Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

A green jeep iddly drove over some roads in a wooded area, music playing over its radio. There were several large bags with groceries in the back of the car.

The driver switched channels and a insurance advertisment for dinosaur attacks started playing. It changed again, this time to people complaining about the dinosaurs. The jeep came screeching to a stop, before carefully driving around a few dinosaur foot prints in the road.

An alarm suddenly started blaring over the radio. There was a dinosaur sighting nearby.

Once they gave away the location, the driver speed up the jeep and headed straight there.

Two DPW worker where already at the scene. They got out of their car, grabbed their tranq guns and headed towards the forest. The male worker was clearly nervous and soon fell behind as his coworker confidently kept walking.

A dinosaur soon came into view. The female worker stopped the other from walking further with her gun, while grabbing her radio with the other hand.

She let the people on the other end know that they found it. A tree was suddenly knocked over, making both humans take a step back as the dinosaur walked into view.

It bellowed once, but otherwise ignored them.

The female worker smiled at the sight of it, while her coworker aimed his tranq gun at it.

“Oh, what are you... Mike! That is an 8,000-pound Pachyrhinosaurus. You wanna haul it out of here unconscious?” She angrily whispered at him.

The pachyrhino turned around and looked straight at Mike and the gun he was holding, before walking back towards the forest.

“No.” He said without taking his gun down.

“Good answer. Now why don´t you go back to the truck, grab a net launcher and put the tranq rifle away before...”

The pachyrhino roared again, causing Mike to fire. He hit it once, causing the dinosaur to spin around and angrily stomp towards them. Just then the green truck stopped right behind them.

Darius stepped out of the car and walked up between the two DPW worker.

“Ronnie.” He greeted her.

“Darius.”

“Seems like you, uh, got yourself into a bit of a pickle here.”

The pachyrhino roared again.

“Yeah well, I had a little help.” Both of them looked at Mike, who was still aiming his gun at the dinosaur.

Darius walked up to it and managed to calm it down after removing a piece of metal from under the dinosaurs foot. He feed it a fruit and gave a thumbs up to the two worker still watching him.

Mike clapped. “Wow.” He then took a closer look at Darius. “Wait. Oh my... You... That´s... You´re Darius Bowman! Ronnie, that´s Darius Bowman!”

“It sure is.” She walked up to Darius and both of them hugged. “Bring it in, kid.”

“Uh, how do you two know each other?” Mike asked confused.

“I used to be his boss.” Ronnie explained, before talking with Darius again. “Now if you´re this desperate to chase dinosaurs, we´d gladly have you back at the DPW.” She playfully bumped her fist into his shoulder.

“Not all dinosaurs.” He rubbed his shoulder and his good mood quickly disappeared. “Just the one.”

Ronnie also became sad. “I know it´s not what you want to hear, but... Catching that dinosaur won´t... Won´t bring your friend back.”

“You really ought to start charging for all this free advice.”

“I´m serious.”

“Me too. You know, you could make a lot of money.” He put his arm over her shoulder.

“Okay, well, any leads on our allusiv Allosaurus?”

Darius removed his arm from her again and put his hands into the pockets of his jacket. “Been sightings in this general area. When the alert came over the radio, I thought this might be it.”

They watched Mike feeding the pachyrhino with more fruits.

“You know, officially, I should say, leave it to the professionals, but... Just be careful.”

Mike laughed and turned back to them for a moment, before turning his attention back to the dinosaur.

“Sure you don´t wanna come back? It´d be real nice to work with someone competent again.”

“Hey, careful!” Darius called out to Mike. “It´s still dangerous.”

Mike was standing infront of the pachyrhino and had one hand on its snout. “I think he likes me.” The dinosaur knocked him over, making him drop his rifle. It suddenly became quiet and looked around.

Darius put his hands out of his pockets and took a step forward as he noticed that.

“Why you so quiet now, big guy?” Mike asked, still sitting on the floor and held his hand up.

Darius shushed him and they all stood in silence for a few seconds.

“Look out!”

An Allosaurus suddenly bursts into the clearing, making all of them scatter. It went for the pachyrhino, giving the humans time to escape. Darius noticed its blind eye, realizing its the Allosaurus he has been looking for.

He managed to grab the rifle Mike had dropped and was about to shoot, but the pachyrhino attacked it again. The allo fled back ito the forest and Darius hurried with the gun to his jeep.

Darius followed the road and soon spotted the allo running through the bushes next to the road. Just as he reached for the rifle he drove through the footprints he had to avoid earlier, causing his truck to break down.

He jumped out of his car, but the allo was already gone. Darius groaned in frustration and shot three darts up in the air as the DPW car stopped next to him.

Ronnie rolled down her window and peeked out of the car. “You ok?”

“I almost had her, Ronnie.”

“No wonder we haven´t caught her yet. She´s fast.”

“Oh! So fast.” Mike agreed. “I almost took a shot at her too, but then I was like, oh, wait, I don´t have my rifle.” He laughs. “You do. You, you have my rifle.”

Ronnie sighs at him.

“I was this close.”

Another alert from the radio distracted them.

“We gotta go.” Ronnie looked up again, but Darius had already sprinted back to his car again. She put her jeep into reverse and drove up to him. “Darius, no, no, no,no. No. You´re not DPW anymore.”

“No, I am not.” Darius said while reloading the rifle.

Ronnie reached through the window and snatched the rifle out of his hands. “Therefore, you cannot go after the Allosaurus.” She handed the rilfe back to Mike.

“Wouldn´t dream of it. And you take that back, ma´am.” He pointed at the weapon. “Don´t even want it. Got no use for it.” Coming home with a gun would also not sit right with his two friends, he silently added.

Ronnie sighed again. “Darius, please. Go home. And, uh, fix your tire. It´s flat.” She drove away as Darius looked out of his window.

“Marshall Ridge.” Darius muttered and took out his phone. He left a short voice mail for Brooklyn, before heading home to fix his jeep.

Once there, he stopped his car infront of his security fence and got out. Instead of grabbing his groceries, he just stood there and had to stiffle his laughter at the sight infront of his house.

Noir was laying on her back, while Ripper was half standing over her. Both of them were fighting over a large treebranch. They were so focused on their game that they didn´t even heared Darius arriving and opening his gate. Only as he called them, the two indoraptors looked at him and froze like deer caught in headlights.

They quickly let got of the branch and tried to untangle themselfs to go greet him. Ripper reached him first since he got a headstart.

Darius had to hold up both hands in an attempt to slow down the aproaching hybrid and not get knocked over by him. It somewhat worked and he soon found himslef surrounded by two overjoyed indoraptors.

It still amazes Darius how much Ripper had changed since they got him out of Lockwoods mansion. He was extremly anxious and timid at first. Seeing the outside world for the first time after being caged in for his whole life mustve been overwhelming, Darius had figured back then.

They´ve come a long way since then, mostly thanks to Noir helping him settle in.

Darius reached for the nametag around Rippers collar, using his thumb to wipe away some dirt that got on it during their earlier scuffle. It reminded him of how long it took them to find out his name. Not that they even knew he already had one to begin with, but Noir soon managed to make them realize that.

Darius, Brand and Kenji then went from giving him a name to guessing his name. They eventually figured it out, after Noir ripped apart an old newspaper infront of them.

Snapping back to the present, Darius stood up straighter and pointed at his jeep. “I´m happy to see you too, but how about we bring the food inside first. You know, before it spoils.”

Both hybrids warbled in agreement and started to move the bags to the house, while Darius unlocked the front door and took the bags inside. He put the few small bags with his groceries into the kitchen and put all the meat from the large bags into his freezer.

The inside of his cabin was a mess. Having dozens of dirty dishes in his sink was the least of his problems tho. Noir still had the habit of collecting hats and of course they had to be stored in here. Wheatlys hat was also among her collection.

Throwing the hats away was also out of question, since it would always upset her. How she can tell if even just one hat is gone or where she even get that many hats to begin with is beyond him.

Once he was done putting the meat away, Darius got back outside to fix his jeep. He grabbed a spare tire, but it turned out to be flat aswell. Noir and Ripper curiosly watched him from behind the fence.

He glanced over at them and briefly thought about letting them help him with the hunt, but quickly decided against it. Someone might see them and the DPW would have to take them away. It´s better if no one knew he had two dinosaurs living right next to his house.

Defeated for now, Darius walked back inside just in time to notice his brother trying to call him.

He picked up the phone “Hello?”

“Oh, Darius! You´re there?”

“Hey Brand.”

“I thought that phone gave out on us, and I was gonna have to check on my brother in person. How are you doing?”

While his brother was talking, Darius had started to sort through his groceries. “I´m good. I´m, I´m good.”

“Bro, bro, bro. Who do you think you´re talking to? You´re not good.”

“Alright, alright.” He opened the blinds of his kitchen window and watched the two indoraptors seperate. Ripper walked away, presumably to their cave, while Noir laid down on his front porch to keep an eye on him.

“For real, I´m working through some things. I´m, I´m better then I was. How´s that?”

“Okay, well, at least that´s honest. Maybe it would help to talk to your Camp Fam? Kenji, maybe?”

“Kenji doesn´t wanna hear anything I have to say.”

Noir made a small, short whine at that.

“All right, look, Mom would kill me if I didn´t ask you this stuff. You eating?”

“I´m eating.” Darius ate a spoon full of the food he had just made.

“Not just junk food, right?”

Noir whined again, a bit louder this time and Darius hummed to cover her.

“You´re staying out of trouble?”

“Are you staying out of trouble?” His brother stayed quiet. “Thats what I thought.”

“Okay, look. Just remember what dad always said. Don´t get yourself in a situation you can´t get out of.”

“Listen, you guys don´t have to worry about me. I´m okay. Look, man, I really ought to...”

“Yeah, I know. You take care of yourself.”

“Tell mom I love her.”

“Will do.”

Darius hung up and then deleted all the messages from his missed calls. He laid down on his couch with his laptop and watched an old news report about him and his friends. Noir had settled down outside and watched through the window aswell. He smiled sadly as he watched the video.

Darius hadn´t realized they had fallen asleep as both him and Noir got woken up by the phone ringing. He got startled awake, nearly dropping his laptop to the floor. Darius looked over at his clock, wondering who would be calling him in the middle of the night.

As he answered his phone, there was no reply coming from the other end. The cans around his fence suddenly clattered, making him hang up and wait. He could hear Noir move around and hiss through the door.

Then he heared her tap her claw two times against the wooden floor of his porch. He let out the breath he didn´t realized he was holding.

Two taps mean friends.

Darius opened his front door and found himself face to face with Ben.

“Ben, I... What are you doing here? I´m never gonna get used to this.” He gestured at their height difference.

“Yeah, me neither.” He looke dback at Noir for a moment.

Darius hugged him. “It is so great to see you. Uh, how´s college?”

“Um, actually, I´m taking a little break.” He nervously looked around again and shoved Darius backwards into the house. ”Hey, would you look at this place? This is really...” He noticed the piles of hats and dozens of what looks like childs drawings pinned to the walls. “Wow, great stuff, man.”

Noir couldn´t hear more of their conversation as Ben slammed the door shut, turned off the lights and closed the blinds on all the windows.

Her attention was soon redirected to the sound of another vehicle approaching. It stopped out of view from the house so Noir went to investigate. Using the darkness as cover, she didn´t even had to camouflage as she sneaked up on the white van.

Noir watched from the distance as a woman with dark clothes and red hair opened the back of the van and let out three atrociraptors. She watched as the woman started to cut the tripwires from Darius fence without barely making any sound.

Noir got a little mad at her for destroying the fence, but reminded herself that it could be easily fixed and she should stay hidden for now. She watched with glee as the three raptors hesitated to walk past the fence line and into her territory.

It took the woman a few tries and some reprimanding to finally get her raptors to move. Noir had watched their interactions with fascination, but after they walked into her territory she hurried back to the house.

She tapped three times on the porch, to let them know about enemies. It didn´t take long for Darius and Ben to come out of the house. They looked around, but couldn´t see very much in the dark. Noir heared quickly approaching foot steps and hissed, hoping that would be enough to make them go to their car.

Just then the sound of a whistle pierced through the night.

Since Darius jeep still had a flat tire, they decided to make a run for Bens van. They didn´t get far as the first raptor came out of the darkness.

It charged at them from the side, only for Noir to ramm into it and knock it over. The other two raptors soon joined. Noir had a hard time keeping all three raptors at bay at once, but somehow managed to buy Darius and Ben enough time to reach their car.

Before they could drive off however, both humans heared another whistle and saw the three raptors stop a small distance away. They watched as a woman walked out of the dark and stood in the middle of the raptor pack, petting two of them.

She then reached for the whistle hanging around her neck, only to stopp moving as Noir growled at her. The woman tilted her head, causing Noir to do the same. As she took a step forward however, the indoraptor bolted and climbed on top of Bens van.

They drove off and soon got chased down again by the atrociraptors. Noir had to dug her claws into the metal roof of the van to not fall off and occasionally swiped at the raptors whenever one got too close.

Soon another whistle came, telling the raptors to give up their chase and to return.

Chapter Text

Darius rolled down the winodw to check if the atrociraptors were still following them. Not seeing any of them, he looked up to Noir still clinging to the top of the van. She was looking back at the way they came from with a very sad and worried expression.

After a moment, Darius put his head back into the van and noticed Ben staring at him.

“What?”

Ben remained silent.

“Okay, okay, I guess you were right.”

“Finally.” Ben sighed.

“Who was that woman and why is she after us?”

“I don´t know, but I got some theories. Check´em out if you want. They´re in the back.”

Darius opened a rusty door to the back of the van. He immediatly stopped in the door way as he noticed a large dent and some claw marks caused by Noir at the roof.

“You sure it´s safe to have Noir sitting on top of the van?” Darius asked over his shoulder.

“The van is driving just fine, but we should stop at a gas station soon. I wasn´t expecting to get that much extra weight.”

“Alright.” Darius stepped into the back and let the door slid close. After looking around for a bit, he found a boot with a spoon sticking out of it and walked back to the front.

“Okay, first of all, real talk. Are you eating food out of a boot? Cuz if you are, we need to talk about that.”

Ben sighed and rolled his eyes.

Darius then held up one of the sticky notes. “And second, Big Shaving Cream behind it all? What the heck are these?”

“They´re theories.” Ben snatched the note out of Darius hand. “Some are from that website, and some are my own. At this point we can´t rule out any possibilities. But right now, it doesn´t matter who is hunting us. What matters is that they are.”

“Why would anyone even be after us in the first place?”

“We can figure that out later, we first need to warn the others.”

Darius sighed and pulled out his phone. “Fine. I´ll call Sammy.”

Ben rolled down his window, grabbed Darius phone and threw it out of the car. His friend stared at him in disbelieve for a few moments. “Wha...”

“Phones are traceable. They´re not safe.”

“You could have turned it off.”

“Well, phones are still traceable when they´re turned off.” Ben explained, but sounded less sure this time. “I think. Right?”

“No.” Darius shook his head.

“Huh. I could have sworn. I guess we could have looked that up, but...”

Darius just angrily stared at him now.

“Not anymore... Actually, it´s pretty cold. Just gonna... roll this up.” Ben closed the window again.

Darius took a deep breath to calm down. “How exactly do you plan to warn everyone if we don´t have phones, hmm? You learn telepathy on that website?”

“No. Back there.” He gestures at a cardboard box behind them and Darius grabbed it. “Care package from Sammy. Return address is right on the front. She´ll know where everyone is.”

“So, we´re going to texas?”

“Yee-haw.”

The metal above them shrieked as Noir moved a bit. They kept driving for a while without any incident. No one else besides them seemed to be on the road at that time of day.

Darius had already fallen asleep and Ben was getting tired too, but a growl coming from above set him on high alert again. He looked in the rearview mirror and saw another car following them. Noir had meanwhile camouflaged to not get spotted.

The sounds also woke up Darius, who was oblivious to the tension and told Ben to pull off at the next exit. Instead of doing so, Ben kept driving on the main road.

“Dude, did you hear me? What´s going on?”

“We´re being followed.”

“We lost those raptors hours ago. We don´t even know...”

“Not them.” Ben interrupted him. “There´s a car.”

Darius saw the car and then looked up to see if he could spot Noir. Someone seeing them with a dinosaur would just get them into more trouble. Being unable to spot the hybrid, he assumed she just turned invisible.

“Every time I turn, they turn. When I slow down, they slow down. When I speed up...” Ben drove faster, but the other car was still following close behind them.

“They´re speeding up, too.”

“Yep.” Ben drove even faster, swirfing past another car on his lane. Noir was having a hard time holding on to the roof.

They watched their follower drive past the other car aswell.

“They´re not letting up.”

“Hang on.” Ben took his van to the limit.

“Stop!”

“Not yet, I...”

“Ben, stop!” Darius pointed at the dinosaur on the road ahead of them. Ben hit the break and managed to stop just inches from it. The sudden stop however made Noir loose her grip. She got thrown forward and crashed into the other dinosaur.

The confused nasutoceratops staggered back to its feet and fled in a panic, while Noir kept laying motionless on the street. Forgetting about their follower, Darius jumped out of the van and ran towards her. He barely noticed the car driving past them as he checked on her.

On the first glance, she seemed to be fine, aside from being unconscious. Ben soon followed him. They kept checking her for broken bones or any other injuries until she eventually woke up again.

The dazed raptor just shook her head, before slowly getting back on her feet. After making sure she´s fine, she only got a few small bruises, they got back into the van and waited for her to climb back up. Ben promised to drive more carefull from now on.

The next morning, in a cave somewhere near Darius house. Ripper woke up and immediatly knew something was wrong. There was still the faint scent of intruders in the air, both human and dinosaur.

He quickly got up and rushed towards the house. The fence was destroyed and he found two different tire tracks leading to and away from their territory. Darius, Noirs and someone elses scent lead to one of the tracks, while the other obviously belonged to the intruders.

While trying to piece together what happened, he paced around the area to make sure the intruders really have left. Ripper then thought about what to do next.

He really wanted to follow Noir and make sure she´s save, but then remembered that he still got a job to do here. So with a heavy heart, he trotted back to their cave.

Back at the van, Darius was getting impatient.

“Ruby rope?”

“I´d rather have a bathroom.”

Ben put the candy into his mouth and started diggin for something, but the weight ontop of the van shifting forced him to put both hands back on the steering wheele with a surprised gasp. A moment later, Noirs head appeared next to his window.

She hungrily stared at the candy, her breath fogging the glass.

“You want some?” Ben asked while already grabbing two more from the jar. He rolled down the window and gave them to her. A pieping sound then caught their attention.

“What was that?”

“Nothing.” Ben mumbled.

“Are we out of gas?”

“No.” He glanced at his fuel gauge. “Not for 20 miles.”

“Dude, we have to stop. Look, whatever´s going on, we´ll be quick. I promise.”

Ben sighed and used the turn signal.

“Thank you. Then we can get some real licorice, not this fake stuff.”

They soon arrived at a secluded gas station with a young nasutoceratops sleeping between the pumps.

“Another nasutoceratops?”

“A younger one, but big. They must be migrating from up north.”

“Maybe we should find another place to stop.”

Hearing that, Noir huffed and climbed down from the van. She moved to the only exit to the gas station, blocking it with herself and forcing them to stay here.

“I guess not.” Ben moved his van to one of the pumps.

Despite a car stopping near it and a predator being nearby, the nasutoceratops kept sleeping. Seeing them getting out of the car, Noir decided to explore a bit.

The ground quickly caught her attention, since she had never seen or touched sand before. Moving her hands through it soon turned into digging and before she knew it she was rolling around in it.

She then noticed Ben and Darius having an argument nearby.

“I thought you´d understand, but you´re sticking your head in the sand.”

Noir shook her head, making some sand fly into different directions. Both of them turned towards her for a moment. She then got up and walked further away to not get spotted by the gas station owner.

They kept talking until the nasutoceratops woke up. It yawned and rubbed its horns against one of the metal support pillars from the gas station.

“What´s it doing?”

“Sharpening its horns.” Both Ben and Darius answered. They then heared the dinosaur getting panicked.

“Uh-oh. It´s stuck.” The roof above them started to shake as it tried to get free.

“We gotta get it out of here before it takes down this whole gas station.”

“What?!” The owner yelled in the background.

“Maybe some of these shrubs can lure it away?”

“You know nasutoceratops don´t eat desert shrubs.”

“Well, you got a better idea?”

“There´s gotta be something in there.” Ben ran into the gas station shop.

“Okay. I´ll try to keep it calm.”

Hearing the commotion nearby, Noir stalked back to the gas station.

The owner took several steps back after seeing her. “What the hell is that?!”

“Wait, Noir, don´t.” Darius tried to keep her away from the trapped herbivore, but had to talk with the owner first. “Don´t worry, she´s not dangerous.”

They then realized how quiet it became and that the shaking had stopped. Darius turned around and saw Noir sitting infront of the other dinosaur. It had stopped trying to free itself and both of them made low, rumbling sounds at each other.

Ben soon came out of the shop with a bunch of bags and all three humans stared at the scene in silence. Darius was the first to snap out of it.

“Alright, let´s get it out now.” Darius and Ben walked up and freed it, while the owner stayed behind and kept watching. It quickly walked back to its herd and the dinosaurs soon left the area.

Only Noir stayed behind, still scaring the owner.

“Relax, she´s not gonna attack you.” Darius looked over to his hybrid. “Right, Noir?”

Noir nodded and walked back to some sandy area. The owner calmed down once she was far enough away.

“We should probably get going now, huh?” Darius asked Ben.

“Yeah.”

“Hang on a minute.”

Ben and Darius watched the owner quickly walk into the gas station shop. He soon came back out with a bag full of food.

“Here, it´s on the house. See it as a thank you for getting rid of that dinosaur.”

Before he could give them the bag, Noir had returned to the gas station and headed towards him. The owner froze as the curious raptor sniffed at the bag and Darius had to come to his rescue again.

“Wanna feed her?” Darius asked, grabbing an apple from the bag and held it out to the old man.

“And you sure this is safe?”

“Yep.”

He gave Darius the bag and hesitantly took the apple, while Noirs eyes were fixated on it. The man held it towards her and she carefully took it from him, eating it whole. He opened his eyes again, relieved that his hand was still there.

Noir rubbed her head against him as thank you, leaving the man standing frozen in fear again. She smiled at him and then followed Ben and Darius to the van.

Darius was about to get in, but turned back around for a moment. “Oh, and we would appreciate it if you don´t tell anyone about her.” He pointed at Noir, who was currently busy climbing up on the van, and then got in the car. Ben finished fueling the van before getting in aswell.

“To Sammy´s?”

“To Sammy´s.” Ben then pulled some candy out of his jacket and threw it to Darius.

“Ooh, you got the good stuff.”

“Debatable. Ruby rope rules. But if you like the clearly inferior Twibblers, who am I to judge.”

They drove away from the gas station. Noir was peeking through Darius window, but then looked up and camouflaged.

“Have you ever even tried them?”

Ben took one of them out of the bag and slowly ate it. “Okay, wow. Yeah, those are... Whoa, those are... Wow. You win.”

“Told you.” He was about to eat one, until he spotted a black car sitting at the side of the road. Darius kept looking at the car in the rear view mirror, but got distracted by Ben.

“Thanks, Darius, for coming with me, and keeping me grounded.”

“Of course. We gotta stick together.” Ben was reaching for the candy again and Darius held it out of his reach. “Hey. I thought this was my peace offering.”

“You´re right, you´re right.”

Darius the heard a loud huff to his right and rolled down his window. “Here you go.” He held two pieces of candy out of the window and watched them disappear into thin air.

None of them noticed the black car starting to follow them.

Chapter Text

They were still driving as the sun started to set. Darius was eating chips and occasionally threw one for Ben to catch. Ben eventually drove off the highway and past some fields with cows grazing. Noir looked drooling after them.

Darius sat up straighter as he spotted Sammys farm. “This it?”

“I think so.”

The van hadn´t even stopped yet when Noir climbed down and put some distance between herself and the house. Ben and Darius quickly got out of the van.

“What´s up with her?” Ben asked, walking around the car to stand next to his friend.

“I think something spooked her. We better go check on Sammy.”

“Right.”

They walked towards the house and soon smelled the smoke coming from it. Not wasting any time, they broke through the front door and had to cough as the found themselfs in a thick cloud of smoke.

Noir watched them disappear into the house and then decided to look around a bit. She soon found the stables and Bumpy locked up in one of them. The hybrid bit down on the latch and pulled it open.

Bumpy immediatly ran outside and both dinosaurs happily greeted each other. The ankylo wanted to show her around, so they walked over the nearby hill. As they stopped to get through a fence, Noir sniffed the air.

She noticed that Bumpy was smelling different.

Noir got closer and sniffed at her again, while Bumpy just stood there and watched. Realizing what caused the weird scent, Noir purred and rubbed her snout against Bumpys belly.

They then kept walking.

Noir sat down near the top of the hill and watched Bumpy run around and chase some birds. The three humans soon joined her. Ben ran down the hill to greet Bumpy, while Darius and Sammy stayed with Noir.

“Oh my gosh. Noir? I haven´t seen you in ages.”

Noir turned her head towards Sammy while she warble as greeting and got hugged by Sammy in return. They then watched Ben and Bumpy play.

“I didn´t know Bumpy was staying here.”

“Mae and Hap helped us snuck her out here right before the whole Mantah Corp Island Investigation. It´s easy to miss a few things when you´re holed up in a cabin with spotty cell service.”

I guess it is.”

Sammy lightly punched his shoulder. “But you´re here now, homie.”

Noir suddenly stood up with a growl and they watched a car driving towards them. Sammy ran down the hill to Ben and Bumpy.

“I love seeing friends reunite, but we really need to get outta here before...” She got cut off as the car came closer.

“Who is that?”

“Trouble.”

“Get outta the way!” Sammy shoved her two friends out of the cars path.

Instead of following them, Bumpy charged at the car, smacked it with her tail and made it spin around a few times.

Noir had watched the whole thing through narrowed eyes from the top of the hill. After seeing a man get out of the car and threatening her pack, she stalked forward to deal with him.

“There´s nothing you can say to defend that monster this time. Your lucky if that thing sees another night...”

He wasn´t able to finish his sentence as he suddenly got slammed into the ground. A black, clawed hand pinned him to the ground, while Noirs jaws were just inches from his face. She growled and her nails started to dig into his skin as he tried to get away from her.

“Noir, don´t.” Sammy tried to intervene, but Noir pushed her away with her tail.

“Get that thing off of me.” The man pleaded. Noir then roared at him, making him finally give in. “Ok, ok, I´m sorry.” After huffing at him, Noir let him go and watched him stagger back to his jeep. They all watched him leave in a hurry.

Sammy then rushed back to her house and the others followed her. She put Bumpy back into the cage, before trying to safe her pie. Once back in the house, they were finally able to tell Sammy what´s going on and she started to pack supplies for them.

Noir had meanwhile stayed outside again and soon noticed the lights in the house go out, followed by a familiar truck stopping a bit away. She was standing near the front door as Ben and Darius walked outside with flashlights. Noir tapped with her sickle claw three times against the ground.

“Dinosaurs?” Darius asked her and she nodded.

“Whats going on?” Ben whispered confused.

“Three taps mean enemies.” Darius turned off his flashlight and Ben soon did the same.

They walked a few steps further, when a atrociraptor suddenly appeared out of nowhere. It was about to attack the humans, but Noir got between them, giving Ben and Darius enough time to escape and hide. It then pounced on her instead.

She spun around to get the raptor off her back and quickly managed to grab its tail and slammed it into the ground. Before she could finish it off however, a second raptor appeared and attacked her, too.

Being distracted by those two, she didn´t noticed the third atrociraptor sneaking into the house to go after Sammy.

Ben and Darius had meanwhile watched the fight from their hiding spot.

“Two on one. That ain´t fair.” Ben whispered and then looked at Bumpys cage. “I got an idea.” He got up and ran towards it. Ben opened the cage and Bumpy immediatly ran outside to help Noir. They eventually managed to make the raptors back off, just as Sammy came running out of her house.

The third raptor was right behind her, but instead of attacking her, went to join her pack.

“Sammy, lets go!” Darius called and all three got into the jeep.

Noir was about to follow them when they heared the whistle again. The atrociraptors turned around and ran towards the source of the noice and Noir slowly started to follow them. She took a few steps in that direction until Darius voice made her snap out of it.

“Noir, c´mon, we gotta go.”

The raptor turned back around and quickly climbed on the van, while Ben watched Bumpy run away from the farm.

While sitting on the car, Noir kept looking into the direction the other raptors had disappeared to.

Chapter Text

Darius was trying to sleep, but Ben kept nervously tapping on the steering wheel and Noir eventually started to do the same thing against the car roof.

Sammy soon joined them in the front of the van. Their conversation was interrupted by Noir growling loudly. They looked in the rearview mirrors just as the sirens started.

“Is that the highway patrol?”

“No. DPW.”

They pulled over at the side of the road, along with two other cars and watched several huge trucks with captured dinosaurs drive past them.

Noir had meanwhile camouflaged again and watched the trucks with growing unease. It reminded her of the time she was locked up in the mansion and how easy it could happen again if she gets caught again.

Once all the trucks past them, they kept driving, but Ben quickly hit the breaks again as two paras crossed the street infront of them. Noir was about to finally get something to eat, when the van kept moving, forcing her to stay on top of it.

They eventually arrived at Kenjis place in the woods, that turned out to only consisted of a trailer, a rusty old car, a hammock and a bunch of other stuff just laying around outside.

Noir climbed down as the others got out of the van. While they went to the trailer and knocked on the door, the indoraptor was taking a look around the area.

She spotted Kenji first and warbled a greeting at him, giving him away to the rest of the group. He ignored both her and Darius as he invited the others into his trailer.

They were explaining to him what is going on when the whole trailer suddenly started to shake.

“Whoa. What is that?”

“What do we do?”

“Kenji!”

Instead of freaking out, Kenji kept sitting on the bed and calmly caught a framed picture before it could fall to the floor.

“Would you guys chill? They´ll be done in a minute, ´kay?”

A panicked scream suddenly came from outside, followed by more shaking.

“Huh, that´s new.” Kenji put the map he was staring at away and all four looked outside the window. They then watched Noir drag a dead parasaur behind some bushes.

She left with it for a while to eat, before eventually returning to the trailer. As Noir got back however, she found the place empty. Not knowing what else to do and having not slept since the whole thing started, she curled up outside of the trailer and immediatly fell asleep.

She woke up the next morning as Darius and Kenji got out of the trailer. Darius asked her if she wanted to come with them, but Noir just huffed, turned her head away and soon dozed off again.

When she woke up next, the place was still empty. Noir got up, shook a few fallen leafs off her back and thought about what to do. She could either try to track down Bens van or Kenjis car.

In the end, the raptor decided to go after the van since she was more familiar with its scent and that would make it easier to follow it.

Tracking it turned out to be as easy as expected, having to walk all this way however was not. She came past a damaged looking dinosaur attraction, before eventually arriving at a closed off bridge. Noir noticed the cameras aimed at the gate and decided to stay away from it for now.

She watched as someone came by and started to tamper with the security system. Once he was done, a DPW truck with a dinosaur inside showed up and released it onto the island. A second one was released not long after, but kept on this end of the bridge.

Noir then saw Bens van driving over the bridge and soon getting cornered between the two becklespinax. Once she saw the DPW worker shooting at the vehicle instead of the dinosaurs, Noir finally had enough.

She ran out of her hiding spot and rammed the two worker down into the water, but was unable to stop the van from getting pushed over the edge. The hybrid jumped after them into the water without a second thought.

That may have been a mistake as she didn´t know how to swim. Noir needed a few moments to figure it out and soon managed to get back to the surface. After taking a deep breath, she dived towards the sinking van. The becklespinax was too focused on the car to notice her approaching.

She bit down on its jaws and started to claw at it until it finally fled. Noir then swam to the van, ripped out the driver side door and helped Ben, Sammy and Yaz to get to the surface.

Ben and Sammy held onto Noirs back, while Yaz stayed away from the dinosaur. It took some encouraging words from Sammy for her to calm down again. They then waited under the bridge for the two worker to get out of the water and leave.

Once the coast was clear, they sneaked up the embankment and watched the two soaked DPW worker having an argument about letting one becklespinax escape.

The worker were so busy blaming each other, that they didn´t noticed three people and a dinosaur sneak onto their truck. After a while of driving, they arrived at an unknown location and the one still captured becklespinax was loaded off the truck.

The four stowaways managed to sneak off, too, but soon got caught. Noir got between them and a man wearing a white cowboyhat and growled at him. He stopped with some distance between them, not wanting to get near the angry hybrid.

“Hey! Civilians aren´t authorized to be here.” He yelled at them and then looked at Noir. “What´s going on here? Hold on a second.” He looked back at the others. “I know you. You´re part of the Nublar Six. Is Darius with you?”

“How do you know Darius?”

“Know him? I hired him. I´m Dudley Cabrera.” He held out his hand and got a step closer, making Noir also take a step towards him and growl again. Dudley quickly took his hand away and stepped back.

Sammy petted her to try and calm her down.

“Aren´t you, like, the DPW boss?”

“A boss. Uh, Regional Director. This is my region.”

“Well, boss, two of your officers from your region tried to kill us.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Those guys who just showed up with the dinosaur ran our van off a bridge.”

Noir hissed in agreement.

“What? No.”

“So you had nothing to do with it?” Sammy asked with narrowed eyes.

“No way. Here, come with me. We can go someplace safe. Figure out...” He wasn´t able to finish his sentece as Sammy kicked his legs out from under him and they all ran away. Noir quickly followed them, but not without stealing his hat first.

“This way!”

They ran between a bunch of large container. Noir stood guard, while the others talked.

“Is that Cabrera dude in on this, or is he just really bad at his job?”

“Either way, we shouldn´t trust him. But he did seem pretty oblivious to me.” Ben took out a bunch of keys he had stolen from him. “One of these´ll get us into an office or something. There could be info about why two random DPW officers are after us.”

“Or, at the very least, a phone, so we can warn Darius and Kenji.”

“Right. There.” He looked at a bunch of office buildings, but they all got distracted by a familiar dinosaur roar. They all ran to the cage and found Bumpy in it. Ben talked to her when she suddenly freaked out.

“She never did like being locked up, but this is different.”

“Something must be wrong. She looks...”

“Dead? It says dino number seven is deceased.”

“You saw how those DPW officers treated that other dinosaur.”

“What if they did something to Bumpy?” Bumpy slammed her tail against the cage door and Ben tried to open the lock. “I swear, if they... Which one of these opens this thing? Come on, come on!”

“We got this. You get Bumpy.”

“You sure you will be ok?” Sammy, Yaz and Noir just stared at him. “Just asking.” He shrugged. Noir put her new hat on Bens head for safe keeping and then helped distracting an approaching guard.

Sammy and Yaz lured him around another container, where Noir was already waiting for them. She quickly managed to knock him out and they then dragged him somewhere out of view of the other guards.

They then got back to Ben, but had to hide again as more guards showed up. The group could only watch as Bumpys container was loaded on a truck and moved away.

Chapter Text

Noir had managed to climb onto the truck before it left, while Ben, Sammy and Yaz stole a DPW jeep to follow it.

They eventually arrived at a warehouse with dozens of dinosaurs in containers being moved around. Once the truck had stopped, Noir jumped down from it and hid behind one of the container.

She them smelled Darius and Kenji nearby and tracked them down. They had their backs turned to her as they watched the DPW worker and only noticed the Indoraptor as she was almsot right behind them.

Both spun around towards her. Their shock soon turned into surprise as they recognized her.

“Noir? How did you get here?” Darius whispered as he walked up to her. She was gonna greet them, but suddenly ducked, causing Darius and Kenji to do the same. A DPW worker walked close by their hiding spot, forcing them to find a new one.

“Doesn´t matter how.” Kenji said as he turned around and saw a way up. “We can get in through there.”

“Are you serious?”

“Like I say to my students: With me by your side, you Kon climb anything too.”

“I Kon´t believe you just said that.”

Darius and Noir watched him easily climb up a few pipes. He then looked at his raptor. “Little help here?”

Noir grinned and walked right next to the container. Darius climbed on her back and was able to reach the top. The raptor wasn´t able to follow them through the window, so she left to look for another way in.

She found them again as they were standing infront of the allosaurus cage. They got interrupted as Ben came running towards them. He barely managed to squeez past Noir, but not without falling to the floor and being out of breath.

“Ben. You´re ok.”

“No time, come quick.” He kept running. “Bumpy´s dying.”

The others quickly followed him and they soon found her container. Ben and Kenji worked to get it open, while the others spooked the nearby dinosaurs to cover their noises.

They watched as Ben and Sammy went into the container to help Bumpy. Kenji turned away with his hands covering his face and Noir tried to cheer him up.

Ben eventually left the container again with an egg in his arms. The moment got ruined as Dudley Cabrera appeared behind them and pointed a prod at them.

Noir climbed up on Bumpys cage to be out of his reached and angrily hissed at him. He watched her for a moment, before turning his attention back at the group.

“Cabrera? You´re the one behind all this? You´re selling dinosaurs?”

“Darius.”

“DPW is supposed to protect people from dinosaurs. Apperently, everyone just needs protecting from you.”

“Hey, I don´t want anyone to get hurt.”

“That weapon says otherwise.”

“Do what I say and you´ll be fine.”

“Is that what happened to Brooklyn? She didn´t do what you said, so you killed her?”

“The Allosaurus was supposed to scare her a little. Send a message. Get her to stop.”

“Is that why you sent those Atrociraptors after us? To send us a message?”

“Atrociraptors? What are you talking about?”

Darius slammed his fist against the nearby container. “Don´t lie to us!”

“Hey, relax. I´m the one with the stun prod here.”

“You don´t send a message with dinosaurs unless you want someone to get hurt.”

“Well, I tried sending actual messages, but they didn´t deter any of you.”

“You´re the one who send those threats on Dark Jurassic?”

“Like I said, I don´t want to have to hurt you, but if it comes down to choosing between my operation or telling a story about the famed Nublar Six, well, you know which one I´ll pick.”

“You say you don´t wanna hurt us?” Sammy walked past Darius. “Fine. Then what do you want?”

“Stay out of my buisness. No more snooping around. You know I can find you, no matter where you are.”

“We can do that.”

“Except Darius. I want him back working for the DPW. Gives us credibility. Let´s me keep an eye on him. His little pet.” He pointed the prod up at Noir, making her hiss again. “And the rest of you.” The prod aimed back at them again.

“Now!” Ben yelled and charged at him as a distraction. Before he knew it, Noir bit down on the prod and yanked it out of his hands. Ben then knocked him to the ground and the group made a run for it.

They tried to open all the nearby doors, but they all turned out to be locked. Noir gave Darius the prod as they had to hide when the main gate opened and the atrociraptor handler stepped inside the warehouse.

Cabrera came stumbling towards her. “What are you doing here? I told you to stay away. I´m not cleaning up any more of your messes.”

The handler just stared at him.

“I-In fact, this isn´t working out. You´re fired.” A DPW worker carrying a suitcase walked towards them. “Oh, Jensen. Perfect timing. Escort our friend here out.” The worker ignored him and stopped next to the handler, looking back at Cabrera.

“Hello? D-Did you hear me? I said...”

Jensen sneared. “You really think you´ve been calling the shots this whole time?”

The handler blew into her whistle and three Atrociraptors came running into the warehouse and stood around her.

Cabrera took a few steps backwards. “Wha-What are those?”

“Get the job done much better than leaving it to chance with an Allosaurus.”

“You killed that girl on purpose. With... those.”

“Got it.” Jensen left the warehouse and pushed a button to close the main gate again.

“W-What did she say?”

“She said our boss doesn´t like loose ends.”

Once the gate closed, the handler whistled again and the three raptors charged at Cabrera. He tried to escape, but was quickly surrounded by them.

Cabrera then saw her about to whistle again. “No. No, no, no, wait. I know where...”

She whistled and the raptors killed him. The group had meanwhile watched the whole thing from hidden behind a few crates.

They watched the handler with her raptors leaving, only for one of them to stop and look straight at their hiding spot. The handler noticed and stopped aswell.

She was about to send her raptors after them, when Noir came out of hiding. The raptors just stared at each other, waiting to see if one of them would attack first.

When nothing else happened, the handler tilted her head and Noir did the same. The handler whistled again and Noir slowly walked towards her.

She was about to reach for the indoraptor, but they got interrupted as a truck came barreling through the closed gate. Her three raptors scattered in panic and Noir pushed her out of the way to not get run over by the truck.

The group used the oportunity to come out of hiding and run to the truck. They managed to hide under it just in time as all the trapped dinosaurs in the warehouse managed to get out of their cages.

The rex outside the warehouse was also released and started going after the atrociraptors, who tried to defend the unconscious handler.

Noir went to help them, but was ultimately no match for the rex. After getting cornered by it, Darius set the Allosaurus free to distract the Rex from her. All the trapped dinosaurs eventually left the area, leaving only the four raptors and the humans left at the warehouse.

Seeing her raptors being in bad shape and police arriving soon, the handler decided to leave.

The group kept standing on the dock as they tried to figure out what to do next.

Darius eventually made his decision. “I have to get on that boat and find out who´s been hunting us. Who wanted Brooklyn dead. And put a stop to it, all of it. Are you in?”

“I´m in.” Sammy agreed.

“I was never not in, so...” Ben gave him two thumbs up.

“Getting on that boat would be a very Brooklyn thing to do.”

Darius looked at Kenji. “Okay. You Kon count me in too. See what I did there?”

He then looked at his raptor. “Noir? Maybe it´s safer for you to go back home. I´m sure Ripper is missing you alot.”

Noir sadly looked around the group as she tried to make her decision. She really wanted to just go back home, but then decided against it. If they bring themselfs in dangerous situations, it would be irresponsible of her to let them have to face them alone.

So she shook her head and took a step towards Darius.

“You wanna come with us?”

She nodded.

“Well, I´m out.”

“Jeez!”

“My guy. You´re still here?”

“Uh, unfortunately, yeah. You kids get on that ship. I´ll make sure they get these dinosaurs somewhere safe, and away from people.”

“There´s a mama Ankylosaurus and her new egg in one of those crates. Make sure they´re taken care of.”

He nodded and left as the group sneaked on board of the ship.

Chapter Text

It´s been nearly a week since the group had snuck on board of the ship. They managed to find a empty container for them to hide in and another one for Noir.

She was currently laying curled up in her cage, trying to ignore how much the ship was swinging from side to side. The sound of thunder made her get up and look outside.

Noir caught glimpses of Kenji going to grab some lettuce, but then heading for the bridge instead. The hungry raptor impatiently clicked with her claws against the metal floor, hoping he would come back soon to bring her some food again soon.

As she waited, she realized that the ship was heading straight towards the storm. Rain water soon started to pour into the cages, making her and all the other dinosaurs increasingly uneasy. A large wave suddenly hit the ship, making it swing violently.

Noir heared her group yell due to the impact and looked outside towards their container. She could only watch as the ships crew opened it and discovered them. They were gonna lock them in it and throw it over board, when another large wave hit the ship.

One of the crew members nearly got hit by a tipping over container, but got saved by Darius. Darius and Kenji managed to convince the captain to let them help and they all worked on getting the container strapped down.

Once at Noirs container, Darius petted her through the bars to calm her down, when a lightning suddenly hit the ship.

All the lights turned off and the locks on every container were deactivated. Noir let out a long whine and huddled in a corner of her cage as the scent of smoke filled the air. She was gonna stay in that corner until everything was over, but another lightning strike quickly made her change her mind.

The paniced hybrid shot forward, slamming the doors of her cage open and subconsciously followed Darius scent. She kept running blindly around the containers and through the heavy rain and eventually collided with the escaped majungasaurus just as it was about to attack the gallimimus.

Both carnivores lost balance and slid over the wet floor, giving the Galli and Darius a chance to hide. Noir got back on her feet first and kept running as far away from the fire as she could without caring about the other dinosaurs.

She eventually came to a stop at a dead end, where Darius managed to catch up to her. He crouched down infront of Noir and petted her to calm her down again. The majungasaurus had meanwhile stalked after Darius and was now blocking their only way out.

Noir quickly got between it and Darius and growled a warning at it. The majungasaurus angrily roared and both dinosaurs charged at each other. Just before they collided, Noir managed to duck under its snapping jaws and used her momentum to make it fall onto its back.

It slid towards the end of the ship, where the railing was barely able to stop it from falling over board. They quickly ran past it before it could get back on its feet.

Darius then pointed at a still open container and told her to try and get it in there. Noir nodded and then kept her eyes on the majunga as she slowly backed away towards the container. It charged at her again, only to trip as another wave shook the ship and slid right into the cage.

Noir barely managed to get out of the way without slipping herself and then helped Darius to close the container door. The captain and the rest of her group soon joined them there.

He noticed the suitcase Sammy was carring and tried to take it from her, causing Noir to roar at him. Another wave hit the ship, making all of them loose balance and causing the suitcase to fall into the water.

Kenji jumped after it, quickly followed by Noir. The rest of the group got into a lifeboat to try and save them. It didn´t took long for them to resurface, with Kenji holding onto the suitcase while sitting on Noirs back.

It took her a moment to orient herself before swimming towards the lifeboat. She moved next to it so the others could pull Kenji off her back and onto the boat and then tried to get onto the boat herself.

It nearly capsized from her weight, but she somehow managed to savely get onto its roof. Noir had to cough a few times and then tried to rubb the salt water out of her eyes. It barely worked and just made her eyes burn more so she gave up on that for now and just kept them closed.

The ship moved on, letting them drift around aimlessly until the sunrise. Noir heared a few seagulls and instinctively snapped towards them. She managed to get one and dozens of feathers were falling past the windows as Sammy spotted land nearby.

The indoraptor also looked into its direction and then stood up, making the boat rock. Noticing that, Darius looked out the window up at her and asked her whats wrong.

She kept looking between him and the land while warbling excited. As Darius didn´t understood what she wanted, she stuck her head through the open window and stared at the lifebuoy.

Darius picked it up and held it towards her. “You want that?”

Noir grabbed it with her teeth, threw it into the water and quickly jumped after it. She then grabbed it again and used the rope attached to it to pull the boat to shore.

Chapter Text

With Noirs help, they easily managed to reach the shore. The group watched concerned as the hybrid stumbled onto the beach and started to violently shake her head. Darius jumped out of the boat and ran towards her as she started to rubb her head against the sand.

“Noir, wait. Your making it worse.” Darius called out as he approached her.

She growled in frustration, but stopped moving. Darius looked her over and quickly noticed her eyes were covered by a crust of salt and newly added sand.

“That doesn´t look good. We need to wash that out somehow.” He said as he wiped away some of the sand around her eyes.

“Maybe we can find some clean water when we follow the river.” Yaz suggested.

“Yeah, there might be people living there who could help us.” Sammy agreed with her.

“Sounds good.” Darius nodded and looked back at Noir. “Ok girl, we´re gonna lead you through the forest, alright?”

She nodded and they all headed towards the jungle. Darius walked infront of her with one hand on top of her head, Sammy and Yaz were to her right and Kenji and Ben to her left.

They walked like this without any issues for a while, until Noir suddenly started to walk slower the further they got. The group soon found out the reason for that as they came into a clearing with a young girl standing in the middle of three angry looking stegosaurs.

“Who are you?” The girl asked and pointed the tree branch she was holding at them.

Before any of them could answer, the three stegos bellowed a warning and started to stomp towards them. The group walked infront of Noir to try and calm the approaching herbivores down. As that didn´t worked they had to move out of the way.

Darius tried to lead Noir away, but she refused to move. Instead she lowered her arms and head to the ground as if she was bowing. The group watched with bated breath as the stegos walked more uncertain and hesitant towards her.

The light grey stego, who seemed to be the leader of the herd, kept walking forward, while the other two stopped a few feet away. It angrily huffed at her, but Noir still refused to move. After a short stand-off, the stegos eventually backed down, but still warily kept their eyes on her.

The group rejoined around her as Noir stood up again and they turned their attention back on the girl.

“Can you help us?” Darius gestured towards Noirs eyes. “We need some clean water to wash her eyes out.”

“And then what? So it can attack the stegos and Geba? Why would I do that?” As she was talking, a gallimimus appeared out of nowhere and walked up next to her.

“She´s not gonna attack any of them. Right, Noir?”

Seeing her nod nearly made the girl drop her branch. After thinking about it for a moment, she eventually decided to help them. “Fine, there´s a water trough over there.”

She walked towards the trough, only to find it empty.

“We have more water at our farm. It´s this way.” She grabbed a blue bucket and lead them towards the farm. The stegos followed them with a short distance, not wanting to leave the intruder out of their sight.

As the farm came into view, the girl, Zayna, handed Darius the bucket.

“I should go ahead and let my mama know that we have guests. C´mon Geba.” She called her galli and hurried towards the farm. Geba looked back at the group for a moment before following her.

They soon caught up with Zayna and saw her talk to an older woman. Her mother looked slightly worried at the newcomers as Zanya waved them over.

Zayna lead Darius and Noir around the house to where they can get water, while the rest introduced themselfs to Aminata and explained why they were here.

The stegos still watched them from a distance as Darius used a wet towel to get Noirs eyes clean again. Geba was meanwhile curiosly walking back and forth between them.

As soon as she was somewhat able to see again, her eyes landed on Geba and she started to drool.

“Noir, no!” Darius scolded her and moved between the two dinos. He then looked over to Zayna. “Sorry about that. It´s been a few days since we were able to get her something to eat.”

She thought for a moment. “We have a river nearby. There might be food for her there. Just make sure she doesn´t go after our dinos. Or other people.” Zayna then walked back to the main group and Geba hurried after her.

“Heared that, girl?” Noir nodded and Darius petted her again. “And try not to get lost out there.” Darius watched her disappear into the jungle, before following Zayna.

It didn´t took long for her to find the river. Noir followed it for a few minutes until she heared several large animals in the distance. She camouflaged and sneaked towards the source of the noise.

The animals that eventually came into view reminded Noir of the cows she had seen on Sammys farm. Only these ones were much larger and had a different color and different horns. They had their backs turned towards Noir as they stood at the edge of the river to take a drink.

She was about to attack them when she heared a loud splash and all but one of the weird cows ran away in a panic. The left behind cow kept struggling by the river as something tried to dragg it underwater.

Not wanting to loose her meal, Noir charged forward and bit down on the cows back. She started pulling it away from the water, along with the greenish-brown lizard that had its jaws around the cows neck. After getting halfway pulled out of the water, the lizard decided to give up and disappeared back under the water.

Just to be save, Noir dragged the half dead cow a few meter away from the water before starting to eat.

She returned with one of the cows horns in her mouth to the farm an hour later and was once again cut off by the three stegos. They eventually let her pass, but not without following her again.

Noir headed straight for the group still sitting outside of the house and dropped the horn at Darius feet.

“What you got there, girl?” Darius picked up the horn and looked at it.

Aminata curiosly looked over aswell. “That looks like a Sudan buffalo horn.” She came closer and Darius handed her the horn. “Yes, I´m pretty sure it is.”

“Guess now we know what you were hunting out there.” Darius petted her and she slightly nudged his shoulder.

Noir then looked back at the stegos still eyeing her warily. Her eyes soon fell on a nearby fruit tree she hadn´t noticed before. She quickly headed towards it, with the stegos trailing after her.

The tree was full of orange fruits, but all of them were too high up for the stegos to reach. Noir looked around the tree for a low hanging branch with as many fruits on it as possible.

After picking her target, she moved right under it and jumped. Her jaws easily cut through the branch and it fell to the ground next to her. She picked up the branch and dropped it a few feet infront of the stegos.

Noir retreated as the stegos cautiously moved forward and inspected the offering before starting to eat. Once they were done, they threw one last glance at Noir and headed back into the jungle.

As she turned around to head back to the farm, she suddenly found herself face to face with Geba. The galli looked expectantly at her and she turned back to the tree with a huff. After grabbing two more fruits for him, Noir finally returned to the farm.

She curled up to the side of the house for a short nap. Laying in the open with the sun shining down on her made her realise how much it reminded her of the climate back on Nublar. After getting out of the mansion, her and Ripper had a difficult time getting used to the lower temperatures. The winters were especially bad with snow covering everything and barely any prey left to hunt.

Her thoughts got interrupted by the sound of wood being piled up. Noir saw them getting ready to start a campfire and decided to hang out with her new dinosaur friends instead.

Chapter Text

Only after making absolutly sure that the fire was out, Noir returned to the farm. The sun just had started to set as she trotted over to what was left of the bonfire. There was still the faint scent of smoke in the air.

Noir slowly approached the ashes, unaware that someone was watching her through a window from inside the house. She sniffed at the burned wood and immediatly took a few steps back, while shaking her head to get rid of both the smell and her bad memorys coming from it.

Darius had meanwhile left the house to go check on her. “Hey, girl. What are you doing?”

She looked up at him, warbled and then glared back at the bonfire.

“Still that bad?”

Noir let out a frustrated huff and raked one of her hands over the ground, leaving three long gashes in the soil. Darius walked up next to her and moved his hand over her side to calm her down.

“It´s okay to be scared. Everybody is.”

She turned her head back at him and pointed one of her claws at him.

“Yes, even me.”

Noir looked down at the ground as she thought about something.

“It helps to face your fears. Avoiding them is just gonna make it worse.”

The hybrid eventually looked back up at him with a questioning look.

“You wanna try?” He asked and Noir hesitantly nodded. “Okay, wait here. I´ll be right back.”

Darius walked back into the house and soon returned with a box of matches. He stood a few meter away from Noir as he took one match out of the box.

“I promise nothing bad is gonna happen.” He waited a moment before quickly moving the match along the side of the box. Noirs pupils turned into slits as she was fixated on the tiny flame infront of her.

Darius blew it out after a moment. “Again?” Noir took a few deep breaths to calm down before nodding. They repeated it two more times, until she decided to have enough for now. Darius put the matches into his pocket and walked over to her.

“We can keep working on it tomorrow. Let´s get some sleep for now.” He was gonna head back inside, but then changed his mind. “Wanna have a sleep over?”

Noir excitedly agreed, so he quickly grabbed his blanket from the house and placed it outside on the ground next to the wall. He sat down and his raptor curled up around him.

“That brings back memories, doesn´t it?” Darius looked up at the sky where the first stars faintly became visible. “Do you remember how you snuck into my bed back at the camp?” Noir thought for a moment before shaking her head. He then kept telling stories until both of them were asleep.

Noir woke up the next morning by the sound of a door opening and several people talking to each other. Darius was woken up by her movements and quickly got up to join the group. The Indoraptor was stretching as Geba came around the house and started pestering her to get more fruits from the trees.

As Zayna said she would go pick some fruits, both dinosaurs decided to follow her. Noir helped her to get the fruits down from the tree, while occasionally letting Geba have one. They soon returned to the farm and the group started to put the gathered fruits into baskets.

Noir layed down to watch them work, while Geba kept trying to get more food from them. He put his head into one basket, but got stuck and Zany had to pull the basket off from him.

After a bit, they asked Ben to go check the lifeboat for supplies. Seeing him flinch like that made Noir suspicious and she decided to follow him. Ben quickly noticed her and asked if she wanted to take him to the boat.

Noir crouched down to let him climb on her back and then followed her own scent back to the beach. Not wanting to get close to the saltwater, she let Ben down again and waited for him at the edge of the jungle.

Ben soon came running back to her, looking distressed. He showed her a tracker he found on the boat and told her they need to warn the others.

They quickly ran back and first found Darius standing with one of the stegos nearby the farm. Ben didn´t even bothered waiting for Noir to stop walking and just jumped off of her back.

Before he could even explain what happened, a scream from the farm caught their attention and they ran towards it. Yaz told them that someone had kidnapped Geba.

Zayna decided to go with them and they hurried to load all their provisions into the two canoes. Darius and Kenji pushed one of the canoes into the water, while Noir pushed the other one. She then followed them into the water, but stayed in shallow parts of the river where she was still able to stand.

After a bit they came across another person in a canoe. He happily waved at Zayna, but became worried as he saw Noir following them. Before he could say anything they already had moved on.

While trying to keep up with the boats, Noir noticed Ben and Kenji having an argument. She then noticed Ben being distracted by his phone and going off course, So she quickly got next to the canoe and pushed it with her body back in the right direction. Kenji still called out Ben for not paying attention and they eventually switched seats.

They soon had to stop their canoes as they came across a group of brachios standing in the river. Zayna wanted to go a different way, while Kenji voted for simply moving past them.

The brachios made the decision for them as they all stopped eating and turned towards Noir. They didn´t charged towards her however, instead taking a step back to let her pass. Seeing that, the group decided to keep going. Once Noir was far enough away from them, they continued to eat.

Only after the brachios were already out of their sight, the group heared them getting spooked by something in the distance. After that, they decided to take a short break and stopped their canoes at a nearby clearing.

Noir also got out of the river and tried to shake the water off, making water droplets fly everywhere. The ones too close to her laughed and hurried away from her to not get wet.

They then settled down and quietly talked to each other, until Ben suddenly jumped out of the canoe and ran towards the nearby bushes in a panic.

The others just shrugged it off, only Noir got suspicious again and followed him. She saw him answer a call on his phone and soon heared Brooklyns voice coming from it. Her curiosity got the better of her and she sneaked up behind him to look over his shoulder. Ben was to focused on his phone to notice her.

Brooklyn told him to stay away and not tell the others about this, before hanging up and deleting her account.