>readfile ~/loreserver 405
[LORE FILE CORRUPTED: ILLEGAL MERGE]
[RECOVERING FILES, PLEASE WAIT . . .]
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Torgal sighed heavily, his wings held flat against his back and his tail dragging limply along the ground as he walked forward out of the energy cage that made up the back half of the C.R.U. transport. The crewmen met his willing approach with nothing but harsh glares and a quick clamping of that damned shock collar to an electric tether held by a wrangler, who led him on further toward the facility's doors.

Irsaia watched her dear mate and protector from the back of the cage for the sweet few seconds that she could before being led out in the same fashion, despairing in the sight of Torgal's usually strong and resilient will now completely absent as he trudged forward. "... Dear?" she barely managed to croak out at him, as an attempt to distract him and lift that lowered head. He could not respond, feeling he had failed at the one thing he, and any mated drake, was sworn to do: protect the one he had taken under his wing. This silence did nothing to reassure Irsaia, her head dipping in the same manner as his as the two were led to their new cells. They were placed beside one another, scratched metal plating walls completely blocking their view of each other, only their suppressed murmurs and attempts to touch around the edge of the wall keeping them sane, for now.

[PARSING . . .]

Days, maybe even weeks had passed now; the two dragons were too disheartened to count any longer, especially since their cells had no view of the outside world whatsoever. They had met several other dragons in cells across from and next to theirs, some of which had been taken away on certain days and brought back hours later. Each had a pained expression on their face as they simply lay on the floor of their cells, clearly having experienced enough trauma to silence them completely for the unknowable future. Torgal and Irsaia held claws around that cell wall, trying to convince each other and themselves that they were going to be alright, that whatever was happening wouldn't happen to them, or that it wouldn't be that bad despite the evidence to the contrary.

But today, after the excruciating wait for the unknown and uncertain, their worst fears were finally realized. Torgal and Irsaia sat up nervously as the lights of the holding room flickered on, a small crew forming before Torgal's cage much like they had for every other dragon "processed" before. He snarled at them with as much anger as he could muster, which was not much given his hopeless situation. Irsaia's heart sank in her chest as she could just glimpse the crewmen hooking the electric tether to her mate's neck. She cried out to him in desperation as he was led away through those sliding reinforced doors toward whatever "process" awaited him, her silky voice cracking horribly as she thought of what they might do to him... and her not long after, for sure.

Torgal did not offer much resistance as the humans led him through the large, pristine white hallways, every surface possessing an unnaturally clean sheen to it. "Why are you being like this?" he thought to himself with a soft growl, eliciting a small shock from his collar. "You were always so dominant, so protective before this... but..." he trailed off, knowing full well that any resistance he did offer to these high-tech humans would only end in more suffering for himself and, worst case, Irsaia. And so he followed, as if he had the choice, as the humans led him into a large square room. Reinforced black glass covered one wall for the external observation room, and in the middle of the room was a strange table with straps here and there, no doubt for holding a dragon down. Overhead hung what Torgal could only describe to himself as a 'technological nightmare,' cables and spikes hanging almost randomly from a large series of concentric circles, getting lower with each smaller circle, like a camera lens without glass.

Torgal sighed heavily as he was pushed and prodded up onto the table, crewmen rushing around either side of him to secure his limbs, wings, tail, and neck in place, eliciting a heavy shudder from the drake as he tried to push thoughts of what would come next from his mind. The crew finally took their leave from his side, leaving nothing but the dragon behind as they retreated through a reinforced door which soon slid shut with a harsh clang. Torgal sighed again, breathing shakily as he was forced to wait in those uncomfortable binds and uneasy silence for what felt like an hour. A crackling noise finally rang out through the chamber, his ears lifting to attention as a human voice came through the intercom somewhere in the room. "Ah-hm... Experiment log... Series: Chroma... Specimen designation: Tau. Transporting shard now..." The static of silence crackled through the intercom as a moment passed. Torgal looked up as best he could as something moves about, a red glow suddenly emanating from the core of that strange machine. "Beginning charging sequence," said the intercom, the machine's rings starting to rotate in different directions as the glow from deep within began to strengthen slowly, accompanied by a deep humming. Torgal huffed shakily, resting his chin on the table and shutting his eyes forcefully as he braced for the worst...

Irsaia paced back and forth inside her little cell, claws clacking and scraping across the metal floor as she waited for the return of her lover. Thoughts of every possible scenario passed through her mind uncontrollably, a soft growling coming from deep within her as she mentally swore to rip any of those that did harm to him to shreds. "It's not that bad, ya know," a voice rasped out from the cell across from Irsaia. The speaker was a grey dragon of indeterminable gender, age, appearance, and... well, he was a fine looking male before being carted off snarling and thrashing by the crewmen. What was thrown back into the cell, however, was no longer a concrete individual. Bits of dark grey armor plating materialized and vaporized itself randomly along his steely hide, and his appearance seemed to be always changing and never fully describable, like he was scattered between parallel universes. [UPSILON], read the nameplate above his cell; the first dragon to be "processed" and return, though he had never spoken after that until now.

Irsaia almost leapt at the cell bars because of this, claws clenching around them as she attempted to get closer to hear what he had to say. "What?! What happens?! What do they do in there?!?" The glitched-out drake grinned wickedly, clearly still a little off his block from the experience even weeks later. "Ohhh, it's delightful~," he purred with a creepy hint of insanity in his voice, "First, they strap you downnn, rrgh, th- then, hah! then they- they--!" Upsilon suddenly howled in agony, both paws grabbing his head as he almost stood up, then fell completely backwards on his back, becoming motionless. Needless to say, Irsaia's anxiety quadrupled after this, her breath quickening as she began to pace again much more quickly, headbutting the walls and bars progressively more violently as she wailed in anguish for her dear mate...

Torgal's breath was shaky, eyes clenched shut as he could hear nothing but that damned mechanical horror above slowly spinning itself to life. His hide was crackling with static electricity the same color as the red glow of the machine above as the potential between him and the machine rose to its maximum level. Irsaia was clawing at the walls, her own hide feeling uncomfortable as hell as she could think of nothing but her mate, tears streaming down her face as she wished for nothing but to be with him at that very moment. "Charging sequence complete," said the intercom, distracting Torgal enough to open one eye curiously, "Beginning integration." His eyes opened wide in shock, all his senses feeling like they had been flashbanged and stunned at once as the machine above fired a beam of pure red energy down into his back and into his very core. Every part of his body felt like they were being dissolved in electrified acid, and he could not move or barely even think. A bolt of this red energy suddenly burst from the dragon's body, eliciting panicked shouts from the scientists behind the glass as the bolt shot through the side wall, instantly connecting with Irsaia even through all those walls and barriers. She roared in anguish and pain as she thought she might disintegrate on the spot from sadness alone, unaware that that was exactly what was happening to both of the pair simultaneously. The machine in the chamber roared continuously as it continued its process unhindered, dumping all of that charged red energy into the dissipating remains of the dragon below.

And then, just as soon as it had begun, it was over. Scientists and crewmen brushed themselves off and peered down into the test chamber in awe, not so much as even a charred skeleton remaining on that table. A few minutes of confusion and communication later, an unidentified black robotic was found in a hallway exactly halfway between the test chamber and the holding cell labeled [IOTA] that was now empty, as confirmed by one of the crewmen. The black dragon-shaped mass of deactivated metals was hauled off into the spare cell that held the original test subject, [TAU], with the hope that whatever had come out of this botched experiment was somehow alive or otherwise operational.

Upsilon knew, however, that the two lovers were still very much present in that cell...

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[END PLAYBACK]

Thanks to the wonderful  egyptiandragon1!