Double Rainbow

Dark Rainbow- 2

I sit in my brand new cage, flicking my tail back and forth. It's very small, but I am fed and if I am instructed to sit in this cage, that is what I intend to do. Even if it gets boring sometimes. I amuse myself by listening to the screaming of the lesser Canira in this room. It's a large room with cages lining the walls. My cage, as small as it might be, is enormous in comparison to the others.. They took me out of the testing room earlier this week, and they've decided to keep me here for a while. Once or twice, my neighbors have attempted conversation with me, but it always goes something like this:

Them: Hello.

Me: Hello, lesser being.

Them: What?

Me: Lesser being. The Obsidians call us lesser beings because we are.

Them: The Obsidians have us locked in cages. They suck.

Me: They are my masters and masters do not 'suck'.

Them: You're creeping me out.

Me: Okay, lesser being.

Them: *awkward silence here*

I do not understand them. They clearly do not see that the Obsidians need us to help them. Why, I do not know, but I am sure it's something I will be taught when I am older. Until then, I will wait in this cage.

"E-238472-Codename-Dark Rainbow." says an Obsidian, currently in the form of a leopard. He unlocks the door to my cage. "You are ready for test number 1."

He guides me down the silver passageways of the Obsidian Factory. I look over and see one testing room with very, very small boxes. Many of the boxes contain dead bodies, others contain starving animals, lying spread out on the bottom of the box. Those must be the weak. I feel no sympathy for them. The weak are not meant to survive.

We finally reach the testing room. Two other Obsidians, a jackalope the size of myself, and an elephant. They watch me, somewhat amused.

"Brought the specimen. What was the test?"

"Just a quick test on her powers. She has developed a few, hasn't she?" The elephant says. His form shifts to that of what I recognize to be a dragon.

"What should I do to please you?" I say.

"Try to knock me out." he says.

I lunge at him, instinctively going for under his belly. I rake him down, but it leaves my claws sizzling. The friction hurts and I have done nothing at all to him. He darts at me, breathing black fire, and I defend myself with a blast of energy from my wings. I charge at him again, going for the eyes, this time I use the claws on the tips of my wings. This time, he recoils a fair amount. He can't see right now, but the obsidian is already regrowing.

I blast him with pure energy, a spectrum of rainbow power, but most the energy deflects off his scales harmlessly. However, it does seem to hurt him in one spot- a tiny, crystal-shaped chink in his armor around his neck. I sneak around the back and grab his wings, and he turns his head to see what I'm doing. I lunge, claws extended, for his neck and rake my right front paw down the chink. He moans painfully and falls to the floor. He returns to elephant form.

"Not bad." He writes something down on a scroll with his trunk.

"Should I take her back to her cage?" asks the leopard.

"Hmmmm..... Yes. First, she hasn't been given the scars yet."

The leopard looks down at my flank. "No, she hasn't has she? I do believe I'm authorized, though." He stares at me for a while, and then whispers, "You have no idea how much I don't want to do this."

Why not? I am property to him. I live to please him. I almost want to report him to the others, but something about his eyes makes me stop. Then I notice something else about his eyes, something that I didn't even see until now- they're not the typical glassy black with no whites. They're Canira-like eyes with amber pupils. He retains his powerful, dark expression and spreads his claw out over the top of my back left flank. Unfurling his claws, he puts three of his claws in a triangle formation and slides them across my flank, like he's opening a lock

I bite my tongue. Crying or screaming in pain is a sign of weakness. Weakness is only for the lesser ones.

Finally, he lifts his claws off of me, and they are covered in black blood. My DNA, from the 5% of Obsidian DNA they put into me, is black. True Obsidians have no blood, but I do. It is another sign I am impure. Blood is weakness, too. It can be spilled, even with the slightest of cuts. It doesn't regenerate as fast as obsidian, but yet... it is warm. Maybe... something is special about a warm body that blood runs through. Something cuts off my thoughts. I've gone somewhere I am not supposed to go. I have challenged what I am. I smack myself, disgusted by my own incompetence.

The leopard guides me through the halls until we reach the small room where my cage resides. He guides me in and I sit back in the cage, ready to meditate more, but then, against my own will, I call out, "WAIT!"

He turns around. I wince. Any rational Obsidian would have me flogged for disrupting them. If I wasn't an important specimen, they would have me killed for disobedience. We are trained not to talk.

"What is it?" he asks, his eyes turning from black to amber.

"I... your eyes."

He chuckles to himself. "You, my friend, see the world in black and white. There's a whole spectrum of colors in between, and they're just as important. Open your eyes, okay?"

I blink. No Obsidian would talk like that. Who is he? I contemplate it as he walks away, his footsteps drowned out with the sounds of pain. I find that to my dismay, I can no longer block them out quite as well as before.