Chapter Text
The cage was Cross’s entire world. It was where he ate, slept, existed. Sure, it may be a little small, but it was familiar. The cage was all he knew.
The lab wasn’t exactly comfortable, but it was quiet, and he was always safe and well-fed. Other bitties weren’t so lucky, the scientists said. Cross should be grateful he was born in the lab and chosen for this project. He was special.
Being special was lonely. Cross was stuck in the cage all day every day with no one to talk to or play with. He just existed; bored and alone.
At one point, he’d had Zero and Xcellence for company. They were fun. At first. They were wild bitties; they’d had a life before the lab. And that made them so lively. Xcellence would shout at the doctors, calling them horrible names and demanding his release. Release from what? Cross would think. They were safe in there cages. The other bitty must not have known how lucky he was to be here.
Zero would squirm and bite whenever they pulled him out for a test. Cross wasn’t sure why. The tests were somewhat unpleasant, but at least then the doctors were paying attention to them. Why wouldn’t Zero want that? Maybe he was just uncomfortable outside his cage.
At first, the extra company was nice. They had stories from the outside world, experiences Cross couldn’t even imagine. But as time wore on, Xcellence got meaner and Zero got duller. Eventually, Cross couldn’t have a conversation with either of them. Xcellence would snap at him, and Zero wouldn’t respond, no matter what subject was brought up. It was like living with a demon and a zombie.
After a while, the scientists took the other bitties away. They never told Cross what happened to them. He was sure they were just trying to fix those temperament issues. Once Xcellence and Zero were back to there old selves, they would return.
They never did.
Cross sat in silence, day in and day out. The doctors murmured quietly to each other as they puzzled through all of there equations and experiments. Every once in a while, a machine might start up. Even rarer, they might pull Cross out of his cage for a test.
One day, everything changed.
People - lots of them - burst through the doors, shouting and stomping and throwing things around. They threw Cross’s cage around, too, into a loud car with flashing lights.
There was a stranger in the front seat, but he didn’t talk. Just started driving, which jostled the cage all the more. When they’d gotten to wherever they were going, he grabbed the crate roughly, bustling through the halls of a busy building, full of people and computers and cages big enough to hold a normal-sized person.
Cross was there for a long time. At least, it felt like a long time. He’d never been outside the lab before, it felt like he was doing something wrong. Had these people stolen him? But the scientists had been right there when the strangers showed up... Cross wasn’t sure what was going on.
He hadn’t seen any of the doctors since these new people had taken him from the lab. Some of the strangers talked to him, but there voices sounded weird. They were all high-pitched and sweet. They asked him questions about how he was feeling and offered him treats and tried to make him leave his cage. Cross was feeling lost and scared and confused, and he wasn’t hungry, and he did not want to leave his cage.
Maybe this was some sort of test? Maybe the scientists wanted to see how Cross reacted to stress or sudden change? But why go through the hassle of setting up this weird building just to create stress? And why bring in so many of these strangers who spoke weird? Cross didn’t know what to do, so he stuck with what he’d always done: sit in his cage and watch his surroundings.
There was certainly a lot more to watch in this place. People were constantly coming and going, and talking to each other, and talking to those devices - phones, the scientists rarely used them - and typing away at the computers on there many desks. The entire building seemed to be full of desks. Desks and computers.
It was much darker than the lab. And the lights were more yellow. In the lab, everything had been bright white and clinical and pristine. This place looked dingy and dirty in comparison. Especially the room Cross was in now.
His crate was on a messy desk full of papers. Some of the scientists had desks in the lab, but theres had been more organized. Desks were where they did paperwork, and Cross wasn’t allowed near them because he’d be in the way. The tall skeleton without eyelights didn’t seem to think Cross was in the way. He just shoved a bunch of papers onto the floor and gently set the cage down.
This room seemed to belong to the skeleton. He talked on his phone and typed at his computer. Cross wasn’t sure why this skeleton needed his own room when everyone else shared one big room to do the exact same thing. Maybe he was in time-out?
This new skeleton was very forgetful. He kept leaving the cage door open. Cross didn’t want to make anyone angry by pointing out the mistake, so he just sat quietly in his crate, as usual.
The strange skeleton talked all day, and he asked Cross a lot of questions. Cross didn’t want to answer his questions, but he also didn’t want the scientists to get mad, so he answered everything he could. He was born in the lab. The scientists weren’t mean to him, they kept him safe. No, he didn’t usually leave his cage except for the tests. The doctors gave him tests. Sometimes they hurt, but not always.
The skeleton said his name was Reaper, and he was a police detective. Cross didn’t know what a police was, but Reaper said they made sure people followed the rules. And apparently the scientists weren’t following the rules, so Cross wasn’t allowed to go back to the lab. Reaper told Cross that a nice person was coming to pick him up in the morning.
Cross wasn’t sure that he wanted to go with that person in the morning. Even if they were nice, they were still a stranger.
When morning came, a new monster showed up to visit Reaper. He sat on the other side of Reaper’s desk while the eyelight-less skeleton pulled out some papers for the other to sign.
“This is him?” the stranger asked, gesturing to the cage. Reaper nodded.
The other monster studied Cross through the bars for a moment. Cross stared right back. He seemed to be a messy monster, covered in a dripping black liquid. It had even covered one of his eyelights. And four... limbs... protruded from his back.
“Is there a reason he’s in there?” the darker skeleton asked, and his voice sounded dangerous. It was the same tone the scientists used when Cross was breaking a rule. Had he done something wrong? Had he missed a test? Or maybe there was a different cage he was supposed to move to when he’d changed buildings? He hadn’t seen one...
Reaper shrugged. “He won’t come out, we weren’t gonna push it. But you can have at it if you want.”
The goopy skeleton pulled Cross’s cage into his lap. “Come on out,” he encouraged, holding out a hand by the door.
Cross was torn. He usually wasn’t supposed to leave the cage, but this strange monster was encouraging it? Then again, nothing had been “usual” in the past day or so. A long time ago, when Cross was young, the doctors sometimes let him leave his crate as long as they held onto him. Maybe it was like that? Cross hesitantly stepped out of the cage and onto the stranger’s hand.
“Hello, there,” the skeleton greeted. “My name is Nightmare. And you are?”
“Cross,” Cross mumbled.
"Nice to meet you, Cross. How would you like to come live with me?"