’t even want me! They were supposed to be the people I could trust, but look at where trusting them got me.”

Though he kept his eyes on the wall as he spoke, the others could see the tears filling his eyes, the sadness hidden behind the anger.

He froze when all ten of his friends threw their arms around him, with Jimmy exclaiming, “I don’t care what you say, we’re your family now and there’s nothing you can do about it!”

Grian’s eyes widened as a few tears overflowed from his eyes and started trailing down his face. He wiped them away as he said, “You guys are a better family than I could ever ask for.”

“Good, because you’re stuck with us,” Scar said.

Don’t get attached, the voice in Grian’s head told him, Get attached, and you’ll be their downfall.

Grian promptly shook the thought from his head.

After they released him from their grasp and they went back to their spots, they started talking idly about a few random topics.

Jimmy, remembering how he had realized that Grian was the only person to ever witness a transformation, asked, “G? What’s it like to see a transformation?”

The others were confused until they came to the same conclusion Jimmy had earlier on, now all also looked to Grian for an answer.

Grian shuddered, saying, “It’s not a pretty sight, I can tell you that much.” 

“Then why have you sat through all of ours with us?” Scott asked in confusion.

“Well, I was the first taken, I didn’t really have anyone to sit there and tell me it would be okay. And then when Jimmy got taken, I figured I might as well… provide him the assurance I had wanted. So I did, and it seemed to work, because Jimmy definitely did a lot better than I did. So I figured I’d keep doing it, and it’s just kind of instinct now. It also helps that I don’t care if I get caught and get in trouble,” he explained.

“Aw, G, you’re the best,” Jimmy said, wrapping his arms around Grian.

“Not really, but okay,” Grian said.

“You don’t give yourself enough credit,” Ren said.

“I give credit where credit is due,” Grian said.

“Mhm,” Doc hummed skeptically, “You really don’t.”

“Why has today turned into ‘national argue with Grian’ day?” Grian asked.

“Because you’ve needed us to get you thinking straight multiple times today,” Pearl said, ruffling Grian’s hair.

“I think it’s just because you’re all in the mood to be difficult,” Grian huffed, though he leaned against Pearl’s hand as she messed with his hair.

“I’m sorry to bring it up again, but where are we standing on the guard issue?” Joel asked, “Should we try to talk to him or…?”

“I say that if he’s in charge of watching us for lunch we introduce ourselves,” Scott suggested.

“As long as everyone’s on board with that,” Doc added, shooting a look at Grian.

“I told you. Being difficult,” Grian muttered in a voice quiet enough that only Pearl could hear him, causing her to snicker and quickly cover it up as a cough. Grian sighed and said loud enough the whole group could hear him, “If you all trust him, I guess I can try to trust him too.”

A few members of the group started cheering as Jimmy said, “See, this is why you're the best.”

“Why? Because I’m stubborn enough that I only cave in when I’m not in the mood to argue?” Grian asked, glancing at Jimmy. 

“No. Because you’re willing to try something you don’t wanna do because we want to,” Jimmy said.

“You’re lucky I love you guys,” Grian huffed in mock annoyance.

“And we love you too, idiot,” Pearl said, straightening out a misaligned feather on one of Grian’s wings.

The group stayed together for about another hour, until they knew they were pushing it with how long they had until the workers returned.

Each returning to their individual cells, they prepared themselves for the possible confrontation with the new guard.

Chapter Text

During lunch the following day, Xisuma was asked to watch over the experiments again.

He was prepared to sit at another table again, act like he wasn’t there like before.

He wasn’t expecting one of the experiments to glance around the room before waving him over.

Confused, he walked over.

The vampire, Scott, said, “Jimmy told us what you said. Is it true?”

Xisuma thought for a moment before remembering his conversation with Jimmy, saying, “Yeah, it is. I’m not a real worker.”

“And you want to help us?” The wolf asked.

Xisuma nodded, “What they’ve been doing to you is absolutely horrible. I’m trying to gather information as fast as possible so we can shut it down.”

“We might be free?” The cat asked excitedly.

“If everything goes to plan, yes,” Xisuma said, heart swelling slightly at the ecstatic looks on their faces.

“I think it’s time for proper introductions,” Scott said.

Xisuma nodded, “I’ll go first. My name is Xisuma.”

“I’m Scott,” he said.

“My names Ren,” The wolf said.

“Doc,” The green guy said.

“Name’s Joel,” the shapeshifter said.

“I’m Lizzie,” the cat said.

“Pearl,” the moon girl said.

“My name is Scar,” the guy with the small blue wings said.

“Mumbo,” The robot said.

“I’m Impulse,” the candy guy said.

“Jimmy,” the toy said before gesturing to the person next to him, “And this is Grian.”

“Is Grian alright?” Pearl asked in concern.

Grian was next to Jimmy, head resting on his arms, face down, sound asleep. Jimmy had been rubbing his back gently, pausing only when he had to introduce himself.

“I don’t think he feels well,” Jimmy said, “He fell asleep the second we got out here.”

“Are either of you able to check his temperature with your technology stuff?” Scott asked Doc and Mumbo.

“I can scan it with my eye, but he has to be awake,” Doc said.

Jimmy carefully shook Grian’s shoulder, saying softly, “Hey, G? Wake up.”

“Mm?” Grian hummed as he woke up, rubbing his eyes.

His skin was pale and his eyes were slightly hazy. Even though Scott expected a lie in response, he asked, “Are you feeling alright, Grian?”

To his surprise, Grian groaned, saying, “No. I have a god-awful migraine that just won’t go away.”

“Your temperature is a little high,” Doc said, “100.2 degrees.”

“Why’d you come here with us if you weren’t feeling well, Griba? You should be resting,” Pearl said softly.

“I had to! The workers don’t want me trying to starve myself again, so I’m required to come out here when I’m not chained to the wall,” Grian muttered.

“Go ahead and go back to sleep, G-man. I’ll wake you up when we have to head back to our cells,” Jimmy said.

Grian listened to him, almost immediately falling back asleep.

Xisuma didn’t know why, but he felt such a strong urge to protect this group. They seemed so much like a family, with the way they took care of one another.

He really needed to gather information quickly.

“Is he asleep?” Scott whispered.

When Jimmy nodded, Scott returned his voice to a normal volume, saying, “Alright. I wanted to make sure I wasn’t going to keep him awake if I kept talking.”

“He’s exhausted. I don’t think that would keep him up,” Jimmy said, starting to straighten out the feathers on the wing closest to him.

“Anyways, we have meetings and stuff like every night or every other night,” Scott said to Xisuma.

“How do you get out of your cells?” Xisuma asked.

“Well, when you have tech nerds like these two, it’s pretty easy,” Joel said, pointing at Mumbo and Doc.

“It’s kind of instinct when you’re part robot,” Mumbo shrugged, “Doc and I figured out how to hack into the door systems and create a fingerprint reader on all of them. It only recognizes the owner's fingerprint, since trying to add the others didn’t end well, but it's functional.”

“We managed to make it work on the inside and outside, too,” Doc said, “The only way it can be messed up is if something blocks the reader.”

“Interesting,” Xisuma said, “That’s impressive.”

“We try,” Doc shrugged.

Xisuma’s watch pinged and he looked at it before saying, “That’s my reminder to send you all back to your cells.”

“Thank you for trying to help us,” Pearl said quietly.

“Of course,” Xisuma smiled.

“G? G-man. Wake up,” Jimmy said, gently shaking Grian’s shoulder again.

It didn't work. Grian was out like a light.

“Want some help?” Scar asked.

“If you don’t mind,” Jimmy said.

He was expecting Scar to wake Grian up somehow, but no.

Scar simply scooped the sleeping figure into his arms, saying, “ ‘Suma, unlock his door for me, will ya?”

Xisuma nodded, walking ahead of Scar and towards Grian’s door.

Unlocking it, Xisuma watched as Scar walked in and carefully set Grian down on a blanket that was by one of the walls, carefully making sure Grian’s wings weren’t restricted or stuck in a painful position in any way.

Grian shifted slightly in his sleeping state before settling, returning to being sound asleep.

“There’s really no point in waking him up again if he’s not feeling well. He needs all of the rest he can get,” Scar said as he exited.

“That’s… a good point,” Jimmy said.

“Thanks for that, X,” Scar said, smiling gratefully at him before heading back into his own cell.

“Yeah. Thanks,” Jimmy said as well.

“No problem. I’m happy to have helped,” Xisuma said.

Jimmy smiled at him before heading into his own cell, the door closing behind him.

They had decided to have another meeting that night.

As Jimmy was leaving, he ran into Grian.

“Oh! Grian! How are you feeling?” Jimmy asked.

“Better. That migraine dulled down from extremely painful to minor headache,” Grian shrugged.

“That’s good. Heading to the meeting?” Jimmy asked.

“Yep,” Grian nodded.

“Same,” Jimmy said.

The two fell into a comfortable silence as they walked towards the meeting. Jimmy had always liked how he could be quiet near Grian and it wouldn’t be awkward. It was nice to not have to try to fill the silence.

The two entered the meeting room, with Jimmy going first and announcing, “I’m here!”

“Hey, Jim! Do you know if-” Lizzie started before Grian entered behind him. She continued, “Never mind. Hi, Grian.”

“Hi,” Grian said with a weak smile, moving to his normal spot.

“Are you feeling okay?” Pearl asked in concern.

Grian nodded, “I think getting some sleep helped. That migraine has mostly gone away by now.”

“That’s a relief,” Scott said.

Grian yawned and said, “Yeah, I woke up like… two minutes ago, maybe?”

“That explains why you seem kind of out of it,” Mumbo said.

“Yeah. Sorry if I’m kinda slow for a little bit. ‘M still kind of half asleep,” Grian said.

The rest of the group got Grian caught up on what had happened during lunch, with Grian replying, “You do realize that if this guy turns against us, he knows everything now, right? We’d be done for.”

Everyone immediately shot him a look, and he said, “I’m not wrong!”

Eventually, they got off the topic of Xisuma and ended up talking about random things. They stayed together for the following few hours, before deciding to head back earlier than usual so they could all try to get some rest.

Jimmy stood up, and he saw Grian stand up next to him, but then Grian just…

Collapsed.

Joel, who had been the closest, quickly dove and caught him, exclaiming, “G!”

Grian let out a stiff groan, grabbing his forehead as he grimaced in pain.

“Dude, are you alright?” Ren asked as everyone in the group surrounded the two.

“Mm,” Grian hummed, still fully relying on Joel to keep him upright.

“Griba, did you lie about feeling better?” Pearl asked.

“No!” Grian forced out, “I felt fine! I don’t know what happened!”

“Let’s get you sitting down,” Scott said, concern lacing his voice, “We can figure out what exactly happened after.”

They got him to sit on one of the chairs in the room, getting more worried by the second as they saw Grian wince whenever he moved his head.

“Grian, I want the truth, and nothing but the truth. Have you felt unwell this entire meeting?” Pearl asked.

“I said no!” Grian said, “I’m telling the truth! I felt fine when I woke up, I felt fine the entire meeting, and then when I tried to stand up it felt like my head just… exploded, or something.”

“I believe him,” Doc piped up, “I checked his temperature again when he entered the room, and it was back to normal.”

Pearl still looked unsatisfied with the answer, but said, “Fine… but Griba, you really do need to come to us when you need help.”

“I will, I promise,” Grian said.

“The guards are going to be coming back soon,” Mumbo said nervously.

“I’m assuming you aren’t feeling up to walking back to your room, G?” Scott asked.

Grian shook his head before wincing again, but the point got across.

“I’ve got it,” Scar said, walking over and scooping Grian into his arms like he had done earlier.

“What the heck, Scar!” Grian exclaimed, “At least give me some sort of warning!”

“Sorry. Forgot you were awake this time,” Scar shrugged.

“Awake this time…?” Grian questioned as the group made their way back to their cells.

“How do you think you ended up in your cell earlier? You teleported?” Scar asked.

“I don’t know, everything was kind of a blur,” Grian muttered.

Scar asked as he stopped in front of Grian’s door, “You think you’re good to stand on your own?” 

“I think so…” Grian said. 

Scar carefully set Grian on his feet, standing ready to catch him if he did fall again.

Thankfully, Grian seemed to steady himself, unlocking his door before giving Scar a tired smile.

“Thanks for helping me,” he said quietly.

“No problem, G-man. Go get some rest. Hopefully that’ll help with whatever’s wrong,” Scar said, gently patting Grian on the head.

“Hopefully,” Grian repeated before stepping into his room, the door closing behind him.

He immediately went to the blanket that served him as a bed and fell fast asleep.

He had no idea what he was in for when he woke back up.

Chapter Text

Grian woke up the following morning feeling as though he’d been drugged.

His head was swimming and he could barely process anything other than how awful he felt.

He heard the workers trying to collect everyone for lunch, but Grian barely felt like he could move. He decided he’d stay here even if he got in trouble. He didn’t care, considering how out of it he was.

His migraine from the previous night felt like it had doubled, and his vision was blurry enough that he could barely tell where he was.

The worst of the pain was his wings. It felt like someone had taken knives and were running it over every single one.

It was horrible.

He hadn’t felt this awful since-

No.

Grian shot up into a sitting position, barely noticing the extreme spike of pain over the panic that had grabbed hold of him.

Not again.

“Where is experiment one?” Alastor asked.

“I think it’s finally working,” Thana said excitedly.

“It is?” Ubel asked, moving next to the window of the first room.

Sure enough, experiment one was pressed into a corner, face buried in its knees and its wings wrapped around itself. You could just barely see the purple tint to its wings, the lines behind the feathers that would soon be opening obvious.

“Finally!” Alastor cheered.

“Took long enough,” Ubel said, “Leave it to experiment one to inconvenience us without even realizing it.”

“I can't believe it took a week this time. Last time it worked instantly,” Thana said.

“It was significantly younger the first time,” Alastor said.

“You could see it growing more run down over the past week. It was only a matter of time,” Ubel said.

“But it finally worked!” Thana said excitedly.

“Things are finally going our way,” Alastor nodded.

“It’s only a matter of time now.”

Xisuma was in the elevator with the three other workers, headed on the long journey to the surface, when he got to witness them celebrating.

“I still can’t believe it’s finally working!” Thana said.

“We can finally continue on with our plans!” Ubel said excitedly.

“What’s working?” Xisuma asked in confusion.

“We figured out a new serum and tried to use it on experiment one about a week ago. It didn’t seem to work immediately, but it’s finally taken action!” Alastor said.

“We need the powers its going to gain for another set of experiments,” Thana said.

“And we can finally start them tomorrow!” Ubel said.

“That’s great,” Xisuma forced out, trying to hide the fact that he was spiraling internally.

That was why Grian hadn’t been feeling well.

None of the experiments knew.

Based on what he had gathered so far, transformations were extremely painful. Grian probably wouldn’t be able to get to help.

Unless the other experiments figured out something was wrong and went to him, Grian would have to face another transformation alone.

Even if he hadn’t been told, Xisuma could tell the way Grian was treated during his few years as their only experiment was a huge influence on the Grian they all knew today. He was protective of his friends, and Xisuma could see him trying to keep any of them from going through what he had gone through. He was willing to get punished if it meant they didn’t go through their transformation alone. He was willing to nearly get suffocated if it meant warning the others about an upcoming inspection. 

He had done all of that and more, and yet every time he needed help he was left alone.

Xisuma really hoped the experiments would notice that Grian needed them.

Because even if he’d only been here for a short period of time, he could tell that Grian wasn’t as tough as he tried to make it seem. He could tell Grian was going to need somebody with him for this, and he could only hope someone would be there.

He was snapped out of his thoughts by Alastor saying, “Xisuma, we feel like you’ve proven yourself to us. You’ve earned the right to an elevator key.”

Thana held out the key to him.

Xisuma smiled gratefully at them before taking it, saying, “I won’t let you down.”

Perfect timing.

They needed to shut this place down tonight.

The experiments were having yet another meeting.

Everyone was there except for Grian, but they decided to give him a little bit to show up.

They had been waiting for a few minutes when Pearl spoke up, asking, “Am I the only one who’s getting really worried about Grian?”

“I’m worried, too,” Mumbo said, “It’s like his health is fluctuating. He’ll say he’s fine one second and then the next he almost passes out.”

“I’m still not sure what could’ve caused that yesterday,” Doc said, “His temperature had returned to normal and he was looking a little better, and then within three seconds he looked awful again.”

“I’m not entirely sure he was telling the truth about feeling better, honestly,” Scott said hesitantly, “I can't see how he could just suddenly feel that terrible. He genuinely looked like he was struggling to stay conscious.”

“I’m getting really worried,” Lizzie admitted, “Grian’s, like… our leader, you know? He’s the one that watches out for us, and I feel like he’d be kind of against us having to watch out for him.”

“He is against it. He’s always hated asking for help,” Jimmy said, “He always puts us first.”

“We need to get him to stop doing that. It’s nice that he cares, but he is seriously going to end up hurting himself,” Impulse muttered.

“He doesn’t think it matters that he’s going to end up hurt,” Ren pointed out, “In his mind, as long as we’re okay, it doesn’t matter what happens to him.”

“That’s the opposite of a healthy mindset,” Joel said.

“We never could describe his mindset as healthy, let’s be honest,” Scar pointed out.

“I guess so. I just… we need to get him out of that mindset. Otherwise… we might end up losing him,” Pearl said.

The group fell into silence as her words sat out in the open. They knew she was right; if Grian kept neglecting taking care of himself, it was very possible they would lose him.

They didn’t know if they’d be able to take that kind of loss.

After a minute, Scott paled and asked in worry, “Hey… has anyone actually seen Grian today?”

Seeing everyone in the room shake their head, Pearl also went pale and said, “Oh no.”

“I’ll go check on him. He might’ve been resting all day after last night,” Jimmy said shakily, standing up to leave.

The rest of the group was left to sit in worry until he returned.

He rushed back barely a minute later.

“Something’s wrong with Grian.”

Chapter Text

The group, of course, immediately scrambled to their feet, Scott asking, “What do you mean, something’s wrong?”

“I don’t know! I went over to his room but I couldn’t see him right away and I looked closer and saw him curled up in the corner and he had his wings wrapped around him and he kept letting out little noises of pain and something is really wrong!” Jimmy said desperately, “I had no way to get to him because he didn’t seem to hear me when I knocked and I can’t get in because the door is locked and I had no way to help him!”

The experiments didn’t have to be told twice. All immediately leaving the meeting room, they headed towards Grian.

“Doc, do you think we could maybe open the door somehow?” Mumbo asked in concern as they neared the room.

“We’ll have to see if Grian can open it for us. If not, we might have to,” Doc said grimly.

The stopped outside of the door, a few people looking through the glass to try to see if anything had changed with Grian.

He was exactly how Jimmy had described him; curled up in a corner, knees pulled to his chest and his face hidden in them, wings wrapped around himself. They could see him trembling, and he was rocking back and forth ever so slightly to seemingly try to comfort himself. He was muttering something to himself repeatedly, only pausing to whimper in pain and press himself farther into the corner.

Knocking on the door didn’t do much, as Grian didn’t react or even seem to hear them.

Doc and Mumbo quickly got to work on trying to open the door as the other experiments panicked, bouncing ideas off of one another as to what was wrong with their friend.

“Got it!” They heard Mumbo say after a moment.

The door opened and they entered carefully, not sure how Grian would react.

Still, Grian didn’t even look at them. He just kept repeating to himself, “This isn’t happening this isn’t happening thisisnthappeningthis-”

His voice was broken off by another weak noise of pain, and he pressed himself farther into the corner again.

The experiments shot one another alarmed looks; none of them knew what was happening.

Jimmy was the first to move, carefully moving to be next to Grian. He quietly asked, “Grian?”

“This isn’t happening I already went through this once I’m not supposed to have to do this again-” Grian continued rambling.

Up close, Jimmy could see how pale he was, the slight purple tint to his normally gray wings. Grian was practically hyperventilating at this point, barely getting any oxygen with how quickly he was breathing between words.

Jimmy carefully put a hand on Grian’s shoulder, feeling him stiffen as his ramblings trailed off. He carefully looked up at them, and the experiments froze when they saw his eyes.

His eyes were bright purple, and he looked terrified. His eyes were filled with tears and they could see the absolute panic he was in written across his face.

“Breathe, G,” Jimmy instructed.

“I’m not supposed to have to do this again!” Grian sobbed.

“Shh, breathe,” Jimmy said, “I need you to calm down for me.”

Grian still looked absolutely petrified, but he did as Jimmy asked, shakily breathing in.

It honestly threw off the experiments to see him so scared. He was normally contained, reserved, rarely showing fear or weakness, but here he was. On the brink of a mental breakdown while they had no idea how to help.

“Perfect. Just try to keep breathing for me, alright?” Jimmy said softly.

A few of the other experiments walked up as well, joining Jimmy around Grian.

“Do you think this is a transformation?” Scott asked quietly.

The others paled, with Joel saying, “That would make sense.”

“We aren’t ready to handle this,” Lizzie said hastily, “None of us have ever witnessed a transformation before! We don’t know what to expect, how to help, we aren’t ready for this.”

“We’ll have to figure it out,” Pearl said, “For Grian. He’s been through all of these with us, and it’s time we returned the favor.”

“I guess we’ll learn as we go,” Impulse said, “But Pearl’s right. We owe him this.”

Grian could hear them talking, but couldn’t understand them. It sounded like everything was under water.

There were too many memories. Too many god-forsaken memories he tried so hard to forget.

He was back when he was five. Back in that horribly small room, completely alone. He didn’t know where he was or what was going on.

And then there was pain.

He screamed and nobody cared. It hurt so much and nobody cared-

The blood. There was so much blood.

Was he going to die?

Was this it?

Where were his parents?

They promised they’d be back-

The feeling of ten wings sprouting from his back was worse than anything he could’ve ever imagined.

He was covered in blood, he was lightheaded, and he could barely process anything over the pain.

He just wanted it to be over.

But little did he know, it would never be over.

He’d wake up in that same cell, those same wings still behind him, those same workers running experiment after experiment on him-

The pain would never end, it would only turn to background noise. Even when he grew used to the wings and they stopped aching constantly, some new test would be run on him and he’d be trapped in that same loop of pain again and again and again and nobody would come to help him he’d still be alone his parents had never come back and nobody else cared these workers didn’t care if he was hurt and no matter how much he wanted it to end it never would-

“Grian. Grian. I need you to breathe. Please,” a voice broke him out of his internal spiral.

He looked up to see Jimmy. He had a hand on his shoulder and his face was full of concern.

“Grian, please. You need to breathe,” he repeated.

“It’s going to be alright, we’re gonna stay with you this time,” Scar said.

“You don’t have to go through this alone again, dude,” Ren said.

All ten of them provided their own assurances as Grian slowly steadied his breathing.

His eyes filled with more tears as he realized that maybe people did care about him.

The experiments had been trying to figure out what Grian had done to calm them down when they went through their transformations when they heard a shaken sob.

Grian had tears streaming down his face, and he had gone back to hyperventilating.

“Grian. Grian. I need you to breathe. Please,” Jimmy said desperately, putting a hand on Grian’s shoulder again.

Grian looked up at him, his eyes wide and terrified. He was still breathing way too quickly.

“Grian, please. You need to breathe,” Jimmy repeated.

“It’s going to be alright, we’re gonna stay with you this time,” Scar added in.

“You don’t have to go through this alone again, dude,” Ren said.

Grian’s eyes widened even more and flooded with tears. Every single one of the experiments also helped assure him they would be there for him this time as Grian slowly got his breathing under control.

“See, it’s gonna be okay,” Jimmy said gently.

Grian winced and dropped his head back into his knees, letting out a cry of pain. 

The experiments paled as they saw the blood slowly spreading underneath him.

Jimmy looked closer before freezing as he noticed it was coming from Grian’s wings.

He made sure a few of the others were holding Grian’s hands before removing his hand from Grian’s shoulder, carefully moving towards his wings.

Another noise of pain escaped Grian as Jimmy carefully touched one of his wings, Jimmy immediately pulling his hand away.

He looked closer, eyes widening when he saw the cuts marking every single one of his wings. The blood was coming from those.

“That doesn’t look good…” he muttered.

There was a significant amount of blood coming from one cut in particular, but when he looked closer…

Grian let out a shout of pain as Jimmy immediately pulled away, eyes widening as he gasped and stared in shock.

The eye that had opened up stared back.

It was fully purple, like Grian’s eyes had become. It stared Jimmy down as the other experiments took notice, all gasping.

“Aw, G,” Jimmy said shakily when he realized that Grian was going to go through that thousands of times, based on the number of cuts across his wings.

Grian had gone significantly paler, face still buried in his knees. Jimmy carefully moved so he was sitting next to Grian, putting an arm around his shoulders.

Grian collapsed against him, burying his face in his side as he let out a sob. Jimmy held him close, saying softly, “I know it hurts, but it’ll be alright.”

The experiments all sat with Grian through the entire transformation, all assuring him he was going to be okay and that it would be over soon.

Grian ended up falling unconscious against Jimmy, and aside from an occasional whimper of pain he was completely unresponsive. The eyes were finally done opening, and though Grian himself was unconscious the eyes were still open, all blinking randomly and out of sync.

“I can’t believe he’s sat through ten of these with us,” Lizzie said quietly.

“And I can’t believe he went through one alone,” Scott said, “I remember how bad mine was, and all I did was get fangs and a taste for blood. I can't imagine getting an entire five pairs of wings alone. ”

“I’m so glad we could be there for him this time,” Doc said, “You saw how badly he was panicking the whole time. Imagine how much worse it would’ve been if he had gone through it alone.”

“Do you guys think he knew?” Pearl asked quietly.

Seeing their confused looks, Pearl continued, “Do you think he knew he was going through another transformation and just… didn’t want to tell us?”

“I don’t know,” Jimmy admitted.

“Based on how much he was panicking, he might not have been thinking clearly enough to think of asking for help,” Mumbo pointed out.

“I guess so…” Pearl said quietly, “It just feels like he doesn’t trust us.”

“I’m sure he does,” Scott said, “I feel like he’s scared to openly care about us. Like something might happen if he did.”

“Why did the workers decide to do more to him?” Impulse asked shakily.

“I’m not sure, honestly,” Scar said, “I guess we can only hope it’s not for more tests.”

Grian’s vision was fragmented.

There was so much to look at and his brain could barely process any of it.

He tried to focus on just one thing, but that was much easier said than done. There was so much to look at and so much noise and so many colors-

Focus.

Xisuma. He was looking at Xisuma.

Xisuma was talking to a group of cops, trying to convince them to go to the facility. After a moment of hesitation they agreed.

The workers. He was looking at the workers.

They were so much closer than Xisuma and the cops.

They were upstairs.

They were getting into the elevator, panicking about how Xisuma had sold them out to the police.

They were coming down.

Oh no, oh no, oh no-

Grian suddenly shot up into a sitting position, startling the other experiments.

“Griba, calm down,” Pearl said softly, “It’s alright.”

“They’re coming,” Grian said hurriedly, “Oh, gods, they’re coming.”

“Who’s coming?” Mumbo asked, though Grian didn’t seem to hear him.

“You all need to leave they can’t see you in here with me you’ll get in trouble you need to leave-” Grian said in a panic.

“Grian, calm down and breathe,” Scott said, putting a hand on his shoulder.

Grian flinched away from the touch, repeating, “I said you guys need to leave!”

The experiments had no idea what happened.

One moment, they were all in Grian’s cell, trying to calm him down…

The next, they had all been teleported to their individual cells.

They all panicked when they were teleported away, immediately going to the doors to their rooms…

Only to find a barrier of purple magic blocking their way out.

They all tried in vain to get out of their rooms and back to Grian, with no luck.

The elevator doors opened and the three workers rushed out all talking at once.

“I can’t believe he sold us out-”

“Which one should we take-”

“We don’t have the time-”

“Guys! Look!”

The voices broke off and they all stopped in front of the glass to Grian’s cell.

“Well, well, well,” one of them said, “Looks like experiment one finally opened its eyes.”

“Grab it and go,” Another instructed, “It’s the most important to our plan.”

“Stay away from me!” Grian’s panicked voice said.

“Hurry up and grab it! We need to get a move on! The cops are on their way!” One shouted.

They heard Grian shouting at them, trying to get away, before there was silence.

Looking out of the glass of their rooms, the experiments watched in horror as two of the workers dragged an unconscious Grian behind them, following the third.

After a moment, they disappeared from sight.

The magic preventing their way out fell and the experiments rushed into the hallway.

Only the workers were long gone, along with their friend.

“Where’s Xisuma been?” Tango asked EX, “I haven’t seen him in a while.”

“I sent him to go investigate that one facility I told you about,” EX responded, “I told him that if he doesn’t check back with us in five days we’d send a search party out for him.”

“How many days has it been?” Cleo asked.

“Four,” EX responded.

“So prepare to possibly get together a search party,” False said, “Got it.”

Keralis was standing in the entrance of the station when Xisuma came rushing in.

“Shashwammy!” Keralis exclaimed, “I haven’t seen you in a while! Where have you been?”

“I need to talk to you and the others now,” Xisuma said.

Keralis went slightly pale and asked, “What? Is everything alright?”

“No,” Xisuma said, “But I need to talk to you all at once.”

“Okay, I’ll tell everyone to get together,” Keralis said, typing something into his phone.

“Thank you,” Xisuma said shakily.

He needed to get help to the experiments as soon as possible, and knowing his brother and coworkers they were going to be skeptical. He would admit, what he had seen did sound a bit far fetched, but since it had already been an hour since he and the other workers left since he had been dragged into celebrating him passing his initiation with them, they needed to go fast.

He had, thankfully, managed to slip trackers onto all three of them during the celebration, meaning even if they tried to run they would hopefully be able to find them.

Even so, it would still be favorable to get all of the experiments away from that horrible place and then arrest the workers. 

“Alright, they’re all in the back,” Keralis said, putting a sign that said ‘Back in five :)’ on the desk.

Xisuma followed him into the back of the station, entering a room to find his brother standing there, along with Tango, Cleo, False, and Iskall standing with him.

“Keralis said you needed to talk with us?” EX said, an eyebrow raised.

“We need to shut that place down now,” Xisuma said seriously.

“What was it? A dealer or something?” Cleo asked.

“So much worse,” Xisuma said shakily, “It’s an experiment center.”

“You’re joking,” Tango said, his eyes going wide.

Xisuma shook his head, “We need to shut it down as soon as possible. I only just got a key to enter myself today. The workers are horrible, and they have eleven experiments right now. They’re injecting them with some sort of substance that changes their DNA and genetic makeup that warps their entire being. One of them is half robot, one of them is a shapeshifter, one of them is a cat, one of them is even a toy!”

“…are you insane? Did someone drug you?” EX asked skeptically.

“No! I’m being serious!” Xisuma exclaimed.

“What you’re saying sounds kind of impossible, X,” False said.

“Are you feeling okay?” Cleo said.

“I’m feeling fine!” Xisuma said, “I have pictures from the cameras! I have proof!”

“Show us, then!” EX said.

Xisuma pulled out his phone and quickly pulled up the picture he had taken of the security cameras the previous day.

In the picture, you could see Lizzie, Mumbo, and Grian. He hoped it would convince the others to believe him, since you could literally see Lizzie’s ears and tail, Mumbo’s robotic side, and Grian’s wings.

He promptly showed them the picture, seeing his friends eyes widen.

“You aren’t joking?” Iskall asked.

“No, I’m not! And we need to shut that place down now. They’re planning a new set of tests to run on one of them tomorrow,” Xisuma said.

“Alright then, I guess,” EX said, “Lead the way. We have a facility to shut down.”

Sure, EX was skeptical, and he had seen the picture, but he wasn’t expecting this.

He thought maybe his brother was playing a prank on them, some sort of joke to waste their time.

Maybe the way Xisuma seemed to be panicking made him slightly nervous, but it was fine. He thought he was prepared to handle almost anything!

But not this.

Not ten otherworldly beings huddled together in a hallway, all of them panicking and a few of them even sobbing.

Xisuma immediately rushed to them, asking what had happened.

One of them who looked like his skin was fabric fell against him in tears, rambling on some sort of gibberish including ‘transformation’ and ‘he’s gone’ and ‘don’t know what to do’.

Xisuma seemed to understand him, based on how he went pale. He turned to others who were slightly more put together than the one he was currently consoling, asking what had happened.

The other cops joined him in front of the group, a few of them also providing comfort to some of the experiments as they got the story.

The group explained through tears that one of their friends had gone through a transformation and had apparently gained a few abilities, one of which allowed him to teleport the others to their cells and trap them there when he realized the workers were coming. The workers had realized that Xisuma was getting the other cops and had come, grabbed Grian, and ran.

The one who was currently clinging to Xisuma, who they learned was named Jimmy, was shakily begging the cops to try and save Grian.

EX barely hesitated before saying, “Xisuma, do you have any way to track them?”

Xisuma nodded, still holding Jimmy close, and EX said, “No time to waste. We have someone to save.”

Chapter Text

It had been almost a week since Grian had been taken.

The cops were trying as hard as they could to get a location, but they were still yet to get any signal from the trackers Xisuma had put on the workers.

The remaining experiments were all taking it extremely hard. They were currently residing in the apartment-like area under the station since they couldn’t exactly go out in public. The officers had the area from when Xisuma and EX used to live there. Even though the experiments were happy to be out of that horrid experiment center, it was obvious none of them wanted to enjoy freedom until they could all enjoy it together.

Jimmy had taken Grian’s disappearance especially hard. He had known Grian the longest, had always been the closest with him, and he was gone. He could very well be dead, and none of them would know.

The image of Grian unconscious against him after his transformation was drilled into Jimmy's mind. He had never seen Grian that helpless before. Grian wasn’t meant to look like that; he had always been the calm one, the in control one, the one who knew what to do. Jimmy had never seen him just… give in like that. 

Had the workers finally broken Grian like they had wanted? Was going through a second transformation finally what snapped one of his best friends?

He could only hope Grian hadn’t fully given in to them. That he was still the Grian Jimmy knew, the one who’d stand up for himself until he physically couldn’t and who’d always fight back when given the chance.

He could only hope that he would get that Grian back.

Jimmy was sitting with Scott when Xisuma came rushing downstairs. The other experiments were also littered around the room.

“We’ve got a signal,” Xisuma said quickly.

That got the attention of every single experiment in record time.

“Really?” Pearl asked hopefully.

Xisuma nodded seriously, “We need to have a meeting and figure out how exactly we’re going to get Grian back.”

“When’s the meeting?” Mumbo asked.

“In an hour or so. The other cops and I will come down here for it,” Xisuma said, “I just thought you guys should know that we hopefully have a lead.”

“Thank you so much for helping us get him back, X,” Jimmy said, “It means so much to me.”

Xisuma smiled at him, “No problem. See you guys in an hour.”

He turned and went back upstairs, and the experiments sat in silence for a moment.

“What do we do if they’ve done something to Grian?” Lizzie asked, breaking the silence.

“Like what?” Joel asked.

“I don’t know, maybe brainwashed him or something? What if he refuses to come back with us? You guys saw him use his new powers; he could easily restrain us or teleport us away,” Lizzie said.

“Then we’ll just have to try to get through to him,” Jimmy said, “We know Grian, and he knows us.”

Scott sighed and said, “We just have to hope he isn’t already dead.”

Grian was completely alone.

He had nothing left.

“Why do you think we only took you?” One of the workers sneered, “Your little friends are dead. You killed them with that little magic trick of yours.”

Grian didn’t want to believe it, but he knew it was foolish to deny the obvious.

His friends were dead, and he had been the one to kill them.

The voices had been correct.

Don’t get attached, they always said, Get attached, and you’ll be their downfall.

They had been right.

He had gotten attached to them, and look at what had happened.

The eyes on his wings were driving him mad.

The workers had him chained to some sort of machine, which he guessed was one of the tests.

Even when he tried to sleep, trying to regain the energy the machine was draining from him, he was either plagued with horrible nightmares or forced to watch.

He’d always had nightmares. It’s a given with what he had been through.

They had just never been this bad before.

Watching was almost just as bad.

His vision was even more fragmented when his actual eyes were closed, meaning when he tried to sleep he could see everything within a ten mile radius. It was overwhelming and loud and always left him more exhausted than just staying awake did. The eyes never closed. He was stuck like this.

With his actual eyes open, he could focus on what was actually in front of him, ignoring the other thousands of eyes.

He had come up with a new plan.

He forced himself awake, pacing back and forth as that was all the chains would let him do.

He was going to walk back and forth until his body gave out on him.

Maybe then the eyes would close.

Or maybe then he wouldn’t even wake back up.

At this point, he was hoping for the latter.

The workers didn’t bother to feed him.

He heard them talking about how if he died they would simply be able to collect all of his power rather than simply a portion of it.

He couldn’t have been here for more than a few days, but he was already tipping into insanity.

Everything he had left was gone.

Nobody was coming for him.

He was just going to be tested on until his eventual death.

He had started looking for ways to speed up the process, to put himself out of his misery, but the workers were determined to make sure he lasted at least a little bit longer so they could complete a few more tests.

He could occasionally hear voices when he was alone. He didn’t know where they were coming from, but at this point he had probably gone crazy.

Honestly, it wouldn’t be surprising.

“First things first, the other cops and I can handle this by ourselves if you guys don’t want to come,” EX said as soon as the meeting had started.

“We’re going,” Doc said, “Grian is one of us. We’re not just going to leave him.”

“Alright then. Let’s make a plan,” False said.

“The signal was coming from a large building,” Iskall said, “We’ll probably need to spread out to find both the workers and Grian.”

“The other cops and I can try to find the workers,” Cleo said.

“What should we do if one of us finds a worker?” Ren asked.

“Try to keep them in one place. We’ll give you a way to communicate with everyone. Just say you found a worker and we’ll be able to track the device and arrest them,” Tango said.

“So are we trying to find Grian?” Pearl asked.

“Yeah. We’ll all be on the lookout, but your guys’ main focus will be locating him,” Xisuma said.

“What should we do if we find him?” Mumbo asked.

“Stay with him and tell the others you found him. We’ll head towards you as soon as possible,” Keralis said.

“Got it,”  Impulse said, “Are we heading there now?”

Xisuma nodded, saying, “Time to arrest those workers and get Grian back.”

Chapter Text

The trip to the new facility had to be one of the most anxiety filled journeys Jimmy had ever been a part of.

Sure, he had been taken to a laboratory when he was thirteen, so there weren’t many journeys to compare this one to, but still. This one topped them all.

He was so scared. Scared that Grian might be dead, scared that he might run into a worker, scared that he might be taken back-

But he couldn’t think about that right now.

All he could think of was the image of Grian, alone, trapped with the workers. The picture of fear that he had seen last time he had seen Grian.

If Grian was alive, Jimmy wasn’t going to leave that center without him.

The journey went by much quicker than expected. Before he knew what was happening, they had arrived.

Iskall was right; an extremely large building stood in front of them, completely out in the middle of nowhere.

“Everyone clear on the plan?” EX asked as Xisuma handed all of the experiments the devices they’d be using to communicate.

Everyone nodded, and he continued, “Alright then. It’s go time.”

Jimmy tried to swallow down his anxiety as he followed the group into the building. Now wasn’t the time to chicken out. His friend needed him.

“I’ve got a signal from one of the workers!” Xisuma said, turning to the experiments, “We’ll go after them. You guys find Grian.”

“Alright,” Lizzie said.

The cops took off down a hallway, leaving the experiments.

“Do you guys want to stick together, or split off to cover more ground?” Mumbo asked the rest of the experiments.

“I think we should split up. I want to find Grian and get out of this place as soon as possible,” Pearl said.

“Smart. We don’t know what they’ve put him through this week. It’d be better to find him as quickly as possible so we can help him,” Scott said.

“See you guys soon,” Joel said before turning and venturing down a hallway.

The other experiments soon followed suit, all taking off down different hallways.

They weren’t leaving this place without their friend.

Ren and Doc had started down a hallway together, and after almost ten minutes they stopped, freezing when they heard a voice.

“Yes, experiment one is still secure… I don’t know why it's acting so strange! I know as much as you do!” A feminine voice said. After a pause, she continued, “No, I haven’t heard from Ubel recently.”

Ren and Doc shared a glance at one another before carefully looking into the room the voice had come from.

The female guard from the experiment center stood in it, talking on the phone.

“We really might need to hurry up the testing on experiment one. We don’t know how much longer it’s going to last for,” she said.

The two ignored the chill that ran through them hearing her talk about Grian like that. Ren got especially ticked off hearing her refer to Grian as ‘it’. Like he was some sort of object.

A silent agreement was made between the two, and they both entered the room at once. Ren grabbed the phone out of her hand and quickly hung up the call as Doc grabbed her before she could even process what had happened.

“What- how did you get here? Get your hands off of me!” She screeched, trying to get out of Doc’s grasp.

“Call one of us ‘it’ again and you’ll have bigger problems to worry about,” Ren growled at her.

“Call Xisuma and tell him we’ve got one of the workers,” Doc told Ren, ignoring her shouts.

“Got it,” Ren said, calling Xisuma.

“Ren? Everything alright?” Xisuma asked, picking up a second after his phone rang.

“We’ve got a worker, Suma,” Ren said.

“You filthy traitor, Xisuma! We trusted you!” The worker shouted.

“We’re on our way. We’ve already gotten Ubel, and you have Thana, so we just have to find Alastor,” Xisuma said.

“Okay, we’ll keep her here,” Doc said.

Xisuma hung up a moment later.

“Release me!” Thana shouted again.

“I don’t think we will,” Ren said.

They kept her restrained for a few more minutes until Xisuma and the other cops showed up. Iskall and Cleo were restraining another one of the workers, who looked very annoyed with the group.

“You’re a traitor, Xisuma,” he snapped, struggling against the two.

“So you’ve told me,” Xisuma said, helping EX fasten a pair of restraints onto Thana, “Sadly for you all, I actually have a soul and recognize the fact that experimenting on innocent humans is not okay in any sense.”

“It’s not like they’re human anymore! They’re beasts!” He exclaimed.

“Say that one more time!” Ren shouted, trying to lunge at him only to be held back by Doc, “Say it and see what happens!”

The worker flinched away from Ren, keeping his mouth shut after that.

Xisuma’s phone rang again, and he picked it up saying, “Scott? You alright?”

After a moment he said, “Got it. We’re coming.”

Another pause before he said, “No, you can't kill him. …I don’t care if he deserves it, we don’t need you in jail as well. …I know you haven’t gotten blood in a long time, but no. ”

Hanging up the phone, he said, “Scott’s got Alastor. I suggest we hurry over there, because Scott really wants to kill him.”

“Of course he does,” Doc sighed.

“I mean, you do have to be impressed with how long he’s held out for without blood,” Ren shrugged.

“Fair point,” Doc said.

The group headed over to Scott's location, getting there almost five minutes later. Xisuma sighed, finding Alastor cowering away from Scott as he was very obviously having to restrain himself from attacking.

“Xisuma, please. I’m so thirsty,” Scott begged when he saw the group enter.

“No,” Xisuma said as the cops who weren’t restraining Ubel and Thana put handcuffs on Alastor, “I’m very proud of you for resisting the urge to kill him, but we don’t need you in jail too.”

“Ugh,” Scott huffed. The cops walked Alastor with the others, and Scott glared at the three. His red eyes seemed to glow as he growled, “Watch you back. The second no one’s paying attention, you’re dead.”

All three of the workers paled, and Xisuma sighed and said, “I need to get you a babysitter or something.”

“Has anyone found Grian?” EX asked his brother.

“If not, we have a way to him,” Xisuma said as he pulled out his phone, gesturing to the three workers.

He paled as he got a message from Jimmy.

‘i found grain. pls come ovr quickly. need hlp.’

Chapter Text

Grian was exhausted .

His body was still yet to give out on him, but he had to be getting close by now.

Everything hurt. His head was still pounding and his wings were killing him. They were stuck in a painful position because of the restraints around them, and the eyes on them caused a horrible spike of pain every time one blinked.

He just wanted this all to be over.

But nope.

He was still here, barely hanging onto life by a thread, yet he was still on his feet. Still forcing himself to pace until he dropped.

And now he was hallucinating.

Jimmy didn’t know whether to be relieved or extraordinarily worried.

Relieved because Grian was here, alive, in the room in front of him.

Worried because he looked horrible.

Grian had dark bags under his eyes, his skin nearly as pale as Scott’s. The eyes on his wings were still open, and Grian would wince every time one blinked. His wings looked awful as well. The feathers were mixed up in a way that had to be painful, obviously in need of preening. There were restraints around Grian’s ankles, wrists, neck, and wings. They connected him to a large machine behind him, and Jimmy couldn’t tell what the machine was.

He was pacing as well as the restraints would let him, despite looking ready to drop at any moment. 

Jimmy didn’t even think to message the others. He entered the room without hesitation, calling out shakily, “Grian?”

Grian glanced at him, and Jimmy hoped to see a trace of any emotion on his face, but nothing. He just rubbed his eyes before muttering, “Great. I’ve gone insane. Hallucinations have got to be one of the signs of insanity, right?”

“Hallucinations?” Jimmy asked in confusion, carefully stepping towards him, “Do you think I’m not real?”

“Of course you’re not real. You’re dead, and it was my f-fault,” Grian sniffed.

“What?” Jimmy asked in shock, “G, what are you talking about? Of course I’m not dead!”

“Yes you are!” Grian cried, “The workers gave me w-weird powers and I don’t know how to c-control them and you all disappeared ‘cuz I k-killed you!”

Jimmy didn’t have to be a genius to guess that the workers had fed some sort of lie to Grian, but he could worry about killing them for it later. Right now Grian was on the verge of hysterics and still looked ready to collapse and apparently thought Jimmy and the other experiments were dead and thought he had been the cause.

Great.

Jimmy held his hand out towards Grian, saying, “Please, G. I’m real.”

Grian moved as far away from Jimmy’s hand as he could with the restraints, saying, “N-no, touching you would just m-make you disappear, and that’d j-just prove that you’re d-dead, and I dunno if I can h-handle that.”

“I’m not dead, G,” Jimmy said.

“Even if y-you weren’t, you wouldn’t come back for m-me. You’d a-all be mad at m-me,” Grian said, desperately wiping away tears that had ended up in his eyes.

“Why would we be mad at you?” Jimmy asked gently.

“Y-you all think I k-knew about this. That I knew it w-was a transformation. I d-didn’t know. I didn’t know until it w-was too late to ask f-for help. I didn’t want t-this,” Grian said. Tears flooded into his eyes as he said, “W-why am I telling y-you this? Is’ not like y-you’re real.”

“But I am,” Jimmy said, “Please, G. Let me help you.”

Grian didn’t seem to hear him, now looking at the wall as he rocked back and forth on his feet. He sniffed before muttering, “I j-just want my friends back, b-but no, I’m stuck here with these h-horrible workers and t-they keep running t-tests on me a-and my wings hurt and my h-head hurts and my stomach h-hurts and t-the eyes never close a-and they don’t g-give me food and I’m t-tired and h-hungry and n-now I’m hallucinating and I j-just want it to be over! Why c-can’t I just die a-already? H-haven’t I suffered e-enough?”

Jimmy felt his heart shatter, hearing the pure vulnerability in Grian’s voice. He sounded absolutely miserable, and Jimmy just wanted to help.

He just needed to show Grian that he was real, and then he could reach out to the others so they could help him.

Despite how much Jimmy wanted to be able to, he knew he couldn’t fix this by himself.

“Grian, please. Just grab my hand. I promise I’m real,” Jimmy said desperately.

“W-what if you’re lying? I’d r-rather be able to pretend y-you’re okay instead of know y-you’re not,” Grian said, staring at Jimmy’s extended hand.

“But this will just prove that I’m real!” Jimmy said.

“…f-fine,” Grian said after a moment of hesitation.

Jimmy wanted to cry when he saw how hard Grian flinched when their hands made contact.

“H-how- w-why-” Grian asked in shock, his eyes widening and filling with more tears.

“I told you,” Jimmy said softly, moving closer to Grian.

“You aren’t m-mad at me?” Grian asked in a small, broken voice.

“Of course not,” Jimmy said.

The floodgates had opened. Grian broke down in sobs, Jimmy promptly pulling him into his arms, minding the restraints as he sat down on the floor with Grian in his lap.

Grian immediately clung to Jimmy like he would disappear if he let go, and Jimmy gently started running his fingers through Grian’s hair with one hand as he pulled out the phone he had been given with the other.

Messaging one handed was slightly difficult, but he managed, not minding the multiple typos he made. He figured it would help get the point across that he needed the others’ help now.

With Grian so close to him, he could not only feel how hot his skin was, but how faint his heartbeat was as well.

Meaning not only was Grian exhausted, nearly starved, and pushed to the brink of near insanity, he also seemed to have a high fever and was barely hanging onto the last threads of life.

Poor guy did not seem to be having the best week.

Jimmy really hoped the others would get here soon.

All he could do was try to comfort Grian, running his fingers through his hair and quietly assuring him that it would be okay. 

Jimmy was alive.

He was standing in front of Grian, hand extended as he tried to get him to grab his hand, to prove he was real.

Grian didn’t want proof he was dead. He’d rather not know for sure that he had killed his friends.

His vision was fuzzy and honestly it wouldn’t have been surprising if Jimmy was just a hallucination. 

After a lot of nagging from Jimmy, Grian agreed to ‘touch’ his hand.

And they made contact.

He could feel the fabric that made up Jimmys skin, that had become so familiar to him with Jimmy helping preen his wings or helping with an injury over the years.

How was he here?

The better question was why?

Why wasn’t he mad at him?

Jimmy pulled Grian into his arms as Grian broke down in sobs, carefully guiding him to the floor and holding him in his lap. Grian immediately began to cling to Jimmy, so relieved to have a familiar presence near him after the god-awful week he had. Jimmy started running his fingers through Grian’s hair, quietly whispering that it would be alright, and that the others were on their way.

Grian’s exhaustion was quickly catching up to him and he was struggling to keep his eyes open when he noticed something.

With Jimmy next to him, a calming presence that was helping to tame the mess his head had become, the eyes had finally closed.

Grian let his own eyes slip closed, his grip on Jimmy going slack as he got some much needed sleep.

Chapter Text

“EX, take the rest of the cops and bring the workers back to the station in one car. The rest of us will go to Grian and Jimmy and ride back in the van,” Xisuma instructed.

EX nodded, saying to the other cops, “Come on, everyone.”

The cops followed him out and Xisuma pulled out his phone and messaged the other experiments, telling them to head to Jimmy's location as well, saying they would all meet up there and help the two out.

All the other experiments agreed, and he said to Scott, Ren, and Doc, saying, “Alright, let’s get a move on.”

The three nodded, eyes filling with newfound determination as they followed Xisuma to their friends.

Jimmy was still holding Grian close, who was letting out quiet whimpers as he leaned against Jimmy.

He glanced up as he heard someone enter the room, a slight spike of anxiety running through him as he thought of the fact that it might be a worker.

It wasn’t, though. Pearl came rushing into the room, Mumbo, Scar, and Impulse close behind her.

She dropped to her knees in front of the two, gasping quietly, “What did they do to him?”

“I don’t know,” Jimmy said quietly as the other three also joined her in front of him, “He thought we were dead. He thought I was a hallucination.”

“Poor thing,” Scar muttered, gently ruffling Grian’s hair. 

“Has anyone else shown up yet?” Mumbo asked.

Jimmy shook his head, “You four are the first.”

They glanced up as they heard more people rushing into the room, looking to see Lizzie and Joel come rushing.

Lizzie came in from the hallway, looking around the room as she entered before laying eyes on the group, gasping as she joined them.

“He looks awful,” Joel gasped, “Like, worse-than-when-he-tried-to-starve awful.”

“That has to be a really high fever,” Impulse said, his hand against Grian’s forehead, “He’s burning up.”

“I’m gonna have to wait for Doc to get here to take these restraints off,” Mumbo muttered, looking at the restraints around his wings, “These are a lot more high-end than the ones from before. I don’t want to risk hurting him.”

Another quiet whimper of pain from Grian. The entire group's expressions immediately fell, all quietly assuring Grian that it would be alright even though they knew he couldn't hear them.

Xisuma, Scott, Doc, and Ren all entered the room to find the others all surrounding Grian, who was curled up in Jimmys lap. Mumbo was inspecting the restraints around Grian’s wings while the others were all gently comforting the unconscious figure.

Mumbo glanced up as the four moved closer, calling out, “Doc, please come help me with these restraints. It’s definitely not a one person job.”

Doc nodded, quickly moving next to Mumbo. He hissed quietly when he saw the painful way Grian’s wings were positioned due to the restraints.

The two carefully started getting one of the restraints off, drawing a pained noise from Grian as the feathers on his wings puffed up.

“It’s alright, dude, just hang in there,” Ren said quietly to the unconscious figure as he, Xisuma, and Scott crouched down next to the others around Grian.

“Do we know what’s wrong with him yet?” Scott asked.

“The workers haven’t been feeding him, he hasn’t slept until now, he thought I was a hallucination when he saw me, we think he has a fever, and I bet that’s not even half of it,” Jimmy said.

Xisuma put a hand against Grian’s forehead, saying, “That’s definitely a fever. And a really high one, at that.”

“Guys, try to keep him still. I don’t want to accidentally hurt him trying to take these off,” Doc said.

“Alright,” Scar said as the others all nodded.

Doc and Mumbo slowly removed the restraints off of Grian’s wings, being as gentle as they could. Even so, they did cause Grian to stiffen a few times, but the others got him to relax fairly quickly.

After his wings, they moved onto the restraints around his neck, ankles, and wrists. The two informed the others that while the restraint around his neck obviously hadn’t been tight enough to kill him, it did seem to have been tight enough to make it hard for Grian to get enough air, which probably contributed to how out of it Jimmy reported him being.

After a tedious thirty minutes, all of the restraints were off. Xisuma lifted Grian out of Jimmy's lap and into his arms, saying, “The other cops headed back earlier, so it’s just us in the van. Make sure you all watch over Grian, alright? If he wakes up on the way back, try to get him to sleep again. We can help him more when we get back to the station.”

“Okay,” Joel said.

“Sounds like a plan,” Scott nodded.

The group followed him out towards the van, where Xisuma handed Grian off to the others before getting into the driver's seat.

The others positioned themselves in the car, with Jimmy, Mumbo, and Pearl watching over Grian. Jimmy had Grian in his lap, and though he knew that definitely was not only dangerous but also probably illegal, it was one of the only ways he could watch over Grian without his wings being restricted.

They managed to make it back to the station with little to no issue, with a few of the other cops taking Grian from them to hopefully look over his injuries and check his vitals.

The experiments helped Xisuma clear out one of the smaller rooms in the basement to set Grian up in. While the other ten of them had divided themselves up between Xisuma and EX’s old rooms, they knew Grian needed to be carefully monitored for a while.

It was back to the waiting game.

Grian felt awful.

He thought he had felt bad before, but oh was he wrong.

Before, he was hazy and numb due to lack of sleep. Nothing was registering in his brain except for, which was now apparent to be, a very numbed sensation of pain.

It was so much worse now that he had gotten sleep.

His head was killing him and his entire body ached and he was nauseous and lightheaded and his wings still hurt even though the eyes were closed and everything from before felt like it had tripled in intensity.

Honestly, death was sounding very appealing.

Jimmy and Pearl were by Grian’s bedside when he first woke up.

They had been talking idly about a few random topics before they heard Grian groan, the feathers on his wings fluffing up. All conversation screeched to a halt as they both turned to him.

“Griba?” Pearl asked softly.

“Mm,” Grian hummed, his face hidden in the pillow beneath him.

“How’re you feeling?” Jimmy asked gently.

“I feel awful,” Grian forced out, his voice shaking ever so slightly.

He felt Jimmy carefully put a hand in Grian’s hair, gently beginning to run his fingers through it as he said, “I’m sorry, G.”

A moment later, Grian heard a few other people enter the room. 

Xisuma asked as he entered, “Is Grian awake?”

Jimmy nodded, and Xisuma turned his attention to the figure who was currently curled into a ball with his face buried in a pillow as he asked softly, “You feeling up to trying to eat anything, G?”

The thought of trying to eat something made Grian’s stomach churn. He quickly shook his head, wincing slightly at how much it aggravated his headache.

“You’re going to have to eat something soon, Grian. You won’t last much longer if you don’t,” EX said, “We’re already pushing it.”

“But I feel sick,” Grian whined.

Xisuma sighed and turned to his brother, asking, “How much longer would you guess we have before he starves?”

“Maybe a few days?” EX said.

“Alright Grian, you don’t have to eat now, but you’re gonna have to eat soon,” Xisuma said, “We’ll wait a little bit to see if you feel any better, but if you don’t you're going to have to eat anyway.”

“Fine,” Grian sighed, leaning against Jimmy's hand.

“Are you feeling okay otherwise?” Xisuma asked hopefully.

“No,” Grian muttered, “I feel horrible.”

“Try to sleep some of it off. Maybe you’ll feel a little better when you wake up,” EX suggested.

“Alright…” Grian muttered.

Jimmy was still running his fingers through Grian’s hair when Grian drifted off to sleep again.

Glancing at the other three in the room showed the concern etched across their faces.

Based on the genuine misery laced into Grian’s voice, it was not going to be an easy few days, for both them and Grian.

Chapter Text

Grian was in a feverish haze.

Xisuma and EX had gotten him hooked up to an IV to prevent him from dying from dehydration, and while he looked a little bit better his temperature was still extremely high.

When Grian woke up and saw the machine currently keeping him alive, his first thought was to unplug it. To put himself out of his misery.

And oh god how badly he wanted to.

Jimmy and Scott noticed him wake up, and Scott left to go get Xisuma while Jimmy moved closer to Grian.

“Hey, G-man. How’re you feeling?” Jimmy asked softly.

“Please just kill me,” Grian begged quietly, his voice barely audible, broken and small. 

Jimmy felt his heart shatter, hearing how miserable his friend sounded.

“I can't do that, G,” Jimmy said quietly, starting to carefully run his fingers through the feathers on one of Grian’s wings.

“Please,” Grian begged again, his eyes filling with tears, “It hurts so much.”

“I know it does, I know… but I also know you, G. You don’t really want to die, do you?” Jimmy said, “You just want everything to stop hurting. And I promise it will. We’ve just got to get through these few days, and things will start to get better. You’ve just gotta hold out a little bit longer.”

“But what if I can’t?” Grian asked quietly.

“I think you’ll be able to. The others and I will be here for you the entire time, alright?” Jimmy said, “We won’t let you go through this alone.”

The door opened, and Scott and Xisuma entered the room.

“Hey, Jimmy. Hey, Grian. Are you feeling any better?” Xisuma asked.

“A little,” Grian said quietly, “My head still hurts.”

“Do you think you can stomach trying to eat something?” Scott asked as he sat down next to Jimmy, grabbing one of Grian’s hands.

Grian hesitated before saying, “…I think so. I can try, I guess.”

Xisuma nodded and left the room again, and Jimmy smiled at Grian as he said, “Proud of you, G.”

Over the next few days, Grian’s condition slowly improved. He was able to eat a little bit of food when Xisuma returned. While it wasn’t much, it was enough to prevent him from starvation.

The experiments all spent time with him. They sat with him when he was awake, assuring him he was going to be okay and that the pain would be over soon.

When Grian was eventually able to sit up by himself, Scar and Mumbo helped him preen his wings. Grian ended up falling asleep against Mumbo about halfway through, and Mumbo simply let him sleep as Scar finished up his wings.

Grian enjoyed hanging out with the others. He found varying interactions he had with them funny. With people like Doc, Impulse, and Mumbo, they were very big on making sure Grian was feeling alright. Pearl, Jimmy, and Lizzie always made sure Grian wasn’t alone and knew they would help him with anything. Joel and Scar were constantly trying to make Grian laugh and keep him entertained while he was bedridden. Scott and Ren had promised him multiple times that they were going to murder the workers for what they had done to him, even though they were yet to have any success.

Almost a week and a half later, the experiments were all in the living room when they heard it.

“Hey, guys.”

They all whipped around to turn towards the door, and standing there was Grian.

He was standing by himself, looking like he did before his second transformation. He was no longer connected to the IV and he had a small smile on his face.

“Grian!” All ten of them shouted, throwing their arms around him and pulling him into the center of a group hug.

“I’m so glad you’re feeling better!” Pearl said.

“You’re free to get out of bed?” Mumbo asked.

“Yep!” Grian said brightly, “Xisuma says that I’ve seemed to have overall recovered and I’m free to leave bed as long as I tell him if I start feeling ill again.”

“It’s good to have you back, G,” Jimmy said.

Everyone was so happy to be able to hang out with Grian again without him being stuck in bed. It felt like they were all able to finally enjoy freedom together, and it was amazing.

At least, it was until Grian disappeared.

The experiments couldn’t find him anywhere.

They decided to ask Xisuma for help.

“Xisuma!” Scar shouted up the stairs.

“What?” Xisuma asked as he appeared at the top of the stairs, “Everything okay?”

“We can’t find Grian,” Lizzie said, her voice laced with worry.

“What do you mean, you can't find him?” Xisuma asked in alarm.

“He’s not down here. We’ve checked everywhere, every single room, every hiding place, he isn’t here,” Doc said.

“Can you check upstairs? Just in case he managed to slip up there or something?” Impulse asked.

“Sure thing. Keep looking down here just in case you guys missed him,” Xisuma said, heading back upstairs.

“Everything alright?” EX asked as Xisuma came upstairs.

“They can’t find Grian. Let me know if you see him, alright? I’m gonna check around up here,” Xisuma said.

“I’ll look out for him,” EX said.

Xisuma started making his way through the various offices, telling the other cops to look out for Grian as he passed them.

He was about to leave his office after a quick glance when he froze.

There was a slight amount of purple lighting coming from under his desk.

He quietly stepped back inside, closing the door behind him.

Moving quietly towards his desk, he sighed silently as he found the man he was looking for curled up in a ball underneath his desk, his wings wrapped tightly around himself.

“Hey, G,” Xisuma said gently, sitting on his knees in front of him.

Grian didn’t respond, wrapping his wings tighter around himself.

“Wanna come out from under there?” Xisuma asked softly.

Grian shook his head, and Xisuma sighed before asking, “Can I join you then?”

Grian hesitated before nodding. Xisuma sat next to him under the desk, watching silently as Grian slowly raised his head.

Just as Xisuma had feared, Grian’s eyes were bright purple and filled with tears.

“I’m guessing the eyes opened again?” Xisuma asked. 

Grian nodded miserably, whispering, “I can't get them to close.”

Xisuma put an arm around Grian’s shoulders, pulling him close. Grian fell against him and buried his face in Xisuma’s side, his wings unraveling themselves from around him and revealing the thousands of bright purple eyes.

“Try to just focus on me, alright?” Xisuma said.

He felt Grian nod against him, and Xisuma quietly started humming and ruffling Grian’s hair.

After a few minutes, Grian had managed to center his vision to Xisuma, the eyes on his wings slowly closing. The detransformation left him exhausted, but he preferred it to the overwhelming vision of everything within a hundred mile radius.

“Thank you,” he said quietly.

“Of course. Are you ready to head back downstairs, or do you want a moment?” Xisuma asked.

“I need a minute,” Grian said.

“Of course. Take all the time you need,” Xisuma said, smiling gently at him.

“I’m sorry for coming up here,” Grian apologized quietly, “The eyes opened up and I got overwhelmed and I panicked and came up here to try and get somewhere quiet so I could calm down.”

“It’s alright. I get it,” Xisuma said, “If you ever need somewhere to go if the eyes open, you can feel free to come in here. The only other people who do are the other cops and I.”

“Thanks,” Grian said.

“Xisuma! Did you find him?” They heard Scar shout from downstairs.

“We should probably head back down,” Xisuma said with a laugh, standing up from under the table and offering Grian a hand.

Grian giggled tiredly, grabbing Xisuma’s hand. Xisuma pulled him to his feet before leading him back downstairs.

“Grian! We thought you had died!” Mumbo exclaimed as the two walked downstairs.

“You alright? You look exhausted,” Jimmy said in concern.

“ ‘M fine. The eyes randomly opened and I got overwhelmed, but I’m okay,” Grian said.

“You should probably get some sleep, Griba. You seem really tired. Come on,” Pearl said, grabbing Grian by the hand and pulling him towards the bedrooms.

Grian sighed fondly, and knowing he wouldn’t be able to argue, he followed her.

Xisuma smiled and went back upstairs, knowing Grian was left in good hands.

Chapter Text

Xisuma and the other cops loved getting to see the experiments open up and flourish over the following year.

They all slowly developed their own styles, ranging from Grian, who had taken a liking to an oversized red sweater, to Mumbo, who wore an entire three piece suit daily. 

The cops had remodeled the basement to make it more fit for holding eleven people. It now had all of the fundamentals, with four bedrooms, three of them with three people in them, and one with two. Lizzie and Pearl got a room, Ren, Doc, and Impulse got a room, Scott, Joel, and Scar got one, and finally Grian, Jimmy, and Mumbo.

The experiments loved it. They felt free for the first time in years, since the cops were doing as much as they could to give them as much freedom as possible.

With the reduced limitations, a lot of shenanigans took place.

The following scenes are a collection of those shenanigans.

*****

“I’m a genius!” Joel boasted proudly as he burst into the living room. Jimmy and Grian were inside, and it seemed like Jimmy was helping Grian preen the back of his wings.

“Did you hit your head again or something?” Jimmy asked, not even removing his eyes from where he was working on Grian’s wings. Grian snickered at the comment.

“You’re both never going to let that go, are you?” Joel huffed.

“Never. I’m assuming you have something you want to tell us about, since you practically broke the door down as you came in,” Grian said.

“As a matter of fact, I do,” Joel said, dropping to sit in front of the two, “So you know how Lizzie and I started dating a while back, right?”

“Of course we do. Neither of you would shut up about it for almost a month,” Jimmy said.

“It was exciting! Anyways, I may have forgotten that today was our three month anniversary and knew Lizzie would have my head if she realized I didn’t remember it, so in a moment of pure genius I realized how to delay her a bit and have more time to get a present ready!” Joel said.

“…I’m scared,” Grian said, “What did you do?”

“I gave her a ball of yarn!” Joel said excitedly.

Grian and Jimmy were silent for a moment before Grian burst out laughing, nearly doubling over as Jimmy said, “Joel, you didn’t!”

“It worked! She was thrilled. She’s been playing with it for like thirty minutes now,” Joel said.

Grian was still cackling as Jimmy, “Joel, you- oh my god, Joel.”

“What?” Joel asked in confusion.

“I wonder who else that works with!” Grian said between laughter, “We know Ren likes bones after that one incident with worker seven, Scott obviously likes blood, but who else has random tendencies because of the experimentation done on them?”

“I mean, you do kind of act like a bird,” Jimmy shrugged.

“I do not!” Grian squawked indignantly.

“You one hundred percent do, dude,” Joel said.

“No I don’t! I’m not even a bird, anyways! I’m a demonic being with five pairs of wings!” Grian said defensively.

“I can prove you do,” Jimmy said.

“What-” Grian’s voice was cut off by a startled chirp noise as Jimmy suddenly pressed a cold water bottle against his wing. He immediately pushed it away, saying, “What the heck! Stop that!”

“Caught in the act!” Joel said with way too much enthusiasm.

“I hate you both,” Grian huffed.

Pearl was extraordinarily confused as she approached the living room.

“You are a bird!”

“How am I a bird?”

“I mean, you look like one since you have the wings-”

“And that makes me a bird? In that case, are you a human? Because you sure look human.”

“But I’m not human!”

“And I’m not a bird!”

Honestly, she wasn’t even surprised to enter the room to find Joel and Grian arguing.

“What are you two yelling about? I could hear you from my room,” Pearl said as she entered, sitting down on the floor with the group.

“Joel’s trying to argue with me about what species I am!” Grian said.

“You literally act like a bird!” Joel said.

“Just because I act like one doesn’t mean I am one!” Grian exclaimed.

“So you admit it!” Joel said.

“What?” Grian asked in confusion.

“You said you act like a bird! I win the argument!” Joel cheered.

“I hate you,” Grian said, glaring at him.

*****

The other cops would occasionally leave one person upstairs to take care of anyone who came by and head downstairs to hang out with the experiments. This time, Xisuma was the one to stay upstairs. The others decided to take the opportunity to get to know the people they had saved.

They entered the basement, greeting the experiments.

After chatting for a few minutes, Grian let out an exasperated sigh before asking the other experiments, “Would one of you mind helping me with my wings?”

“Oh! Sure thing! What’s wrong?” Pearl asked.

“I don’t know, one just hurts a lot . It’s been driving me insane,” Grian said.

“Which one?” Pearl asked as she sat behind Grian.

“Fourth, I’m pretty sure,” Grian said.

“Fourth?” Iskall asked in confusion.

“Yeah…?” Pearl said.

“You have more than two wings?” Tango asked Grian in shock.

The experiments went silent for a moment before the entire group immediately burst out in laughter, leaving the poor cops sitting in confusion.

“To answer your question, yes, I have more than two wings. I have ten,” Grian said between laughter.

“No way,” False said, “You’re lying.”

“Tell you what, I can show you after one of them doesn’t hurt to move,” Grian said.

“The feathers are really mixed up, Griba. It looks painful. Are you sure you want to try and fix this?” Pearl said hesitantly.

“Just get it over with. It’ll hurt less in the long run,” Grian muttered.

“Okay…” Pearl said, carefully starting to fix the feathers.

Even though he agreed to it, Grian couldn’t help but wince and hiss in pain as a spike of pain ran through his wing, the feathers fluffing up.

“I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry I didn’t mean to-” Pearl quickly began to apologize.

Grian cut her off, saying, “Pearls, you’re fine, you did nothing wrong. Just… startled me. I’m alright.”

He could tell Pearl still felt awful and was scared to continue fixing the wing by the way her hands were shaking. Her breathing was shaky and she looked like she had seen a ghost. He realized she had never actually caused him pain before while fixing his wings before. She probably thought she had done something wrong.

He carefully grabbed her hand over his shoulder, saying, “Breathe, Pearls. I can get someone else to help if you don’t want to.”

“I didn’t mean to hurt you!” Pearl said shakily.

“You aren’t the first. You didn’t do anything wrong. It’s kind of a given with my wings. You’re completely fine,” Grian soothed, gently running his thumb over the back of her hand, “You aren’t nearly as bad as Timmy. I can barely count how many times he’s done something like that.”

“Hey! I don’t mean to either!” Jimmy said defensively.

Grian rolled his eyes at him, saying, “Point is, you did nothing wrong, Pearls.”

Pearl took in a shaky breath, using the hand Grian wasn’t holding to wipe away the tears that had gathered in her eyes.

“Here, I can finish up the wing,” Jimmy offered.

“O-okay,” Pearl said, moving from behind Grian to be sitting next to him, still holding his hand. Jimmy took her place.

“Alright, three, two, one,” Jimmy said, beginning to fix the wings.

Grian immediately winced again, and Pearl gently squeezed his hand as Jimmy quickly finished up what he was doing.

“That feel okay?” Jimmy asked.

Grian moved his wing experimentally, sighing with relief before saying, “Yeah. Thanks.”

“No problem,” Jimmy said, ruffling his hair.

“I still don’t believe you,” EX said, “There’s no way you’ve had ten wings this whole time.”

“I have had ten wings this whole time. You’re all just extremely unobservant for a group of cops,” Grian said, getting to his feet, “I haven’t gotten to stretch these things out in forever.”

The other experiments quickly moved out of the way, moving next to the cops. The cops were skeptical, but all of their eyes were blown wide as Grian’s wings flew open, easily stretching out across the entire living room. Sure enough, there were ten, all covered in purple feathers.

“Believe me now?” Grian asked, an eyebrow raised in amusement.

“Okay, what else are you all hiding?” Tango asked as Grian pulled his wings against his back again.

Impulse gasped before saying, “Did I ever get to show you all what I did to scare the new workers?”

The cops looked confused, but the experiments all burst out laughing again, and Scott said, “I don’t think you did! You should show them!”

“I’m scared,” Iskall admitted, “What did you do?”

“Okay, so, whenever we would get new workers, we would always try to scare them,” Impulse said, “We didn’t get to do that with Xisuma because Jimmy told us he was friendly. But my personal favorite method of freaking them out probably scared them all the most.”

“A few of us had stuff we would always do to freak out the new workers,” Scott explained, “I would show them my teeth, Ren would growl at them, Joel would do the weird thing with his arms where he gets like six of them and flips them off, but Impulse…”

“I think it’s better to show than to tell,” Grian piped up.

“Let’s go! I haven’t gotten to do this in forever!” Impulse cheered.

He sat so he was facing the cops, and they watched as he raised his hand…

And ate his eye.

“What the heck-” EX shouted as the other cops let out a few very startled and alarmed noises.

“Chill, it’s chocolate,” Impulse said, moving his hand towards the other eye, “You guys want one?”

“You’re psychotic!” Cleo said as Ren exclaimed, “I want one!”

“You can’t eat chocolate, idiot!” Doc said, flicking Ren in the back of the head.

“Here, Ren, you can have a sugar crystal,” Impulse said, grabbing one off of his shoulder and tossing it to him.

“Thanks!” Ren said, popping it in his mouth.

“If the chocolate is still up for grabs, I’ll take it,” Scott said.

“Of course it is! Here!” Impulse said, passing it to him.

“You’re all insane. We’ve let a bunch of demented individuals live in our basement,” Keralis said, shaking his head.

“Do your eyes like… regenerate…? Or do you have to replace it?” False asked shakily.

“It regenerates! It’s a different kind of chocolate every time, too,” Impulse grinned.

“You just ate your own eye and you’re smiling?” EX said.

“Yep! It tasted good, too,” Impulse said.

“I can confirm that. Literal eye candy is quite good,” Scott piped up.

“That’s absolutely disgusting,” Keralis said.

“It’s chocolate!” Impulse exclaimed, “You can’t give someone a literal infinite amount of chocolate and expect them not to try some of it!”

“You literally have to pull it out of your eye socket and you see no problem with it?” False asked.

“To be fair, I quite literally see no problem with it for a few seconds until my eye regenerates,” Impulse laughed.

“Okay, poor choice of wording, but still!” False said.

“My shifts up! What have you all been up to?” Xisuma asked as he entered the room.

“Hey, Xisuma!” Impulse said, casually grabbing his newly regenerated eye and holding it out to him, “Want some candy?”

“Oh my word-”

*****

Joel didn’t know what to do with himself.

He felt like his ability to shapeshift had no use anymore.

It used to be important. He used to have to shapeshift into various workers to get something back or convince them to release someone from solitary confinement. He used to have purpose.

Now, he didn’t have anything to do. Him and his friends were safe, he didn’t have anything to save them from.

He felt useless.

At least, he did until he realized he could shapeshift into his friends and see if they could tell the difference between him and the real person.

Oh, he was definitely going to do that.

The first target was Jimmy.

Joel saw him sitting on the couch, fiddling anxiously with a loose thread hanging from his wrist.

Joel quickly shifted into him, casually sitting down next to him on the couch.

It took Jimmy a second to glance up at him, but when he did, his reaction was priceless.

“Oh my god- Joel! Don’t scare me like that!” Jimmy shrieked, nearly jumping a foot in the air when he first saw Joel.

Joel burst into laughter, and Jimmy exclaimed, “You even sound like me? What the heck!”

That caused Joel to laugh even harder.

Just when he thought this couldn’t get any funnier…

“Am I going crazy again, or are there two of you?” Grian asked in confusion, glancing between the two.

Joel was practically on the floor now with how hard he was laughing.

“I’m gonna assume that one’s Joel?” Grian asked, pointing at the Jimmy on the floor.

The real Jimmy nodded, saying, “He almost gave me a heart attack. I’m sitting here, waiting for you, and I look up and there’s another me!”

“Your- guy’s- reactions- were priceless-” Joel wheezed between laughter.

Grian rolled his eyes at him, sitting next to Jimmy on the couch as he asked, “Why’d you need me again?”

“The thread on my wrist is getting loose again,” Jimmy said, lifting his wrist to show Grian.

“Oh, I can fix that. Here,” Grian said, grabbing Jimmy's wrist. 

“Again?” Joel asked as he calmed down, sitting upright. He still looked like Jimmy.

“My threads randomly loosen. I need two hands to fix them and Grian’s the only other person who knows how to,” Jimmy replied, wincing slightly as Grian carefully started fixing it, earning an apology from the man.

Joel also flinched, saying, “Why can I feel that?”

“You can?” Jimmy asked in surprise.

Joel nodded, and Grian said, “You must be linked to whoever you’re shifted to look like, then.”

“Interesting…” Joel said, a mischievous look in his eyes.

“I strongly suggest you don’t shift into me,” Grian said as he finished up Jimmys wrist, “Trust me. You don’t want to deal with it. Does that feel okay, Jimmy?”

Jimmy experimentally rolled his wrist, nodding while saying, “Yeah. Thanks.”

“No problem,” Grian said.

Joel shifted back into himself, saying, “Who should I scare next?”

Jimmy’s eyes lit up, and he said, “You know what would be funny?”

Grian and Joel both looked at him in curiosity, and Jimmy elaborated, “You should shift into Scar and see how long you can talk to him before he figures it out.”

“Oh my god, yes,” Joel said, shifting into Scar.

“I need to watch this,” Grian said.

“Same. Where’s Scar at?” Jimmy asked.

“He was in the kitchen when I last saw him,” Grian said.

“Let’s go!” Joel said, his voice identical to Scar’s.

Grian and Jimmy followed a few steps behind him, pausing outside the door as Joel entered the kitchen, saying, “Hi, Scar!”

“Well, hello there!” Scar said, waving over his shoulder as continued looking through a cabinet, “Any idea where the snacks are? I’ve been looking for something to eat for a solid five minutes and I still can’t find anything! We need more food in this place…”

“Tell me about it. We should complain to Xisuma,” Joel said, trying desperately not to laugh as Scar remained oblivious.

“We really should! Maybe then he’d get some decent snackage for us. I mean, if we have to live in a basement, the least he can do is give us good food to eat,” Scar muttered, moving onto another cabinet.

“Exactly! We might need to send Scott or Joel shopping with him to make sure he actually gets food,” Joel said.

“We should ask them about it. They’re lucky they actually look human. They can go out. The rest of us are just kind of stuck here. It’s unfair, but hey, what can you do about it?” Scar said.

Joel stiffened slightly, hearing the slight disappointment, almost annoyance, in Scars voice, but quickly recovered, saying, “No need to seek me out to ask. I agree.”

Scar turned around in confusion, immediately screaming as he was met with himself, putting a hand over his heart and shouting, “Joel! Oh my word! Don’t scare a man like that!”

Joel immediately burst into laughter, shifting back into himself as Grian and Jimmy entered, both also laughing.

“Scar, you just had an entire conversation with yourself!” Jimmy said.

“I wasn’t paying attention! I was trying to find something to eat!” Scar said defensively.

“That was hilarious,” Grian laughed, “You're amazing, Scar, but you’re so oblivious sometimes.”

“I would’ve noticed if I was paying more attention,” Scar defended himself before asking, “Genuinely, though, do you guys know where the snacks are? I’m hungry.”

“Bottom left shelf,” Grian said, “We’re running out, though. We really do need to talk to Xisuma.”

“I’m gonna go find someone else to scare,” Joel said, grinning.

“Have fun!” Jimmy said.

“You two want something to eat?” Scar asked Grian and Jimmy as Joel left.

“Yes, please,” the two responded in unison before whipping around to one another and yelling, “Jinx!”

The amount of temptation Joel was faced with to shift into Grian was unimaginable.

Not to scare him, obviously. Grian would be expecting it now. He just needed to know why Grian told him he ‘wouldn’t want to deal with it’.

When he was Jimmy, Joel felt almost numb. It was weird. The only sensation he dealt with was the spike of pain as Grian fixed Jimmy's wrist.

When he was Scar, everything had a blue tint. Like he was looking through colored glasses.

What was Grian hiding?

Joel wanted to know if it had anything to do with how Grian had a tendency to randomly crash for days at a time, refusing to leave bed and complaining that he felt sick, despite the fact that Xisuma and Doc would confirm that he didn’t have a fever and nothing was wrong with him. Knowing Grian, they would never be told the full story of what was wrong.

Maybe this was a way Joel could see for himself.

He quietly slipped into an empty room, closing the door behind him.

Nobody would know if he turned into Grian for only a second… right?

Grian, Jimmy, and Scar were talking idly as they ate when they heard a voice that sounded like Grian scream.

Jimmy and Scar both turned to Grian in confusion, but Grian said, “That wasn’t me… oh my god, Joel-”

He quickly pushed away from the table, already out of the room before Scar and Jimmy could ask any questions.

Entering the room the scream had come from, Grian sighed as he saw himself curled up in a ball in the middle of the room, trembling madly.

It was strange, seeing himself in front of him. He knew it was Joel, but it was still odd.

He carefully crouched down in front of Joel, ruffling his hair as he said, “Hey, you’re alright, you’re okay. Try to shift back to yourself, okay? I promise it’ll make the pain stop.”

A crowd had gathered by the door of the room, with everyone having come to see why Grian had screamed. They were all very confused and worried about what was going on.

Grian sighed again as Joel didn’t seem to hear him, deciding to use the link the two temporarily had to get through to Joel.

Joel immediately collapsed to the ground, screaming in pain.

His vision fragmented, flooding with loud noises and bright colors. His head started pounding and the wings that had appeared behind him hurt an insane amount.

Painpainpainpainloudloudloudoverwhelmingsomuchnoisewhatisthisithurtsithurtsithurtshelppainloudwhatsgoingongetmeoutofthisihatethisihatethisitssoloudiwantittostopwhywontitstopmakeitstoppleasepainnoisebrightnessoverwhelmingpleasemakeitstop theressomuchtosee-

A voice (Was it a voice? Or was it in his head?) cut through his panicked haze. 

‘Hey, Joel. Just breathe for me, buddy. That’s it, perfect. Can you try to shift back to yourself? I promise it will make this stop.’

He could do that. He wanted this to stop. Joel focused on shifting back to himself, and slowly, the wings disappeared, his vision returning to normal.

“You with me, Joel?” The voice asked again.

Joel slowly blinked his eyes open to see Grian, who was running his fingers through Joel’s hair. The others were in the doorway behind him.

Joel nodded slightly, and Grian said, “Take it easy for a few minutes.”

“I’m- sorry-” Joel said through tears. (When had he started crying?)

“You’re okay, you’re okay, but do you see why I told you not to shift into me?” Grian said.

Joel nodded, and Grian said seriously, “I need you to promise me you won’t do that again. You might end up getting hurt.”

“O-okay,” Joel said shakily.

“You’re lucky you decided to ignore my warning on a good day. Otherwise, I might not have been able to get through to you,” Grian said.

“What happened?” Lizzie asked in worry as she and the others entered the room. She immediately went to Joel’s side, pulling his head into her lap and starting to run her fingers through his hair. Joel practically melted into the touch.

“I shouldn’t even feel bad. I warned him,” Grian said, standing up and shaking out his wings.

“How do you live like that?” Joel asked quietly.

“Live like what?” Grian asked in confusion.

“With all the… noise, and colors, and pain,” Joel said shakily.

“It’s not like I have much of a choice,” Grian shrugged.

“What are you two talking about?” Mumbo asked in confusion.

Grian gestured his hand around in the air vaguely, saying, “I’m assuming Joel just got to experience Sight for the first time.”

Joel nodded shakily, now sitting upright, “That was awful.”

“But I thought you only dealt with that when the eyes are open?” Impulse asked.

Grian winced slightly before saying, “That might’ve been a lie. It’s kind of always there, it’s just a lot easier to tune out when the eyes are closed. Joel obviously isn’t practiced in tuning it out, so uh… you saw how that ended.”

“So you’ve just been suffering with that in silence for a year now?” Ren gasped.

“I wouldn’t say suffering. I’m normally fine. It just occasionally gets overwhelming,” Grian shrugged.

“I now understand why you randomly spend days in bed,” Joel said.

Grian laughed at the comment, saying, “Joel can vouch for me now. I’m not trying to be lazy or get out of stuff; Sight does get extremely painful some days and I occasionally do need a day or two to just… collect myself, I guess. Rebuild my mental wall against it.”

“Yeah,” Pearl said, “So are you just… constantly stuck being able to see everything?”

“I’ve learned to tune it out,” Grian shrugged, “I can't control what I see with the eyes without them being open, but if I do end up dropping my control I do get overloaded with information. It’s just a balancing act.”

“Do your wings always hurt that much?” Joel asked.

Grian shook his head, “No, my wings don’t normally hurt anymore. I just haven’t gotten around to preening them in a while.”

“Thank goodness. I would’ve felt awful if what I just experienced was what you dealt with 24/7,” Joel said.

All of them immediately turned to the door as they heard Iskall shout from upstairs, “Grian! What did you do to my office?”

Grian paled, quickly saying, “Well, this has been a very productive conversation, Joel I promise you if you shift into me again I probably won’t be able to help you shift back so don’t, I enjoyed talking with you all, but I have to get going so bye!”

Iskall burst into the doorway, and Grian quickly ducked under his arm and ran into the hallway, crying, “Whatever happened, it wasn’t me!”

“My entire office is trashed! Where did you even get chickens?” Iskall shouted, chasing the man down.

“Always something,” Xisuma huffed as he entered the room with the experiments as his brother tried to get Iskall to stop chasing Grian.

*****

As Grian grew used to using his powers, he was open to using them for more mundane tasks.

Little did he know, the experiments were willing to take full advantage of that.

“Griannnnnn!” Ren shouted as he burst into the living room.

Grian nearly jumped out of his skin, his feathers puffing up as he exclaimed, “Oh my word, you scared me! What?”

“Can you use your weird all-seeing ability to locate the food we ordered?” Scott asked as he entered from behind Ren.

“It’s an entire two minutes late and I’m hungry!” Ren whined.

“Really? Two minutes?” Grian asked, “It’ll probably be here any minute now. Why do you need me for that?”

“Please! I wanna know how long I have to wait!” Ren begged, giving Grian the puppy dog eyes.

Grian sighed, saying, “Fine. But stop looking at me like that. It’s creepy.”

Ren and Scotts faces both lit up as Grian closed his eyes, inhaling deeply before opening his eyes, the eyes on his wings flying open with them. His eyes had gone a bright purple, and he said after a moment, “Your food is gonna be here in a minute and thirty seven seconds.”

“Thank you!” Scott said as the eyes on Grian’s wings closed again.

“No problem. You better have ordered me food, too,” Grian said as he shook out his wings, his eyes returning to normal.

“Of course we did! Come on!” Ren said, pulling Grian to his feet. 

*****

“I still sometimes look back on what would’ve happened if the other workers realized what I was planning. I don’t like to think about it,” Xisuma shuddered.

“Oh, you probably would’ve ended up like Doc,” Jimmy said, not looking up from the puzzle he and Scott were working on. Grian and Pearl were also in the room, with Grian leaning against the couch in front of Pearl, who was messing with his hair.

“Wait, what?” Xisuma asked at the same time Doc poked his head into the room and said, “Who said my name?”

“Suma’s talking about what would’ve happened to him if the workers caught onto his plan,” Grian said.

“Ah, you probably would’ve been a part of the worker-turned-experiment crew!” Doc said.

“You were a worker?” Xisuma asked in shock.

“Yep!” Doc said with way too much enthusiasm.

“What- how- what?” Xisuma stammered in shock.

“It’s a long story,” Doc shrugged.

“We’ve had some pretty weird collection stories between all of us,” Scott said.

“They tricked me with a cat,” Scar huffed as he and the others entered the room, “Who does that? I was in my house, and I glance outside and there’s a cat! It looks hungry so I figure ‘why not give it some food and shelter?’ I step outside, bam, there’s a bag over my head!”

“I got taken while I was biking!” Mumbo exclaimed, “I was riding my bike back home after school, and they just snatched me off of it!”

“I got grabbed by the hair on my way to school,” Scott piped in, “I tried to bite the one that grabbed me. They called me a little vampire, and I guess they thought it would be funny to make me an actual vampire.”

“I bet they don’t think it’s funny anymore,” Grian snickered.

“Definitely not after workers two, four, seven, and ten,” Scott laughed.

“I just woke up there. I’m not sure what happened,” Jimmy admitted.

“Oh my god, same!” Pearl said, high-fiving Jimmy, “Twinsies!”

“I was sold to them when I was five,” Grian shrugged.

“I was drugged!” Lizzie said, “I was out shopping and they had free samples, so I took one, and immediately fell over unconscious! I woke up in the center!”

“I still can’t believe I fell for the old hey-kid-I-have-candy-in-my-white-van trick!” Impulse groaned.

“My story was boring! I was just kidnapped at a party!” Joel muttered.

“Better than being kidnapped at a gas station!” Ren exclaimed.

“I think Doc has the most interesting story, honestly,” Jimmy said.

“I haven’t heard it yet,” Pearl said.

“Same,” Scott said, the others also piping up in agreement.

“Oh yeah, Tim and I were the only ones who were there for that, weren’t we?” Grian said.

“Tell everyone about it, Doc!” Jimmy said.

“Okay, okay, everyone listen up,” Doc said, sitting down in a chair. Everyone turned to look at him in anticipation.

“This is the story of how I ended up in the experiment center. To set the stage for you; I was a fairly well known scientist with a passion for discovering new facts about DNA. I was fascinated with how much you could change about an item simply by tweaking a few bits of its genetic coding. The workers heard about me, and I guess some of my work on altering plants piqued their interest, except they wanted more; they wanted to work on humans,” Doc said, “I was called to the center one day. They told me they had a new discovery they thought I would find interesting. Of course, I went. They pulled me into the elevator, ranting about all the amazing information that could come out of what they had figured out. And then we got downstairs.

“They showed me these two… kids, children that they had been using as experiments. People half my age who hadn’t had any sense of freedom in years. They were expecting me to like it, to join in on their experimentation plans,” Doc said bitterly.

Jimmy leaned over towards Grian, whispering, “Those kids are us!”

Grian snickered, ruffling Jimmy’s hair, “Yes, Jim, I’m aware that’s us.”

“I was not about to stand by and act like I was okay with what they were doing. I yelled at them, told them that experimenting on children was a sick thing to do. They had the nerve to tell me that it was barely different from my line of work, that we were one of the same. I was sure to point out the very prominent differences between me experimenting on plants and them experimenting on human beings, and told them I was calling the police,” Doc shuddered before saying, “Everything immediately went black. Next thing I know, I’m waking up in the same cell as Grian and Jimmy, about to go through the most pain I’ve ever experienced in my life.”

“Jimmy and I thought you were going to like what they had been doing,” Grian said quietly, “We didn’t think they would let anyone who wasn’t as crazy as them within a five mile radius of the place.”

“Watching you scream at them changed our minds pretty easily, though,” Jimmy piped up.

“Doc definitely does have the most interesting story,” Scott said.

“So Doc's was the most interesting, Impulse’s was the most ironic, Grian’s was the most traumatic-” Mumbo listed off before being cut off by Grian.

“It was not!” Grian squawked, “Lizzie was literally drugged!”

“And you were literally sold to the center when you were five!” Mumbo shot back, “You’re probably the most messed up out of all of us for good reason!”

“I am perfectly fine,” Grian argued.

“You probably need therapy the most out of all of us,” Scott said.

“I’m allergic to therapy,” Grian said.

“G, you literally tried to kill yourself. You need therapy,” Joel said.

“What?” Xisuma cut into the conversation.

“We’re not doing this again! We’ve already spoken about this!” Grian said.

“No we didn’t! You refused to talk about it!” Scar argued. 

“We just care about you, dude. We want to be sure you won’t feel the need to turn to suicide ever again,” Ren said.

“We just need you to talk to us!” Jimmy said.

Grian promptly got to his feet, swiftly leaving the room without another word.

“…what were you guys talking about?” Xisuma asked shakily after a moment of silence.

The experiments seemed to remember Xisuma was in the room, and Impulse sighed and said, “I’m sure you’ve heard us reference when Grian almost starved, right?”

Xisuma nodded, and Impulse continued, “He did it on purpose. None of us ever found out why, what exactly pushed him over the edge and made him decide to die, because after us and the workers found out and the workers promptly forced him to eat, he refused to even acknowledge that it had happened. And after you joined as a worker and we got freed we could never find the time to try and bring it up again.”

“And now you’ve seen how he reacts when we try to,” Pearl said, “He’s so stubborn, I swear. Keeping all of his issues bottled up is only going to hurt him in the long run, but he doesn’t care.”

“…remembering his reaction to the workers threatening him to try to get him to eat still scares me,” Jimmy said quietly.

“What was his reaction?” Xisuma asked.

The experiments shared a silent look with one another before Lizzie said, “A worker held a gun to his head and told him to eat or ‘face the consequences.’ Grian dared them to shoot, said he’d be put out of his misery either way.”

“They turned to threatening us after that,” Joel said.

“The workers threatened to start shooting us if he kept being stubborn,” Mumbo said.

“Easy to say Grian agreed to eat,” Pearl said.

“We’re lucky he didn’t die because they forced him to eat immediately,” Doc muttered, “The workers could’ve very easily killed him.”

“It’s not like he would’ve cared,” Scar said.

“What if he tries that again?” Scott said, “Keeping his feelings bottled up is in no way healthy and will probably end in him turning to it again at some point. How would we be able to deal with that?”

“I can try to talk to him,” Xisuma offered.

The group went silent for a moment before Impulse said, “That- might actually work. You’re pretty easy to talk to. He might open up to you.”

“I’ll go try now. Talk to you all later,” Xisuma said, getting up and heading towards the exit.

“Good luck! You’ll need it!” He heard Ren call out to him as he left.

“G? You there?” Xisuma asked, knocking on the door of Grian, Jimmy, and Mumbo's room.

“Go away, Xisuma,” Grian said from the other side of the door.

“I just wanna talk to you,” Xisuma said.

“I don’t feel like talking. Go away,” Grian said.

“I’m not leaving,” Xisuma said definitively, “You obviously need to talk to someone

“No I don't!” Grian immediately shot back, “I am doing perfectly fine! I don’t need to talk to anyone!”

“Please, G? I’m worried about you,” Xisuma said softly.

There was silence for a moment before he heard Grian sigh, the door opening.

“What do you want?” Grian asked, arms crossed.

“Can I come in?” Xisuma asked.

Grian silently stepped out of the way, allowing Xisuma to enter. He closed the door after he was inside, before sitting on his bed. Xisuma sat next to him. 

“How much did the others explain to you?” Grian asked quietly, pulling his knees against his chest and setting his chin on them.

“Just what they know,” Xisuma said, starting to run his fingers through the feathers on the wing closest to him.

“So I’m guessing you don’t know what convinced me to do it?” Grian asked. Xisuma shook his head, and Grian continued, “I just- I guess it had been building up for a while now, looking back on it. It started off small, just the passing thought of ‘I wouldn’t have to deal with this if I were dead’ or ‘when I die, I’ll be free from this pit of hell.’ It slowly started progressing, turning into thinking about how I could die. After the workers were particularly bad to me one day, I just- decided to stop eating. I figured that it would be a slow enough process that the workers wouldn’t be able to tell something was wrong until I was hopefully already dead. At first, I kept going out and continuing my life like normal, meeting up with the others and going to meals, even though I didn’t eat anything. If anyone ever asked about why I wasn’t eating, I’d just blame it on an upset stomach and say I would eat later. After a week or two my condition started getting a lot worse. The idea of eating made me feel like throwing up, and it soon got to the point that even moving was too big of a task and all I wanted to do was sleep. After that, I stayed curled up in my cell. The others checked up on me a few times, and I told them I had probably just caught a virus or something and told them I’d be fine in a day or two. They believed me.

“Soon, three weeks had passed, then it was four. I was losing touch with reality fast, delirious from hunger and exhaustion. The workers had finally caught onto my plan, bursting into my cell and demanding I go and eat. I refused, and a worker pulled out a gun and pressed it against my forehead. They told me to eat or I would have to ‘face the consequences of my actions.’ At that point I was so detached from reality I didn’t even care. I dared them to pull the trigger, told them they’d just be just speeding up what I had been trying to do,” Grian took in a shaky breath, “We both noticed the other experiments were standing in the doorway around the same time.

“I don’t think I’ll ever forget the terrified looks on their faces. It wasn’t even because of the worker; it was because of me. They were scared because I was sitting there, daring someone to shoot me in the head, without even flinching. I was that far gone,” Grian muttered. His eyes had filled with tears at some point, and he continued, “They threatened them instead, once they realized threatening me wouldn’t work. I agreed to eat because I didn’t want my friends to get hurt for my own stupidity.

“I think I’ve refused to face what happened because it scares me, too. I don’t want to be so detached that death seems better than life. I don’t want to end up like that again. But I also can’t bear to have to face their anger. I know they’re mad at me,” Grian said, burying his face in his knees, “Sorry for rambling. I’ve never spoken about this with anyone before.”

“Don’t be sorry. I’m glad you decided to talk to me,” Xisuma said, gently starting to run his fingers through Grian’s hair, “You know the others would never, ever actually be mad at you for that, right? They just care about you. They don’t want you to get hurt. They want to help you. You just have to let them.”

“I’m not supposed to break!” Grian exclaimed, wrapping his wings around himself and burying his face farther into his knees, “I’m supposed to be the leader! I’m supposed to take care of them! They aren’t supposed to have to worry about me! I’m supposed to be strong enough that they don’t need to!”

“Everyone needs people to fall back on sometimes,” Xisuma said, “Leaders are there to guide people, to try to keep them safe. But their people are also there for them, to fight for them and take care of them if things get dire. It’s a two-way street. That’s what the others are trying to do for you. You just need to open up enough to let them. They love you just as much as you love them. It will be hard to accept help after everything that you have bottled up over the years, but I promise it will get easier over time.”

Grian sniffed quietly, wiping tears away from his eyes as he processed Xisuma’s words. He quietly asked, “What if you guys can't help? What if I’m too broken to fix?”

“No one’s too broken to fix. And even if you were, all of us would still be willing to try,” Xisuma said.

Xisuma opened his arms to Grian, and Grian fell into them, burying his face in Xisuma’s chest as he started to cry harder. Xisuma started to run his fingers through his hair, holding him close.

After a few minutes, they heard EX shout from upstairs, “Xisuma! It’s your shift for front desk!”

“I have to go work. You want me to send Jimmy back here to sit with you?” Xisuma asked softly.

Grian nodded, reluctantly letting go of Xisuma and sitting upright, wiping tears from his eyes. Xisuma kissed him on the forehead before heading out of the room. He went to the living room to find all of the experiments still there, sitting in anxious silence.

“Hey, Jimmy, do you mind sitting with Grian for a bit? I have to go work the front desk,” Xisuma said.

“Of course I don’t mind! How did the conversation go?” Jimmy asked.

“I think it went well. He may even be open to talking later. But right now, I think he just wants someone to be with him,” Xisuma said.

“Thank you so much, Xisuma,” Scott said as Jimmy left to go to Grian.

“It’s no problem. I’m glad I could help,” Xisuma smiled, leaving to go upstairs.

Jimmy entered the room to find Grian curled up on his bed, tears streaming down his face.

“Hey, G-man,” Jimmy said softly, sitting next to him.

Grian sat up and immediately wrapped his arms around Jimmy, clinging to him like he had done with Xisuma. Jimmy smiled, wrapping his arms around Grian and holding him close.

“You’re a miracle worker, Xisuma,” Mumbo exclaimed in shock as Xisuma entered the basement again a few hours later.

“Hmm?” Xisuma hummed in confusion.

“Grian actually spoke with us about his problems! We had an almost hour long conversation, and he’s willing to let us help him!” Lizzie said.

“I don’t know what you said to him, but thank you, thank you, thank you!” Mumbo said, “None of us have ever managed to convince him to talk to us!”

“It’s the least I could do. I’m glad he took my advice,” Xisuma smiled, “Hopefully he can start to heal now.”

*****

Scott was starting to get impatient.

He currently had three failed murder attempts under his belt since he and the others escaped. He had no idea how he had managed to get caught every single time, but he did.

The only good thing about those failed attempts was that he now knew what worked and what didn’t. Bringing more than one other person didn’t work, going out during the day didn’t work, going out when Xisuma was on front desk duty didn’t work, etc.

Ren was his go to person to bring with for obvious reasons. Ren was a werewolf, meaning the two got to split their kills 50/50. Scott got the blood while Ren got the meat. It was how they had gone through quite a few workers during their time in the facility.

They were both starving. They were able to eat human food and while it left them satisfied for a little bit, it wasn’t the same. They were still hungry.

It wasn’t helping that there were humans just upstairs every single day. They didn’t want to hurt the cops or the people who came to the station, but it was getting harder by the day.

Scott had already had a close call with Grian’s second transformation. The blood was calling to him, mocking him. He knew Ren could tell how hard he was having to refrain himself by how he grabbed Scott’s hand, a failsafe way of stopping him in case Scott couldn’t control himself.

He managed to, solely because he knew that if he gave in, he would want more, and he would end up hurting Grian. He didn’t want to hurt any of his friends, his family. He was still so glad he had refrained.

Their attempts were getting more desperate.

They were looking for any opening to get out and kill those workers. They knew there were a few variables they would have to look out for.

1. Xisuma - The most obvious issue. If Xisuma caught onto what they were doing, they were dead meat. They needed to get out when he was busy or preoccupied.
2. Doc - If they did manage to get out, Doc somehow seemed to know everything. All Xisuma would have to do is ask Doc where they were and Doc would know. He honestly might’ve put trackers on them. They would need to go when Doc was either working with his plants, since everyone knew to not mess with him when he was in his happy place, or sleeping, since nobody wants to risk waking him up.
3. Grian - If they somehow managed to get by both Xisuma and Doc, Grian could literally find them wherever they were in the world at will. They needed to go when Grian wouldn’t be willing to use his sight.

It seemed like they would never find a perfect day to go, but then…

“Where are Jimmy and Grian?” Scar asked at breakfast.

“When I woke up this morning, Grian complained that he felt awful and wasn’t going anywhere today. He said he felt even worse than he does during a normal control drop. Xisuma said he probably caught a virus from one of the cops, which caused a control drop, which led to Grian being as miserable as he is,” Mumbo said, “Jimmy said he’s staying with him today.”

“Aw, poor thing! Is he alright?” Lizzie asked.

“He doesn’t feel well but he’ll be alright. He said crashes like these normally only last for a few days,” Mumbo said, “Xisuma’s stressing about it, though. He doesn’t know if Grian being sick and going through a crash is going to cause any complications.”

“That’s horrible. I’ll have to go check on him after breakfast,” Pearl said.

The others started talking among themselves as Ren and Scott shared a look.

“Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” Ren whispered.

Scott nodded, “I think we’ve finally gotten our golden day.”

Scott and Ren went to check on Grian after lunch later that day.

“Hey, G. How’re you doing?” Scott asked.

“I am miserable in every sense. Thanks for asking,” Grian muttered from his place curled up next to Jimmy. Jimmy was running his fingers through Grian’s hair, holding him close.

“Aw, I’m sorry. Anything we can do to help?” Ren asked.

“Not really. Just try not to be super loud today. I have an awful migraine,” Grian said.

“Can do. Hope you feel better,” Scott said.

“Thank you,” Grian said as the two left.

The two almost walked straight into Xisuma.

“Woah! Sorry about that, X,” Scott said.

“It’s alright. I wasn’t paying attention,” Xisuma said.

“You okay, dude?” Ren asked.

“Just have a lot on my plate. Grian’s sick and absolutely miserable, I’m not sure if a control drop and a virus simultaneously are going to cause any issues, I can only convince the other cops to take over my shifts for so long, I was going to go shopping today but I might have to find someone to take care of that too, it’s a lot,” Xisuma said.

“I’m sorry. Let us know if there’s anything we can do to help out,” Scott said.

“Thanks. I will,” Xisuma nodded before entering the room to talk to Grian and Jimmy.

Scott and Ren headed to Scott’s room, since no one else was in it.

“Alright, what’s our plan?” Ren said.

“Okay, so, I say we help Xisuma out during the day. He definitely seems to need a hand. At some point after everyone’s asleep we sneak out. Doc will be asleep, Xisuma will be busy, and Grian’s already not an option,” Scott said, “Even if Xisuma tried to get Grian to use his powers to find us, he’d have eight very angry experiments after him. We sneak out, we get the workers, we sneak back.”

“Perfect. We can meet up before we ‘head to bed’ to decide a time,” Ren said.

“Good idea. Talk to you later,” Scott said.

Throughout the day, Ren and Scott acted like normal. Scott and Joel wound up going to the store for Xisuma since they both looked the most human out of everyone, though Xisuma did tell Joel he was Scott’s babysitter while they were out.

“Please don’t try to kill the workers. I know I wouldn’t be able to stop you,” Joel begged as soon as the two were outside.

“Don’t worry, I won’t today,” Scott said. Joel shot him a skeptical look, and Scott continued, “Seriously! You’ve seen how stressed Xisuma is today! I’m not going to make that worse!”

“Okay…” Joel said.

The two got through the trip with little to no issue. They got everything on the list along with the various items the other experiments had requested.

Doc had used his robotic eye to examine Grian and assured Xisuma that there shouldn’t be any dire complications, though Xisuma was still slightly paranoid that something was going to happen.

Grian had fallen asleep a while back and had been sleeping soundly for a few hours. Everyone was extremely relieved that their friend at least got a temporary break from the pure misery he was in.

Ren and the other experiments had been helping out as they could, taking lunch to both Xisuma and Jimmy and being sure to not make much noise to avoid waking Grian up.

As planned, Ren and Scott met up and agreed to try to sneak out at one in the morning.

It was back to the waiting game for a few hours.

It was one am.

The two were about to try to sneak up the stairs when they heard a door open.

They quickly hid around a corner, extraordinarily confused to see Grian leaving his room, walking towards the bottom of the stairs.

Xisuma was working the front desk when he heard a voice from downstairs.

“Suma?” Grian asked.

“G? Everything okay?” Xisuma asked, moving to look down the stairs.

Sure enough, there was Grian, leaning heavily on the railing of the stairs, “Are you busy?”

“Not really. Why?” Xisuma asked.

“Would you mind sitting with me? I had a nightmare,” Grian said tiredly.

“Of course I don’t mind. Go ahead back to your room. I’ll be down in a moment,” Xisuma said.

Grian listened, sleepily walking back towards his room.

“EX?” Xisuma said.

“Hmm?” EX asked from the other room.

“You’re on camera duty tonight, right?” Xisuma asked.

“Yep,” EX said.

“Would you mind switching with me? Grian had a nightmare and wants me to stay with him, and I can’t exactly work the front desk from downstairs,” Xisuma said.

“Fine, but next time I’m on front desk and you’re on cameras, we’re switching,” EX said, walking into the room, and handing Xisuma the tablet that was linked to the cameras.

“Fairs fair. Thank you,” Xisuma said.

“No problem,” EX said, sitting at the front desk.

Xisuma promptly headed to Grian’s room, not noticing the two still standing around the corner who couldn’t believe their luck.

Scott and Ren managed to sneak by EX pretty easily, since he was scrolling through his phone.

They quietly made their way towards where they knew the workers were being held.

They thought they were golden.

Nobody had seen them.

Little did they know, they were being watched.

Xisuma had been sitting with Grian for about fifteen minutes now.

He had been stroking Grian’s hair and quietly humming to try and lure him back to sleep. Grian was currently curled up against his chest, having fallen back asleep about ten minutes in. It was calming to be able to hear the steady beating of Xisuma’s heart, the quiet and soothing humming easily making Grian feel safe and causing him to fall asleep again.

Xisuma had just been watching the cameras, holding Grian close as he idly watched the empty hallways.

And then he saw the two sneaky experiments creeping down the corridor towards the workers.

He sighed, though he knew deep down that the two would obviously take their chance to try and get a worker.

He messaged the group chat he was in with the other cops, asking who was currently patrolling hallway C.

False and Stress both responded that they were, and Xisuma quickly explained the situation to them. He found the responses funny, as False sent a laughing emoji while Stress said ‘again??’. He chuckled, replying that yes, they were in fact trying again.

The two agreed to go stop the two, and Xisuma got ready to watch the show through the cameras.

Scott and Ren were about to grab one of the workers before-

“Nice try, you two,” Stress said as both her and False grabbed the two.

“What the heck! How did you catch us?” Ren said.

False gestured to the corner of the room, “Smile for the camera.”

“There are cameras?” Scott asked.

“Yep! Now come on, I think Xisuma wants to have a chat with you two,” Stress said.

“Uh oh,” Ren said, now almost as pale as Scott.

Xisuma carefully picked Grian up off of his lap, setting him down on the bed. He didn’t want to wake him up while talking to Scott and Ren. Thankfully, Grian only shifted slightly in his sleep before relaxing, resuming being sound asleep.

Xisuma quietly left the room, leaving to sit in the living room to wait for his little criminals.

Scott and Ren anxiously stood in front of Xisuma, having been dropped off by Cleo and False.

They felt like kids who had been caught stealing cookies. Xisuma was taller than both of them, and they were waiting for him to start scolding them.

Xisuma inhaled sharply before saying, “Look, I’m not mad at you, I'm just disappointed.”

Scott and Ren were both caught extraordinarily off guard by those words. They had become well acquainted with shouting over their years at the facility, but the look of disappointment on Xisuma’s face was not something they were ready for.

“Wha- what? Aren’t you going to yell at us?” Scott asked.

“No. Even if I wanted to, we’ve got nine sleeping people a wall over, along with one who’s sick. I wouldn’t risk waking them up for anything. Either way, I don’t want to,” Xisuma said, “We need to talk about how we’re going to fix this.”

“Fix… what?” Ren asked.

“I know you two really want blood and meat. And I get that it’s a necessity more than just a want. But we need to find an alternative to just letting you guys run out and murder people,” Xisuma said, “Do you know if it needs to be human blood and meat?”

This… was not the direction they were expecting the conversation to go in.

“I, uh… I don’t think it needs to be? Whenever we have something with meat for dinner, it settles the craving a little bit… it might just have to be raw?” Ren said.

“I don’t know about blood. I’ve only ever had human blood,” Scott said, “But it might be worth a shot?”

“I can work with that,” Xisuma said, before adding, “Seriously, though, I need you two to stop going after those workers. I promise that once they get tried in court they’ll get what they deserve, but if you go after them you’ll end up in jail.”

“Okay. I’m sorry,” Scott said.

“I’m sorry too,” Ren said.

“It’s alright. Now we can work together to find a solution,” Xisuma smiled.

Scott and Ren were still very confused by the conversation they had with Xisuma.

They would soon find out that animal products did in fact satisfy their instincts. And they were quite good.

Sure, maybe the cops were even more freaked out now because they could now find Scott just drinking a cup of blood or Ren eating raw meat, but that was more of a positive than a negative. The experiments had started an unofficial competition for who could freak the cops out the most, though Impulse was still winning.

They were slightly disappointed that they didn’t get to eat the beings that had wronged them and their family in too many ways to count, but knew Xisuma was preventing them from doing so for their own good.

Either way, the other experiments were happy for the two. They could tell how hungry they were getting and were happy to see the two satisfied.

Grian, who was feeling much better a few days later, said that he had thought he had seen the two when he got up to go get Xisuma, but since he was exhausted and slightly delirious he thought he had imagined it. He said he was surprised Xisuma didn’t notice them, too.

Xisuma wound up admitting that he knew the two were going to try to get the workers with everything going on that day, and that he had made sure two cops would be near their cells for when they did.

Scott and Ren were slightly disappointed that they weren’t as sneaky as they had thought, but still. The pros of the situation outweighed the cons, and that was all that mattered.

*****

The cops learned that the experiments were chaotic, to say the least. They were loud and seemed to love scaring them at every turn, but the cops did grow to adore them over the years. They were glad they had saved them.

The experiments had never been happier. Sure, there were still a few bumps in the road, from people getting sick to having fights, but everything always ended up okay in the end. 

They were just happy to finally have their happily ever after.