Test Subject No. 1

Name: Lillith

Species: Dragon

Age: 4

DOB: July 4, 1386

Breeder Name: Caine

Breeder No.: 6478283-76

Test Subject No. 2

Name: Tier

Species: Joker

Age: 3

DOB: August 30, 1386

Breeder Name: Caine

Breeder No.: 6478283-76

"So this is safe right?" A nervous man asks.

"Well, theoretically," replies a tall man in a lab coat, "the key word in this agreement was 'test'."

"If something happens to Lillith I'll-..."

"Calm down Caine, your monster will be fine. Besides, threatening never got anyone anywhere." the man in the lab coat replied, sounding very confident. "The cloning will cure Lillith of the cancer and give her at least double the life span." The man finished, and just stared into the large liquid tank. Inside were growing three embryos, labeled attempts 1-3. They brought a sick pride to the man.

"Please pull through..." Caine pleaded to Lillith, his most beloved companion. He too began to stare into the tank, but it sickened him. One of the three completely featureless masses inside would become his Lillith, the others would die. And if all three clones were successful two would be slaughtered. He cringed as the masses flinched as the man in the lab coat began to 'feed' the clones Lillith and Tier's DNA. "Lillith..." the man wept. He knew that as she was cloned, her body was dying.

In two separate sound proof rooms, a dragon and a joker screamed in excruciating pain as the cloning process literally ate their vital organs and muscles one by one.

Back in the viewing room Caine winced in sickening horror as the clones began to form. Their muscles ripped out loud as they formed to perfection. The bones in their heads cracked as they took a dragons shape. As he watched the clone to the far left began to violently convulse. As the clones shot out to correct length its eyes snapped open, cursing all that they saw with their devoid blackness. Caine yelped in horror but it was quickly replaced by sorrow. An almost exact replica of Lillith was suffering, in obvious pain.

In the tank A367-Lillith tried to scream in anguish, but found she couldn't even move her eyelids enough to blink. She looked around for some help, but she couldn't see. As everything cleared she saw Caine through the thick glass. She looked upon his face and knew she was dying. She looked down upon herself and tried to scream, but her developing vocal chords would not allow it. She saw her gray wrinkled body, no more than the size of a large watermelon, and felt sorrow. Caine was having to watch her demise. He was having to watch his life die. He was watching his unconditional love die. Just then the bones in her arm shot to proper length, leaving the flesh behind, and the newly developed nerve endings screaming. A367-Lillith looked down just in time to watch a small armature extend from the floor of the tank and viciously tear off a piece of her body that would've been a leg for a test sample. Her vocal chords finished just in time for her to scream in absolute terror and pain as another armature tore the mechanical umbilical chord from her temple. She was still screaming as the automated tank violently disposed of her as a failure.

"That's not humane!" Caine turned and screamed at the man in the lab coat.

"If you you'd like to quit, Caine, we can dispose of the other two as well. If you can't handle the realities of life, sir, you should've thought of that before you even came to me." the man in the coat replied harshly.

"Wait just a second you evil sicko, you offered me! how could I come to you? I still don't even know your name!" Caine screamed back, torn in anguish as he watched Lillith's corrupted recreation... twice.

By now the two remaining clones were almost their proper size; the size of a mighty dragon. But it was wrong. The cloning technology was not perfected. Different amounts of each monster's DNA were going to each clone. The feature's of both clones were slightly different. They were both growing rapidly.

Almost ready to awaken.

In the sound proof room containing Lillith, disaster was beginning to show its face. The combination of being eaten alive and cancer was going to kill her before the DNA extraction was complete. Through the agonizing pain and screams, Lillith envisioned Caine, his heart broken. She saw the blackness, beckoning to her, summoning her to the afterlife. She didn't want to die on him, but she had to. She knew that despite the cancer and the growing weaknesses, she had had the greatest life any monster could ever dream. Dying would hurt. To leave him behind. To crush his heart.

"I'm so sorry." she managed to weep through the screams as her life faded into the dark.

"How can you do this?!" Caine screamed at the man, "This is torture! Those things are in pain!"

"I assure you, Caine, they are not in pain. Now sit down!" the man replied, annoyed that his work would be questioned, although he had always thought it was unnatural the way the clones always convulsed when growing.

"They're jerking around like they are being stabbed! How can you say they're not in pain?!" Caine continued, truly sickened and saddened at this sight. "What about that first one?! It got torn apart! It was screaming in anguish! How can you say it wasn't in pain?!" Caine cried, "Those... things are in pain! My Lillith is in pain!"

Caine watched as the clones, now at full size, convulsed harshly, their muscles shriveling to nothing around the bone. "Oh god..." he wept, falling to his knees, stricken with pain. But not in his body, like the clones. In his heart. He loved Lillith so much.

Their bond had always been an unbreakable one. When he had found out that Lillith had cancer when she was two, he was grief stricken. He eventually overcame it, and the bonds between him and Lillith grew stronger than ever. But not long after Lillith's health began to fail, and once again, Caine was grief stricken. He was speaking to his friend Maxilla in the local tavern when the man in the lad coat approached him, promising that he could cure Lillith. Caine was so happy. He would have his Lillith, and she would have him. Their unconditional love and loyalty, the strongest a breeder and trainer can have, wouldn't have to die. They had been through so much together. They trusted each other. When it was time for Lillith to die, it would be the end of life for Caine. He loved Lillith as the child he could never have, and for her, he was her father.

Tier was different. He was a murderer. He had continued to slash another monster at the big four after it was knocked out until he had slain it, then he had brutally attacked and killed its trainer when he ran out to her dead monster's side. He would've been put to sleep, but he was a major champion of the big four, so he was ordered frozen. Never to thaw. To remain in Caine's freezer vault until Caine died, then he would be destroyed. Caine chose tier as the DNA donor only because he was resilient. Tier had never fallen to sickness, injury, or violence. He always seemed to heal within days.

Caine wanted this blessing for his Lillith.

A red flash blinded the viewing room for a moment, then faded, leaving a warning sign on the man's computer that was monitoring the cloning process. "No!" the man hollered, as he started to pound in a string of keystrokes rapidly.

"What's happening?" Caine cried. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing!" the man in the lab coat replied in a holler. "Sit down!"

Deep into the inner workings of the facility, a massive machine beeped continuously, and a red light shown bright. Then, on a small computer screen, a bar entitled "Lillith" disappeared to nothing, in its place the word "WARNING", and the bar entitled "Tier" began to drain.

In the tank now floated two fully grown death dragons. Just finishing their cloning process. Suddenly, A365-Lillith's eyes burst open. The massive death dragon's head swinging to look in every direction.

It was all blurry, but as it cleared she saw. She saw Caine, weeping for her in the viewing room.

[Caine...] she thought sadly, but quickly dismissed it. She swung her massive head to the right, her black eyes falling upon A366-Lillith. She was shocked. [It looks just like me...] she thought. Fifteen feet away A366-Lillith awoke and opened her eyes for the first time. [It is me.] she thought. [How...] she wondered sadly. {Kill it.} a voice deep inside her urged. [Yes... kill it] Lillith responded, ripping the umbilical chord from her forehead.

"What's happening?!" Caine asked, frightened and sad.

"I-I don't know." the man in the lab coat said, startled.

"No..." Caine said as he watched A365-Lillith, advance upon A366-Lillith. She arrived just as A366-Lillith's eyes were clearing, and tore into her flesh with her massive claws. A366-Lillith simply screamed in pain as her flesh was cut to ribbons, too oblivious to the attack to fight back.

Within moments the bluish liquid inside the tank was murky red with blood. Caine and the man sat in silent horror as the misty form of A365-Lillith floated to the front of the tank. They both tensed up as she raised her arm, and smashed through the glass.

"No!" the man in the coat screamed as he perished in A365-Lillith's flame.

"No... no..." Caine wept in terror backing away from A365-Lillith's advance upon him. He cried as he crawled through the pool of blue liquid. He slowly stood, his back pressed against the wall, and waited for A365-Lillith to strike.

A365-Lillith reached forward and lifted Caine's chin so Caine was looking into her eyes.

"Caine..." A365-Lillith said, a softened look on her face. "Caine." She said again, her voice different, deeper, her eyes narrowed. She growled, and struck.

Caine stood, waiting for A365-Lillith, the new Tier, born of fire, and of death, to kill him. He did not wait long. In seconds Caine was lying on the ground in a pool of his own blood, crying. A365-Lillith quickly removed a door and was gone. A warm blanket of happiness spread over Caine as life faded to black, for he would not have to live for many years without his beloved companion.

As he had always dreamed, they were together until the end. "See you soon, my friend..." he whispered, as the blackness took over.