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slaymitchabernathy · 10 months ago

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Rats in the Lab

“How many?” He asks, holding up four fingers.

He can see her thinking, trying so hard to come up with an answer. Her bottom lip begins to quiver and her eyes begin to well up with tears.

“I…I don’t know,” she whispers, hanging her head in shame.

Coriolanus sighs. He knows he has to be patient if he wants to see results. It’s not his fault she’s so dumb. But boy is she sweet. That’s what gets him every time.

“Try,” he says, reaching into his pocket with his other hand and pulling out a small bag of crackers. Soarynn’s eyes zero in on the bags, her bony fingers wrap around the iron bars that separate them and grip them a little tighter. It’s like they’re at the zoo and he’s feeding her.

She looks up at his fingers again, her eyebrows furrowing as she tries to count them. Any Capitol child past the age of five could tell you how many fingers he was holding up but Soarynn’s not from the Capitol.

She’s from District Twelve.

“Th…three?” She asks, some hopefulness in her tone.

Coriolanus shakes his head, “Four.”

“Is that close to three?”

“Not really.”

Three is of course, close to the number four, but Coriolanus isn’t going to be the one to tell her that. He likes keeping her dumb, keeping her here, in Dr. Gaul’s lab.

At first, he thought it was a stupid idea what Gaul had pitched to him, taking twenty-four children at random from the Districts to study them. As if they didn’t already have the Hunger Games. And that caused enough riot as it is. But this was different. Gaul enlisted Peacekeepers to take the children quietly and without notice. They took the orphans, the most starving, the most desperate.

No one would miss them.

Then Dr. Gaul began her tests on them. She jokingly called them her “lab rats” since she felt that mice were a step above rats. But she also felt that rats could be extremely clever if they wanted to be, if they had the right motivation. Most of them died though. Coriolanus watched as all those children failed to pass her tests, slowly withering away in their cages while doing so.

Soarynn was the only one left.

Which surprised Coriolanus because she was a little runt girl from Twelve. He hadn’t been placing any bets on her. But she was smart, well, smarter than her counterparts. He hadn’t told her about them, their deaths. Dr. Gaul felt Soarynn would be more cooperative if she thought everyone else was still alive.

Once the children started dwindling down she assigned Soarynn to Coriolanus. “She’ll be your first subject,” she’d told him excitedly, “you can test her, learn about her, the more she trusts you the more willing she’ll be to conduct the experiments.”

At first, he’d felt a certain aversion towards Soarynn. Some filthy girl from Twelve didn’t deserve his attention. But then one night when he was cleaning lab equipment, he heard her sing.

His little songbird.

She had a beautiful voice and from that point on he spent an awful lot of time at her cage.

“You have some more tests this evening,” he says, glancing down at the clipboard he placed on the floor, “maybe you can get some food if you do well on them.” He ignores her pitiful look as he slips the crackers back into his pocket.

“Coriolanus?”

“Hmm?”

“Where’s Jessup?”

Jessup had been the boy from Twelve, the boy Soarynn came here with. He died two weeks ago.

Coriolanus pushes himself from the ground, looking down at her, “He’s in another room. I told you that before remember?”

Soarynn frowns and looks down at the dirty ground beneath her, “No I…I don’t remember you telling me that. I’m sorry.”

Coriolanus nods, “Well it’d be best you not forget in the future.”

He walks away from her cage, listening to the sound of her chain scraping across the floor. Every child they’d taken was given the same standard cage built into the wall of Dr. Gaul’s lab. It was small, low to the ground and it had a long iron chain that wrapped around one of their ankles. Dr. Gaul had mentioned maybe using collars but nothing has been done about it yet.

Coriolanus looks down at his clipboard while walking further into the lab, mostly to ignore the stares of the mad scientist's other experiments. Mutilated people, Avoxes, mutts.

Sometimes he wished she didn’t like him so much.

Gaul had given Coriolanus a wonderful opportunity once he graduated from the Academy. She ensured he won the Plinth Prize and she decided that he would work and study under her as an intern for a Game Maker. It’s too bad the woman’s a lunatic because he’s sure she’d give him some great advice.

He can hear her cackle as he nears her part of the lab and can see her zapping little mice with a laser of some sort, “There you are Coriolanus, how is your little songbird?” Coriolanus has done his best to put up a facade of indifference when it comes to Soarynn. She’s not his responsibility outside of this lab and yet he keeps coming back more and more. More than usual, more than he’s asked.

More than he should.

He clears his throat, “She’s hungry.”

Dr. Gaul waves him off, “She’ll get her chance to eat later. We’re putting her in the maze,” she says, throwing him a knowing look. The maze is quite literally a giant maze that’s been constructed below the Citadel. Every child has run through it at least once but the time it’s taken them to get through it has been disappointing. At least to Dr. Gaul.

Soarynn however has done quite well so far and for her sake, Coriolanus hopes she does well tonight. She’s still so skinny, so frail and while he has rules to follow, he can’t help but want to slip her some food every once in a while.

Want to take her with him to his apartment, bathe her, clothe her, hold her. She’d be his little songbird, safe from Dr. Gaul’s clutches and within his grasp at all times. He hates how he never knows what he’ll find when he comes into the lab, never knows if her cage will one day be empty.

“Hand me that other cage of mice,” she says, holding out her hand. Coriolanus grabs the cage, giving the mice a somewhat remorseful look before handing them off to Dr. Gaul. She smiles at him which still to this day unnerves him. Coriolanus has to remind himself that for the most part, Dr. Gaul is on his side. She vouched for him when it came to winning the Plinth Prize even though he cheated in the contest to win it. She stopped Dean Casca Highbottom from sending him to the Districts to serve as a Peacekeeper after he was found out for cheating. And she turned a blind eye when the Dean suddenly passed away unexplainably.

“Coriolanus is in a daze because his girls going into my maze.”

꧁ ꧂

Coriolanus shoves his hands into his lab coat pockets while he walks with the other Game Makers and assistants to the maze. His head is down while they all talk among themselves about the last time Soarynn ran the maze, what her results were.

Coriolanus veers left where the exit to the maze is but stops when no one follows him, “Oh we changed the layout,” one of them says, beckoning him to follow them, “we thought she might have memorized the layout so we moved it around. Never let them know our next step.” This Game Maker says it with a smile and Coriolanus forces one onto his own face while following them, “How clever,” he remarks.

And it is clever. But it’s also not good for Soarynn. If she doesn’t perform well then she won’t eat and as much as he hates to admit it, she’s getting smaller and weaker by the day.

Coriolanus stops with the group at the new exit, a set of screens attached to the wall where they can see a live feed from inside the maze. Coriolanus watches as two Peacekeepers carry in a cage, dumping Soarynn onto the floor. She looks frightened but she always does when she’s in the maze. He would be scared too.

Dr. Gaul’s footsteps alert Coriolanus and he looks up to see the woman wearing her signature evil grin, “Let the games begin,” she trills, walking over to the small console under the screens. She presses one of the buttons, and her voice is booming through the entire building.

“Good luck little girl.”

Soarynn shakily pushes herself to her feet, staring up at the nearest camera. Coriolanus can see how dirty she is, how tired and hungry. She looks into the camera with a bit of defiance though, the smallest amount she can muster before she sets off into the maze. Coriolanus can’t take his eyes off the screen when Soarynn comes to the first turn.

Left or right.

He holds his breath because the maze hasn’t always been this way. She used to go straight for a good twenty yards before having to make a turn. Before Dr. Gaul decided to mess everything up. Soarynn stops, looking left and then right before taking a step back.

She knows. Knows it’s different.

Soarynn looks over her shoulder and up at the camera, her eyes almost pleading with whoever’s watching. Dr. Gaul chuckles, “Run little rat, run.”

Soarynn chooses to go left and makes her way down the narrow passageway, her hand dragging along the wall. She’s going to slow, Coriolanus thinks. It’s not her fault, but she used to be able to sprint through the other maze.

He tears his eyes from the screen to watch Dr. Gaul press another button and he can suddenly see the same Peacekeepers wheeling in a large-looking tank. His breath catches in his throat and he watches as they tip over the tank, a rainbow of snakes falling into the ground and slithering into the maze.

“Dr. Gaul,” he starts but she holds her hand up, her eyes on the screens, “Don’t waste your breath Coriolanus, she either finds her way out or she dies. I’ve collected all the data I need either way.”

He can feel his fists curling and his jaw clenching but he says nothing as they all watch the snakes slither into the maze, searching for Soarynn.

She’s making good headway, almost halfway through when she hears the snakes. She stops in her tracks, listening to the hisses. Soarynn frantically looks around when she sees the first snake rounding the corner, both of them locking eyes on one another.

"Run," Coriolanus whispers.

Soarynn sprints in the opposite direction of the snakes, rounding corners with no way of knowing where they'll lead. Coriolanus can feel his heart pounding and all the while Dr. Gaul and her assistants are writing down notes. Soarynn comes to another set of delivered passageways and takes a left, the snakes closing in behind her.

It's a dead end.

Coriolanus swears under his breath. She's dead, as good as dead. She's trembling as she backs herself into the wall, her tattered white hospital gown nearly falling off her shoulders, tears streaming down her dirty face. She looks up at the camera watching her, desperation in her eyes. It's like she's pleading for Coriolanus to come save her.

But he can't.

He can feel a few of the Game Makers watching him along with Gaul's assistants. It's no secret that he's gotten a little closer to Soarynn, spent more time with her. But she's just a girl from Twelve.

He tries to look away but he can't, watching the snakes slowly slither towards her. Soarynn lets out a shaky breath and slides down the wall, pulling her knees to her chest, already giving up.

Dr. Gaul shakes her head, "Well that was the last one, let's go." She snaps her fingers and they all begin to follow her, Coriolanus lingering at the back of the group, looking at the screens one last time.

He waits for the scream. But he never hears one. He hears singing.

You're headed for heaven, The sweet old hereafter And I've got one foot in the door But before I can fly up, I've loose ends to tie up Right here in the old therebefore

Coriolanus stumbles back towards the maze, absolutely enchanted by her singing and it seems the snakes are too. Their movements have become rhythmic as if dancing along to Soarynn's song. She keeps singing, singing for her life. She'd told him that her mother used to sing her songs when she was little before she died. This must be one of them.

He can hear the others coming back, all watching as Soarynn continues to sing, and the snakes linger from attacking her.

"Why aren't they attacking her?" One of them asks.

Coriolanus shakes his head, "It's her singing, it must be calming them."

He's sure Dr. Gaul is furious but you've got to give credit where credit's due and Soarynn is still singing, still alive. And she knows she's winning this game. The snakes finally reach her and Coriolanus prepares for them to lunge, to sink their fangs into her skin but they don't. They wrap themselves around her, creating almost a rainbow dress. Coriolanus holds his breath though, she's not safe until she's out of the maze. What had she said to him one day?

'It's not over until the Mockingjay sings.'

Well, she's certainly a little songbird now.

The snakes are wrapping around her arms now, slithering all around her and she looks up into the camera, her fear replaced with anger.

When I'm pure like a dove When I've learned how to love Right here In the old therebefore When nothing is left anymore

Soarynn continues humming her sweet tune as she slowly stands to her feet, careful so as to not disturb the snakes. She makes her way through the maze, taking her time like the way she was before, not making any efforts to remove the reptiles that have made themselves at home wrapped around her small frame.

Coriolanus and the rest of the group watch in disbelief as she finally makes one last turn and walks out of the maze towards them. He can see her chin trembling while she hums, her eyes meet his eyes and they're frantic, she's scared. But she's holding herself together tremendously well.

Soarynn stops a good five feet away from them, weary of the Peacekeepers who are also watching in awe. "I played your game," Soarynn says to Dr. Gaul, her eyes now boring into the scientist, "get them off of me."

Coriolanus looks over his shoulder to see Dr. Gaul watching the snakes, a frown on her lips. "Dr. Gaul," he says, pulling her from her thoughts, "she won. She got out of the maze she won."

Gaul purses her lips before nodding, "So she did. It seems the lab rat has become a songbird." She snaps her fingers and the snakes fall onto the floor causing several people to gasp and back up as they begin to slither towards Dr. Gaul. She allows them to wrap around her the way they did Soarynn and gently holds one in her hand, "You've impressed me, little girl," she says, nodding at Soarynn. She then turns to Coriolanus, fixing her creepy stare on him, "And that shall be rewarded."

Coriolanus suddenly feels very nervous about how exactly Dr. Gaul plans to reward Soarynn. She could throw him in a cage, let Soarynn be in charge of his well-being. He is after all her captor in one way or the other.

"You'll go home with Mr. Snow for the night, enjoy a nice warm bed and bath before you come back tomorrow for more tests."

Coriolanus feels his heart racing at the prospect of bringing Soarynn home with him, having her in his bed. Soarynn gives Gaul a shaky nod, her legs trembling as the mad woman walks back into her lab, her assistant in tow.

Coriolanus cards his fingers through his hair and takes a few steps toward Soarynn's trembling frame. He hasn't been around her much when she's been outside of the cage, not that this runt girl poses much of a threat to him. He could easily overpower her if need be.

"You did good," he says, giving her a nod of approval. Tears spill from Soarynn's face and she stumbles towards him, holding her hands out and Coriolanus finds himself grabbing them, engulfing her in his strong hold. Soarynn sobs into his chest, probably staining his pristine white shirt but that's alright, he can buy a new one. Her on the other hand, well, all she's wearing is the tattered white gown along with some underwear and he's sure they're in the same condition as her dress.

Coriolanus lets her cry it all out. It's been a rough month for her in the Capitol. Not even he can deny that. "It's okay Soarynn," he whispers, his hand coming up to hold the back of her head, "you did good, and now you get to come home with me. Doesn't that sound like a nice reward?" He knows he'll probably go to hell for this, aiding in the kidnapping of this poor girl and then taking her home with him as a means of rewarding her. Since when has a good night's sleep counted as a reward?

Sobs rack her entire body and her hands clutch onto his thick red coat, treating him as if he were a lifeline. "I...I thought I was gonna die," she choked out, looking up at him. He can't help but feel his heart break just a little for her. She's so young, so fragile. Her file gave him the bare minimum about her background but he knows she's sixteen. He gently brushes some hair out from her face, "But you didn't. So let's go home and take a nice bath hmm?"

Soarynn nods, wiping her face with the back of her hand, "Okay," she whispers, her body sagging with exhaustion.

She lets him lead her through the lab, it's dark by now, making it seem even scarier than usual. He feels Soarynn curl further into him when they pass a tank with an Avox in it, gills grafted into their skin. "It's scary in here," she murmurs. Coriolanus nods, one of his arms still wrapped around Soarynn, mostly to keep her standing. But a small part of him also enjoyed finally being able to touch her without iron bars standing between them.

They reach the elevator and he even lets her press the button, something that clearly fascinated Soarynn. He was beginning to grow a bit impatient waiting for it to arrive and jumps when he feels a hand on his shoulder. It was Dr. Gaul.

It seems that she was able to calm down from Soarynn upstaging her but you could never be too sure with Dr. Gaul. He expected some great big riddle but she simply leaned in and whispers, "She's a most impressive specimen, even if she's from the Districts. Tonight I'd like you to procreate with her, have intercourse, for research purposes of course. Offspring could be very valuable assets for us."

Coriolanus slightly pales but nods, "Of course Dr. Gaul."

꧁ ꧂

It's dark in his penthouse. Coriolanus thought he'd get home much earlier but today has certainly been a strange one.

Soarynn clings onto him as they walk further into his home, to his bedroom. Coriolanus can't help but feel a little inconvenienced by all of this, saddling him with the responsibility of Soarynn and her well-being. Suppose she suddenly fell ill and died in the middle of the night? He didn't want to be responsible for that and the repercussions that would follow suit.

"This is your house?" Soarynn's question pulls him from his nagging thoughts and he looks down at the small girl who's looking up at him with amazement. He nods, "It's my family's penthouse," he tells her proudly, pushing open the doors to his bedroom.

His bedroom is the largest one and is furnished with taste thanks to the Plinth Prize. His eyes land on the bed and the thought of sleeping with Soarynn, impregnating Soarynn makes his stomach twist. She's a virgin, she has to be. He finds her looking around in amazement, much to how she's looked at everything they walked by to get back home. He hadn't thought of the fact that Soarynn was most likely brought here in some sort of crate and not given a proper tour of the Capitol. Everything was so new to her.

"Let's get you in a warm bath," he suggests, nodding towards his bathroom.

It's a bit uncomfortable for both of them, getting her undressed and into the tub but they manage it. Soarynn is filthy. Covered in dirt, sweat, tears, and who knows what else. Coriolanus does his best to be gentle when washing her body, averting his eyes when faced with her bony spine sticking out. He can count every one of her ribs. Soarynn looks almost like a small child sitting in his tub, looking up at him with those blue-gray eyes, so trusting.

Coriolanus frowns when realizing that he's entirely underprepared. He doesn't have any shampoo or other products for her to use besides his own. But she wouldn't know the difference. "Close your eyes," he says, scooping up some water. Soarynn does as she's told and it stirs something inside of him. Something primal. He's quick to wash her face, revealing freckles he's never seen before. Soarynn squints up at him once he's done, "Can I have something to eat?"

The poor thing must be starving.

"After your bath," he answers while grabbing the shampoo.

Soarynn falls asleep while he cleans her hair, her chin resting on her knees. Has she ever had a warm bath before? Had her hair washed? Coriolanus wonders what it would be like to always wash her hair, draw her baths for her. Dr. Gaul would never allow it though. A District girl running around the Capitol is the last thing she'd want from this experiment. And besides, Coriolanus has to focus on his studies at the University. "Let's get you all dried up," he says, grabbing a towel.

Soarynn allows him to dry her off but becomes shy when he pulls the towel away, baring her naked body to him. He might as well get used to it considering what Dr. Gaul wants him to do to her tonight. Her skin is tan, her legs thin but long, her collar bones poke out and her face is slightly sunken in. But she looks pretty.

"How old are you?" She asks, tilting her head.

Coriolanus has always kept his life private from Soarynn and her questions. Over the past month she'd told him things about her and her life but he rarely ever opened up about his. "I'll be twenty in November," he says, smirking when she blushes. He might as well give her some of his clothes too so he heads to the closet, not surprised when he hears her clamber out of the tub and follow him. Since winning the Plinth Prize Coriolanus had been able to revamp his entire wardrobe.

"You have so many clothes," she says in awe, spinning around the closet. Coriolanus chuckles and grabs a white button-up from the rack, "None of them will fit you but this should do for tonight." He holds out the shirt and Soarynn gingerly takes it from him, bringing it up to her nose and smelling it. Coriolanus quirks his eyebrows at the strange sight and she giggles, "It smells like roses, just like you," she explains.

Well, he had been told that he smelled like roses before, but to hear it from her somehow meant more for some reason. He watches as she slips on the shirt but she fumbles with the buttons and he can't stop himself from helping her, from doing the rest. Soarynn looks up at him while he buttons his shirt and he does his best to avert his eyes but he can't. Not when she's finally right in front of him, touching him.

His fingers slightly shake as he does the last button and he clears his throat, "Let's get you something to eat."

꧁ ꧂

She gorges herself. Coriolanus almost wants to ask her to slow down but he knows he shouldn't. Not when neither of them knows when she'll eat again. The whole situation feels a bit cruel, letting her experience all of this just to throw her back into that cage. Her left ankle has a horrible cut on it from how tight the shackle around it was. He wrapped it with gauze after cleaning it, but it felt pointless in the grand scheme of things.

"I want that," Soarynn points to the bowl filled with ice cream. He'd brought out practically everything he had in the fridge, figuring it was now or never for her. She's also sitting on his lap, he insisted on it. And she's so small, so warm and she smells good now that she's had a bath. His hands gently press into her sides, "I think you have better manners than that," he says.

Soarynn sighs, kicking her feet in the air for a moment, "Can I please have that?" He doesn't know why he's trying to teach her good manners, it won't really matter since she'll die in that cage sooner or later. But if they do have a child, he wants it to have the best manners possible, and that has to start with Soarynn.

He hums and reaches across the table, grabbing the bowl of ice cream, "You certainly may."

He watches with a small smile on his face as she eats her ice cream, she'll probably be sick in the morning from how much she's eating tonight. She might be sick from what he's about to do to her tonight.

Coriolanus slowly slips a hand under the shirt, feeling her soft skin. Soarynn pays him no mind as she keeps eating, like an animal at the zoo that he feeds every day.

"Soarynn?"

"Hmm?"

"Have you ever....have you ever been touched before?"

Soarynn stops eating and looks at him over her shoulder, "Aren't you touching me right now?" Oh, she's so sweet and innocent. Coriolanus shakes his head, "No, I...I meant it in a different way. I'll show you once you're done eating okay." Soarynn just shrugs, "Okay I trust you Coriolanus."

꧁ ꧂

"It hurts," she cries, her hands trying to break free from his belt.

Coriolanus presses a kiss to her neck, "Shhh, it's okay, you're okay Soarynn, we have to do this, Dr. Gaul said so."

Soarynn's cunt is so fucking tight he can barely fit but he does. She feels so good, so warm. It had taken far too long to get her like this, tied up and spread out for him. At first, she liked it, touching him, kissing him, but then she didn't. She got scared. Coriolanus couldn't have that, couldn't fail Dr. Gaul. He had a job to do.

Soarynn sobs as he finally bottoms out, "She's a terrible person, she...she's hurting my friend Jessup." She lets out a whimper as Coriolanus begins to slowly thrust in and out, feeling her walls wrap around him. His eyes slightly widen when remembering Jessup and how he died, too much voltage, his heart stopped so fast.

"Jessup is dead babydoll," he grunts, picking up the pace.

Soarynn gasps and it's not from the pleasure. Her eyes fill up with tears, "What...I...no you, you told me he was alive." She squeezes him so tight when she cries, to the point where he wants her to cry. Coriolanus wraps his hand around her small throat, applying pressure, watching as her eyes widen, "You see Soarynn, Jessup was never going to survive. None of those kids survived. You're the last one angel, the lone Victor and this is how you're being rewarded so you better put on a smile and be fucking grateful." His once somewhat kind persona slips away into nothingness as he thrusts into her cunt hard, his tip pushing against her sweet spot.

Soarynn's still crying but he ignores her and focuses on that sweet cunt of hers, watching as it takes him again, and again, and again. She looks so perfect like this, so small and helpless under him, completely at his mercy. Coriolanus smirks when he sees her stomach bulging, not surprising considering how skinny she is.

"Look at that," he drawls, "fucking you so deep huh? Can't believe District cunt feels this good, it's a shame you had to stay in that cage for so long but don't worry baby, you're in for a long night."

Soarynn's tears have dried up and she's settled for simply looking away, looking up at the ceiling as he fucks into her, trying to block all of it out. But Coriolanus isn't having that. No. After all, he's done for her, fed her, taught her, he practically got her out of that maze. He lets go of her neck and reaches for her clit, pleased when she seizes up at the stimulation. "You like that?" He taunts, hitting her sweet spot faster and faster, Soarynn's eyes start to roll back, the pleasure finally taking over.

"Maybe I can cut a deal with Dr. Gaul, have you live here with me, keep you on my cock all the time. Bet you'd like that huh? And if you misbehave I can always put you back in that cage. You like being my little fuckdoll don't you Soarynn?"

All that leaves Soarynn's mouth are little moans, gasps really, sounds that he's forcibly fucking out of her. He watches her eyes roll back, her cunt tightening around his cock, making it harder to fuck her at a fast pace so he slows down. "Answer me," he grits out, his other hand grabbing a handful of her hair, and shaking her head around like she's a doll. "Yes!" She cries out, squeezing her eyes shut, "I love it!"

Coriolanus scoffs, she's being so ungrateful, acting like she isn't lucky to be getting fucked by him. But he'll make her see, make her grateful. He's determined to see her cum and goes right back to rubbing her clit, grinning as she begins to squirm and moan, her breaths growing rapid, "Oh please," she gasps, her back bending off the mattress. "Cum Soarynn," he says, "be my good little fuckdoll and cum." Soarynn's moans are a sweet symphony as she cums all over him, triggering his own orgasm. Coriolanus grunts as he fills her cunt, fulfills his task. He slows down, giving himself a second to catch his breath while looking at Soarynn and her blissed-out state. She almost looks as if she's in shock, just lying there.

Coriolanus slowly pulls out and groans when he sees her puffy cunt filled with his cum. It satisfies a deep-rooted urge inside of him and he smirks, she's never looked better. Of course, he needs to ensure she gets pregnant tonight, so he's more than willing to go a few more rounds.

His little songbird won't mind.

꧁ ꧂

"It's a boy."

Those words echo through his head as he walks through the lab, giving people a polite nod as he passes by them. He's on his way to deliver the news to her, to Soarynn.

She's sitting on her bed when he walks in. Her stomach round with his child. She looks a little tired but also relieved to see him. He gives her a small smile before taking a seat next to her on the twin-sized bed, "How're you feeling?" He asks, reaching out and placing a hand on her swollen stomach. Soarynn shrugs, "My back hurts. Can I get medicine for that?" Coriolanus chews the inside of his lip, Dr. Gaul has been very strict about what Soarynn puts into her body including medication. She wants this to be a natural birth at all costs.

"I'll have to ask," he says, taking her hand and giving it a squeeze. Soarynn gives him a small smile in return but he can tell her heart isn't in it. She probably just wants to know the results. "It's going to be a boy," he tells her, carefully watching her face for a reaction. Soarynn's eyes widen and she looks around her small room.

Once she got pregnant, Dr. Gaul let Coriolanus talk her into giving Soarynn a small room within the lab where she could still be monitored and studied. He mainly pushed for it because he couldn't have a child of his living in a dirty cage, even if they weren't born yet. Soarynn's room was the size of a large closet at best. There was a twin bed in the corner, a desk with a chair, and a plastic mirror. Gaul insisted that her room be baby-proofed so she couldn't try to kill herself in the middle of the night.

Coriolanus knew she wouldn't. As much as she despised all of them she loved her child. Her room was covered in drawings she'd made. Coriolanus had given her a sketchbook and a box of crayons for her birthday, a most precious gift to her. He knew she still resented him, for everything he'd done to her. But he was her lifeline right now, her advocate, so she was nice, she behaved.

"Are you happy?" He asks, nervously shifting on the bed.

Soarynn brushes her hair behind her ears and looks up at him, fear and uncertainty in her eyes, "Are you happy?"

Coriolanus frowns, it's not really important if he's happy. This is all for the sake of the experiment, to create an highly intelligent child, both emotionally and intellectually. But for the sake of her health and the baby's, he nods, "Yes. I'm very happy Soarynn, I'm very pleased with you and your progress." He leans in and places a kiss on her cheek and she smiles, "Okay. Okay, I'm happy too Coriolanus."

꧁ ꧂

Coriolanus paces outside the room, the room where Soarynn is lying on a hospital bed giving birth.

He wasn't allowed inside, he didn't think he wanted to be in there if he was being honest. Not when he could hear Soarynn's screams. She was in pain. She was scared. She was so young. Too young. He realized that too late it seemed though. But he planned to take her away from this place once their son was born, take care of her, maybe even love her.

He could hear her screaming for help, for it to stop, for him to come help her. He could hear Dr. Gaul instructing her to push.

Then it all went silent.

Then he heard it, the sound of a baby crying. His son.

It was only a minute later that Dr. Gaul was walking out with his son in her arms, wrapped up in a blanket. Coriolanus smiled down at the child who looked just like him, with blonde hair and he was sure blue eyes too. "He's perfect," he whispers, "oh it's perfect. I should see Soarynn now."

Dr. Gaul says nothing as he walks into the room where her assistants are already cleaning up and he stops in his tracks when he sees it.

Sees her. Dead. A once beautiful Soarynn now dead on the hospital bed. Blood covering her. It's soaked through her hospital gown, into the sheets, down to the floor. Her eyes are wide in fear, tears on her cheeks.

Coriolanus has to stop himself from throwing up as he stumbles out of the room and back into the lab where Gaul is bouncing the newborn up and down gently, cooing and smiling.

"What...what happened to Soarynn?" He chokes out, suddenly overwhelmed with emotion, with grief for that sweet little girl from Twelve who couldn't count four fingers.

Dr. Gaul shrugs, "The birth was taking too long and we couldn't afford complications so I chose to perform an emergency cesarean section. The mother's life was of no concern once we got to the child safely."

Coriolanus stares blankly at the newborn, "You killed her."

Dr. Gaul chuckles and smiles down at his son who will grow up without a mother and she shakes her head, chuckling.

"Lab rats die all the time Coriolanus."

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