By Your Side (JWCC Darius x Oc)

The Long Game

After a few minutes and we quit crying, Yaz got up and stood beside me as we stared out into the distance. Out of the corner of my eye, I seen Brooklyn stand up before she and Kenji walked away and made their way back to Mae. Sammy then got up and stood beside Yaz.

"We will make it home, Yaz." Sammy assured.

"If you say it enough times, it's gotta be true, right?" Yaz questioned.

"Come on, E. Let's go." Sammy sighed. I stared at the sunset before silently standing up and following Yaz and Sammy back to the airlock.

"The plane left without you?" Mae asked as she, Ben, and Darius ran out of the airlock. "I'm so sorry. I don't understand what's going on here, but you have my word that I'll get you off this island somehow." Mae said.

"No. We're not leaving. Obviously, this isn't what we wanted. Like, at all. But we can't quit now. Mantah Corp doesn't care they're hurting their dinosaurs. And Mae, you can't protect them all on your own. We have to stay until we fix this, however long it takes." Darius said.

"Sure. Whatever you say." Yaz sighed.

"Let's get to work, then. We've gotta get Pierce back to the desert biome. And if the plane's gone, that means the new dinosaur food has already been unloaded." Mae explained as she opened the airlock door.

"We'll go check the T-Rex area to make sure the BRADs haven't tainted their food." Brooklyn informed.

"Y'all, Yaz and I are both wrecked, so we're gonna go get some rest, if that's cool." Sammy said.

"Of course." Brooklyn nodded.

"Yeah, don't worry about it." Ben smiled.

"After you're all done, we'll meet at Mae's and figure out a game plan to protect those dinos." Yaz said. We all entered the airlock before splitting up to go different ways. Sammy and Yaz went back to Mae's cave, Brooklyn and Kenji went to the T-rexes feeding platform, and me, Ben, and Darius stayed with Mae and Pierce.

"You guys stay back." Mae said as Pierce growled while walking back and forth in the airlock. "He's clearly agitated, and I don't want him to....." Mae trailed off as Pierce turned and roared before charging at us. "Pierce! Pierce, stop. Stop. Stop, Pierce, stop. Calm." Mae said as she tapped a button on her tablet and a Kentrosaurus grunt recording played. "Calm." Mae said as she talked the button again. Pierce roared at her and it translated on her tablet. "Scared. Yes. But.....you don't have to be scared. 'Cause we're gonna take you........home." Mae said as she hit a different button on her tablet and a different grunt played. Pierce gave the same grunt as the recording and Mae smiled. "That's right, darling. Home."

"She.........she just talked to a dinosaur." Darius said in awe.

"Pfft. She did it with fancy science buttons. Bumpy and I found a way to talk through here. The biggest button of all." Ben said as he placed his hand over his heart.

"As cheesy as that was, you're right. Me and Rexy do the same thing." I said to Ben. We turned to Darius only to see him giving us a not impressed look.

"But, yeah. That was super cool. Heh." Ben laughed nervously.

"Come on. Let's get Pierce back to where he belongs." Mae called over to us. We nodded and walked out of the airlock and into the desert biome before continuing to walk with Pierce until we reached his home.

"So now you decide to just drop, 'oh, yeah, I can speak to dinosaurs, but whatevs'." Darius asked.

"I guess hiding my personal side project from you all isn't necessary anymore. I was waiting to develop the research more before I shared it with Mantah Corp. Not sure I'm doing that now." Mae explained.