Cyber: Orien said to add this to the top soooo....

WARNING: Body Horror, Dismemberment, Violence, Yelling, Torture, Non-Human Blood, Non-consensual drug use, Death, Panic Attacks, if your not super into all that there is a chapter summary in the end notes so that you can read the next chapter without being confused. Enjoy!!!

Ender: I was actually horrified reading this. This is not my kind of genre when writing XD my poor boys!

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Chapter 3: Captured.

George's POV:

Contrary to the belief of the others on this ship, George was not as oblivious as he seemed. For one he'd recognized the build of the Dreamon ship almost immediately, he used to help engineer ships when he was younger so it was hardly a challenge. Second, wherever Sapnap would disappear TWO voices would echo quietly in the halls and despite the fact that Sapnap often talked to himself, George was fairly certain that the voice accented with the Dreamon tongue was not Sapnap switching voices to speak to himself. Third he could smell the rot, not the old rot of the atrocities that had occured on this ship, but a new festering one. The smell of infection. At first he had been worried that it was Sapnap with the infection, and that the Dreamon on board was experimenting on the Archea, but after a few careful investigations of the Archea's natural scent, he determined that no, the Archea was not hurt in any way. So despite his many wanderings around the ship, there was only one other person on board....the Dreamon. Which either meant that the Dreamon was constantly carrying around a wounded person and/or creature, OR for some unfathomable reason instead of allowing himself to die and regenerate the Dreamon was allowing a hidden wound fester.

George couldn't think of any reason a Dreamon would experiment on itself and the thought was driving him bonkers. So one night after he pretended to go to bed he snuck into the hallway after Sapnap and the Dreamon began to speak, careful to stay out of the range of where he knew Dreamon's could smell. Sapnap's was the first voice he heard.

"-acting strange, we really should just tell him you're here! Sure he'll probably freak out at first but when we explain-"

The Dreamon cut him off, voice tinged with....anger???? But how??? George shook off the thought and kept listening.

"Tell him what 'hey this Dreamon isn't like the rest of his monstrous kind, he actually can feel things and I swear he won't hurt you!' Sap he'll think you're crazy! Besides I don't want to scare him, I can just....hide, it's really fine. After we drop him off at a port that's safe for him we can go back to getting you home and safe. He doesn't need to know I exist, it would just stress him out more."

There was a long moment of silence then, Sapnap spoke his voice achingly gentle in the face of the Dreamon's frustration.

"Then what will you do Dream? When George and I are safe and sound and you're the only one on this ship, where will you go? What will you do?"

There was a heavy uncomfortable pause that made something in George twist, then the Dreamon spoke, his voice soft a note of pain in his tone

"Sapnap, I'll be fine, I was planning to escape even before I met you, I-I was going to travel the galaxy, maybe talk to the counsel? Ask them for protection from the Drea- From my homeworld, and offer them medical knowledge in exchange. I'll be fine, I'm a Dreamon Sapnap, its fine"

Somehow George got the subtle feeling that Sapnap didn't believe the Dreamon. Sapnap sighed a heavy sound and there was the sound of something shifting before the lights went off in the room.

"If you say so, but just so you know, I was thinking of maybe traveling with you for a bit, my dad is the only one left for me at home since my mom died, and he's off planet right now. So I'd be down for a bit of adventuring, maybe more rescuing like we did with George. It's up to you though."

The silence after that felt suffocating and George slunk back to his room, feeling slightly nauseous. Perhaps he had misinterpreted what was going on here. In this distraction he forgot the smell of rot he'd been aware of the past few days, and this would prove to be the motley crew's undoing....

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Sapnap's POV:

The first sign that something was wrong was the blaring of alarms as something crashed into the hull during a brief pause between one of their jumps. The second was the sound of tearing metal as something ripped into the ship. There was no sound of air escaping, and the ship didn't collapse in on itself so whoever had crashed into them had created an air seal the moment they impacted, which meant that this was a raid. Sapnap dashed out of the cockpit and towards where the sounds had come from, he met George in the hall, and the Comat had an exhausted look on his face.

"Looks like your Dreamon friends buddies have arrived."

Sapnap gaped at George before his features morphed into a snarl, and he growled back.

"I don't know how you know about Dream but I can assure you this wasn't his doing!"

At that moment Dream appeared in the hall, his eyes wide and claws fully out, as he stared down the hall, he looked...well he looked awful and terrified. Sapnap's attention was drawn from Dream's sudden appearance by a scoff from George's direction. He glanced over and found George glaring at Dream, murder in his gaze.

"You can drop the act now, Dreamon, we know that you called them here."

Dream's attention snapped from the hall to George, his eyes wide with shock.

"What?!?! I had nothing to do with this!"

The Comat snorted.

"Sure you didn't."

Their argument got no further, a squad of Dreamon's appeared at the end of the hall specialty Phaser's in hand, and Dream snarled at them. George flared his fungi and orange mist began to descend around them, Sapnap took that as his cue to burst into pure white and blue flames.

Dream was the first to attack, launching himself across the space in a single bound aiming for the squads leader, he managed to dig his claws into the leaders throat and yanked it out reducing the Dreamon to dust in a blink. He caught the core as it fell and spun, crushing the core over a second Dreamon's head. George's gas reached the first two Dreamon's that had charged them and the deadly duo went down hard gasping involuntarily as their airways closed off. Sapnap charged three of his own Dreamon's as they tried to get past Dream and his heat turned their glasslike skin almost instantly to liquid as the metal of the floors, ceilings, and walls around them also began to melt. He grabbed their cores from the puddles and watched as direct contact with him instantly shattered their protective coating. Within moments all three cores were nothing more than ash.

Dream had taken down four more assailants and George two more, when things began to go wrong. Sapnap watched almost in slow motion as Dream was struck in the side by a flailing nearly dead Dreamon. The blow should have done nothing to Dream's hard hide, but instead he crumpled almost instantly with a bit back scream of pain. Sapnap's split focus on his friend was his downfall. It gave a Dreamon a chance to fire a dart into the center of his ribcage where one of his hearts lay.

Whatever was in the dart quickly lowered Sapnap's heat levels until he found himself unable to move, trapped in his form of solid cooled stone. After that a storm of darts headed toward George. The Comat was able to get rid of most of them, his body melting them out as fast as they came, flowing off his body in rivers of slime like plasma. But eventually the sheer amount of them became too much and the drug kicked in. Sapnap trapped in his own body was able to see the moment another Dreamon exited the ship. This one was visibly different from the others with a rack of six, glowing, crystalline, horns atop his head. He was taller than the others by at least a full two heads, and had to crouch to fit in the ship. His skin was visibly harder than the smaller Dreamon's, his blue and black skin shimmering in patches of hard crystal, like the inner core of minor Dreamons.

Sapnap didn't much care how high ranked this Dreamon was though, what he cared about was what the Dreamon was doing to his friend. Dream had recovered somewhat from the blow and had staggered to his feet, one hand holding his side as black blood and pus spilled from between his fingers. The smell of rot was so strong even Sapnap could smell it. Dream stood unsteadily but defiantly, his teeth bared in a snarl as he stared up at the Dreamon.

"Xeir!"

Dream spat the name like a curse, but the higher level Dreamon only tilted its head at Dream, its face eerily blank. Sapnap found that he'd gotten so used to Dream's constantly changing expressions, that the eerie blankness seemed far more unnatural then it had before.

The Dreamon leaned forward and faster than Sapnap could track a clawed hand shot out gripping just beneath Dream's chin, and the Dreamon dragged Dream upwards claws curling around the younger Dreamon's throat and sending Dream flailing in a panic as he gasped for air. The Dreamon watched impassively, its eyes tracing Dream's throat as the airway's contracted desperately to intake air.

{Violent Content Warning further choking, and aggravation of previous wounds **** marks end of violent content section}

It sniffed the air lifting Dream higher as Dream's struggles began to fade, the lack of oxygen making him fall limp. The Dreamon now had Dream's wound level with its eyes and it brought up its other hand, tracing the edges of the clearly infected injury with a hum. Then without warning it plunged its claws into the wound, even George who up until this point had looked resigned clearly thinking Dream had betrayed them looked sickened and shocked by the action.

Sapnap let out a muffled cry, renewing his efforts to break free from his own stony skin, as the Dreamon began to root around inside Dream's injury, clearly fascinated by Dream's insides. Dream twitched lazily in the Dreamon's grasp, weak from lack of oxygen, but clearly in serious pain.

The Dreamon ignored them all, digging even deeper until with a slick wet Clirrrrck one of its claws came in contact with bone. Dreams' whole body twitched and spasmed like he'd been struck with electricity, before his eyes rolled back in his skull and his whole body finally went horrifyingly limp. The Dreamon didn't seem to care too focused on its exploration of Dream's insides to pay attention to the rapidly deteriorating status of its prisoner. Sapnap supposed that made sense honestly; it was odd that Dream hadn't disintegrated down to his core for regeneration yet. Sapnap had disintegrated several Dreamon's over the years who had collapsed with far less damage then Dream currently had.

The Dreamon hummed again before a long black tongue slid from between its sharp teeth and began to twist around and over the wound and around its claws still sunk wrist deep in Dream. Sapnap felt abruptly very ill as the tongue snapped back dripping with pus and blood. The Dreamon hummed at the taste, clearly intrigued. Finally it pulled its hand free from Dream's injury and switched its grip from Dream's neck to one of his horns, it nodded to the other Dreamons and gestured to Sapnap and George and turned back to the hole in the wall that led to their ship.

{***************}

It dragged Dream along behind it by the horn, Dream's body leaving a long smudge of oily black blood behind it, like some sick art piece. Sapnap and George were grabbed by the other Dreamons and dragged along as well toward the ship, within minutes they'd been loaded into containment cubes much like the cage Dream and Sapnap had rescued George from just a few days before. The engines roared quietly beneath their feet and the drugs kept them immobile, but Sapnap was facing the door to the lab they were next to, and so was able to see the higher level Dreamon as it tossed Dream carelessly atop the table in the center of the room. He watched sickened as Dream's limp form was strapped down like a slab of meat, and the Dreamon turned making a call, its red and blue eyes glowing eerily in the dim light of the half powered down room.

"We retrieved the Archea, as well as a Comat, and the traitor."

There was a long moment as the Dreamon listened to the person on the other end, the person who apparently spoke common, then it spoke again a sickening grin crossing its face. One of the few emotions Dreamons could express was curiosity and intrigue, and it looked like this grin had to do with that-

"Indeed he was more solid and stable then any other Dreamon of his class i've ever studied, it was fascinating."

The word sounded sick and twisted coming from the Dreamon, as if the severe pain and fear it had caused Dream and Sapnap and George was merely a particularly interesting puzzle it was working on. Eventually after a few more minutes of listening the Dreamon frowned clearly disappointed.

"But I want to look at the inside of the core myself!"

Sapnap held his breath waiting desperately to see what the Dreamon would say next, to dissect a Dreamon's core almost certainly meant death and if Dream was dead they couldn't escape with the Dreamon....if escape was even possible. The Dreamon snarled grumpily, glancing longingly at the Dreams prone form.

"Fine, but I will be studying the outside of the core at the very least."

And with that it hung up, it crossed to Dream and leaned down and traced a claw over Dream's chest tearing the remains of Dream's tight shirt, it was reaching out clearly with some sort of malintent when a lower level Dreamon entered with a frantic string of hisses and clicks. The high level Dreamon growled and with one last regretful glance and Dream, it left the room barking something at the lower level Dreamon as it slammed the door after them.

Sapnap stared and his injured friend then glanced over at George who was staring at him from his place on the bottom of his cage, eyes wide with horror and curiosity. It would seem that George at the very least had finally realized that Dream hadn't sold them out. Sapnap internally snorted bitterly, not that it mattered much now what George thought of Dream. Yes the Dreamon had been delayed, but recalling the Dreamon's intrigue with Dream Sapnap doubted that the distraction would hold the Dreamon's attention for long, and after that.....well he and George were next, and he doubted the Dreamon would be any more gentle with them then it had been with Dream.

Deciding that since he couldn't do much else, Sapnap dozed off, still trapped in his stone form, and with the sickening certainty that he probably wasn't going to be able to get out of this one.

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George's POV:

The drug had worn off about thirty tic's ago and George found himself able to move, not that there was really anywhere for him to go at the moment. So the Dreamon that Sapnap had been keeping hidden really hadn't been the one to sell them out? Great. Fantastic, that didn't change the fact that it had still ended the same, with him being shipped out to some sort of Dreamon facility for testing. George couldn't say he was surprised, but still he was a tad bitter, for a bit there he'd almost really believed he had left the lab life behind him. He snorted what a joke that was, at least he wasn't the one on the table at the moment though. Almost guiltily, he glanced at the lab and the Dreamon lying still there, at the cruel thought.

He wouldn't wish that sort of treatment on anyone except for maybe the Dreamon's and scientists who did it to people. At that moment Sapnap stirred in the cage across from him, and George turned to warily look at the no doubt enraged Archea. He doubted the fiery man was particularly happy with this situation, and now that the Archea could move he anticipated much banging and screaming in the future. To his surprise there was none of that, the moment Sapnap was fully awake he glanced at George only once before kneeling upright and began to hiss and whisper yell into the deadly silence of the ship.

"Dream, Dream buddy you gotta wake up, come on Dream you know these kinds of ships, we can get out but I need you to WAKE UP!"

That last part was said in the volume of almost a regular voice and it clearly had an effect, George watched fascinated as the Dreamon on the lab table twitched head lolling in the direction of the sound. Towards them. Encouraged, Sapnap kept up his whisper yelling, and slowly the lids of Dream's eyes parted just enough to see a sliver of acidic green. They shut once again almost immediately before slowly fluttering open. Sapnap cheered quietly and whispered encouragement as Dream slowly became more and more aware.

{Panic Attack Warning *** Marks end}

George knew the moment the Dreamon returned to full consciousness, because those green, green eyes went wide, the green pupil completely overtaking the black sclera as Dream began bucking against the restraints, a quiet wounded keen filling the quiet room as he jostled his heavily bleeding side. Dream didn't seem to care all that much about the injury though, clearly far more panicked about the restraints keeping him from moving too much. Sapnap was the first to recover from the shock of Dream's sudden movements and quickly started whisper yelling reassurances clearly trying to calm the panicked Dreamon down. George had had enough.

"Shut up and calm down or we're all dead."

His voice was regular volume, not a shout, not a whisper, not filled with fear, but firm and deadly monotone. Dream halted and those wide, wide eyes turned toward him. George found himself the full focus of a fully instinct and emotion driven man, who clearly found something about what he said comforting, or at least worth paying attention to. George took a deep breathe and began speaking, praying that for once he was wrong and that there really was a way out of this situation.

{************}

"Great, now that I have your attention, got any tips on how to get out of these cages?"

Those green, green eyes stared at him blankly before slowly the pupils began to retract allowing the black sclera to become visible once more. Dream blinked and then slumped against the table, taking deep measured breaths as he closed his eyes clearly focusing. Then those eyes opened once more, and focused on George and Sapnap. Dream's eyes roved over the cages clearly not liking what he saw before he turned his attention back to the two of them.

"How much of the drugs have worn off."

His tone was clipped and firm, no nonsense, and George answered equally sharp and firm.

"Mine are completely worn off other than a mild headache."

Sapnap spoke next,

"Still a little stiff, and I doubt I could go full heat, but I can definitely move now and probably get up to a medium blaze."

Dream nodded before closing his eyes and furrowing his brow, one of his pointed ears twitched and George could tell he was listening for something. Whatever it was that he heard wasn't good.

"Crap, just as I thought, he's on his way now."

{Violent Content Warning: Broken Bones and Severed Limbs **** Marks end of section}

The Dreamon seemed to contemplate something for a brief moment before he twisted a single hand so far that the wrist and thumb snapped. Within seconds the hand was free, but instead of going for his other restraints he went for his other hand and before either of them could react or call for him to stop, he sliced off one of his own fingers at the base of the knuckle. Shocked, George almost launched himself into the back of his cage as Dream threw the finger toward him, eyes serious. The finger landed right outside George's cage within easy reach and Dream started talking rapidly, quickly trying to undo his restraints with his broken hand.

"Dreamon claws can cut through the bars on the cage you're in, the cages are designed that way to be easier to access. Xeri is going to be here in just a moment and there is no time for me to come up with a better plan. When he comes in he's going to do a lot of things to me, whatever you do-"

{***********}

And this was directed at Sapnap his gaze hard as he stared at the Archea,

"Do not interfere or draw attention to yourself, wait until he's done. It's late so whenever he finishes whatever he has in mind, it will be time for his rest cycle, the rest of the crew except for the pilot is in hibernation mode in preparation for transit for the rest of this crew's mission. Kill the pilot then turn on the hibernation mode on Xeri's pod, that will give you enough time to get to the escape pods and at least a parle (week) before anyone discovers what you've done. And Sapnap-"

His voice was quiet he was working on his right ankle now both hands free, as he stared almost gently at the Archea,

"Cover your ears and don't look."

The door to the lab slid open and Xeri was a blur of motion as he slammed Dream against the table pinning the struggling younger Dreamon down as he began to reattach the restraints, making them much tighter this time. While the higher level Dreamon was distracted George snagged Dream's finger from outside the cage and absorbed it to hide it praying that the higher Dreamon wouldn't think to search them after he finished with Dream. After a few moments Dream was thoroughly tied down and George sincerely doubted that he'd be able to get out of them this time. Then the Dreamon spoke its voice perfectly even except for a hint of curiosity.

"How interesting, you almost made it out, I didn't think you'd be awake so quickly. You truly are...unique for our kind aren't you Dream."

Dream sneered eyes sharp,

"Wouldn't you like to know, cousin."

George felt something sick twist in his stomach. Xeri was Dream's cousin? And was still ok with all this? He knew that Dreamon's couldn't feel, and that they didn't care about anything except knowledge, but this was a new level of sick and twisted. Xeri tilted his head at Dream, staring at the snarl on his cousin's face, and then leaned forward. Dream twitched in his restraints clearly uncomfortable as those sharp, sharp claws traced his eyebrows and lips as they twitched from a sneer down into confusion and disgust.

"Intirestinggggg-"

His cousin intoned,

"When they said you were capable of emotion, I truly thought they were joking, after all you've always been remarkably blank faced even for our kind, no joy in the experiment rooms, no visible interest in the odd, and strange. I knew you were more durable certainly but I confirmed that had to do with our more regal parentage then anything truly significant a long time ago. What do you say little podling, shall we figure out what exactly it is that makes you so different."

{Violent Content Warning: Torture/ Vivisection **** marks End of Section)

Then without further warning Xeri plunged his hand into the soft underside of Dream's stomach. Dream keened arching on the table as this cousin twisted his hand inside Dream's torso, his face twisting into a silent scream of pure pain as his cousin gazed on in fascination. George felt ill. The urge to throw up grew stronger as the Dreamon yanked a likely vital organ from Dream's stomach. Unable to look away, he watched as Xeri looked over what appeared to be DreX (similar to a kidney and liver combined in human biology), watching in silent horror as the Dreamon tossed the organ onto the table and reached back inside Dream.

The following Deca (hour) was one of the longest of his life, he watched as Xeri systematically pulled out four more organs and then, began to painstakingly remove a few of Dream's ribs with sick snaps. He finally was able to force himself to look away when Xeri began to yank on the younger Dreamon's spine. Dream's screams had petered out somewhere around the third rib, and not because he'd stopped screaming or passed out, no his voice had given out with a sickening wheeze, a wheeze that continued on even now. George glanced over to Sapnap's cage, Sapnap was curled at the base of his cage rocking back and forth hands over his ears, as his friend was systematically torn apart not six strides (feet) from him.

George didn't even know Dream and he felt horrid, he couldn't even imagine how Sapnap was feeling. A particularly sickening squelch, snap and half scream wheeze, cut off his thoughts and George was unable to stop his sick curiosity as he glanced towards the table once more, glancing away immediately when he saw a hip bone clutched in Xeri's claws. A second long Deca later, it went relatively quiet as Xeri sliced open Dream's head and throat to look at his brain and vocal cords. George was shivering in the cold of the room, and Sapnap had passed out into a fitful sleep a few tic's ago, and that's when Xeri stepped back from the table with a hum. George stared at the sick minded Dreamon from beneath heavily lidded eyes as the Dreamon stared down at the mutilated body beneath his gaze.

"Well cousin, I'm glad we could have this time together, and I'm so glad the drug to keep you alive and solid worked despite your truly odd biology. It would have been a shame if you disintegrated for regeneration. It was such a joy to discover how unique you truly are, but knowing you, you'd find a way to get out even in this condition, so I'm going to have to eliminate that possibility."

George sincerely doubted Dream could go anywhere, the limbs thrown across the table and severed from the young Dreamon's main torso would have made that pretty impossible. With a dull sort of horror that came from watching someone being tortured for Deca's, he watched as Xeri reached into the mutilated mess that was Dream's body and yanked free the younger Dreamon's core. Dream's corpse shuddered and then disintegrated into a pile of dust and blood stains. Xeri hummed again, staring hungrily at Dream's core. Sighing disappointedly he placed the core inside a containment tube, and placed it on the lab counter. Glancing carelessly at George and Sapnap for the first time, he smiled lazily at them.

{**************}

"See you lot in a cycle or two, it was nice to spend time with you, I hope you enjoyed it. It was a truly informative session."

Then face once again eerily blank, the Dreamon strode out into the hall leaving behind no sign of what had occurred in the cold room except a few blood stains, and the memory of agonized screaming.....

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Thx to Orien for helping me double check my warnings were sufficient, and thx to Ender for editing this, twas a taaaaaaad violent for her tastes XD, so it really was an effort an her part. Thx again you guys!!!

Chapter 3 Summary: Dream Team is captured by Xeri (Dream's cousin) and Zeri's crew. They are brought aboard Xeri's ship, Dream and co. wakeup and Dream severs a finger for George and Sap to use to cut through some bars. Dream is then tortured to the point where his body disintegrates for the regeneration cycle. Xeri threatens to come back and do the same that he did to his cousin to George and Sap. Everyone except Xeri has a bad time...next time on 'Of Claw, Flame, and Tears' Dream Team makes its daring escape!!!