The sound of crackling electricity wakes you up.

It's the middle of the night and this disorients you, but you quickly recover and have a look around. All the other hybrids are asleep, including Rose and, to your surprise, Dave, but your ears are picking up the sound of ragged breathing from below.

There's a sharp inhale… then quiet.

Just when you begin to think you're imagining things, you hear sparks and are temporarily blinded by a flash of bright green light. You blink several times and rub your eyes. Looking around you catch a faint glow coming from Jade's cage below you. A slight buzzing reaches your ears.

"Jade?" you ask tentatively. The glow vanishes. A second later Jade's face appears.

"Oh, did I wake you up? I'm sorry, Dirk," She whispers.

"Was that you? What are you doing?"

"Nothing. Go back to sleep."

"But I saw this green light and heard this noise… Are you sure you're alright?"

"Yes," her voice sounds worn out, like she just ran a marathon. "Don't worry. Everything's fine."

You're doubtful of her statement and decide to wait it out. You shift a little to get comfortable then go mute as you strain your ears.

Jade must be waiting you out too because nothing happens. You're not sure whose will is stronger, and begin to nod off again, but force yourself to hang in there. It doesn't work for long.

Your body decides it's time to rest again and you're forced to comply. The last thing you see before re-entering sleep is a dim, glowing green light, but you won't remember it the next time you wake.

*

Practice. "Practice makes perfect," they always say, and that's exactly what you were doing. It's what you've been doing since you woke from the tranquilizers; it was what you were doing when Dirk caught you in the middle of the night. It was what you continued doing after you were ninety-five percent sure he had fallen back asleep. It's what you did until the first signs of dawn poked their way into the room all the way up until the laboratory became active for the day.

Only when the lights flick on and the machines come to life do you finally stop to rest. Your back stings, you're short of breath, and you're coated in sweat. You don't even bother to growl when the first scientist comes in.

You can see the concern in the scientist's eyes when he inspects you, and you don't resist when he checks your temperature and lungs. The next thing you know, you're sedated. Dave would later tell you that they changed your bandages and gave you antibiotics while you were out.

It would seem you're suspicions about you being quarantined proved true, for you weren't taken out for testing the next ten days. But you did not let those days go to waste. Every second the experimenters faced the other way you practiced tapping into the omnipotence.

It was difficult at first. You had no idea how to reach it. First you tired visioning it; that massive green light that radiated power, but nothing happened. When that didn't work, you tried focusing your emotions. All your frustration, all your rage, all your anger, hate, fear and desperation. Nothing happened. You channeled all these feelings together and forced your senses to extend beyond your realm of existence. Nothing happened. You strained your mind to reach out and grasp that power you so terribly needed, but still nothing happened.

You keep this up for hours on end with no results, and just when you begin to think all your efforts are futile- it finally happens.

The surge of energy that hits you is so strong, you feel as if your heart is going to burst. Your eyes roll back, your muscles lock. You can't see, you can't think. The only thing that exists is the color green.

Terror slowly seeps into what's left of your mind. Your body is stuck in a limbo, lost between your physical plane and where ever the power source of the omnipotence existed.

You can't breathe.

With your last shred of consciousness you tear yourself away from that awesome power, back into reality. You notice that some of your fur is smoldering as you gasp for breath.

After a while you manage to pull one thought from the slurry of what's left of your brain;

'I did it,' you think as your vision goes fuzzy, 'I found the omnipotence.'



Ever since that moment it became easier for you to reach the omnipotence. For your ten day quarantine you simply practiced tapping into it, growing stronger and learning to hold your own against its massive power.

No longer did it completely sap you of your own strength and leave you close to passing out. You learned that to tap the omnipotence, you had to give some of your energy in order to receive some in exchange. You practiced controlling this flow, learning how much to give and take without wearing yourself too thin.

Still, you had no idea how to teleport yourself or other objects around like you had done in your test. It was one thing to obtain the power needed, but utilizing it was something entirely different.

First you tried practicing on the water bowl that was in your cell, attempting to shift its position to the other side of your cage. It was aggravating in the beginning, connecting to the omnipotence while simultaneously focusing on the bowl. It was a whole new challenge; splitting your attention while maintaining control.

Once you felt the omnipotence's presence you honed in on the bowl and sent it to the energy source. You're taken by surprise how much that action alone taxes your body.

You immediately disconnect, breathing hard. 'Tapping into the omnipotence takes energy, but using it must take even more…' you conclude.

It takes you a moment to realize the bowl is gone. Your eyes sweep over your small confinement, but it's not there. You lost it.

"Oh, no," you say to yourself. "If the scientists discover it's missing they're going to realize something's up."

You close your eyes and focus, searching with the omnipotence, but no luck. The bowl was wiped out of existence.

"Shit! Okay, don't panic. Just… just try summoning a different bowl!"

You scan what little you can see of the cages around you and manage to find one above you. Concentrating on the slim bit you can see of it, you will the bowl into your cage.

Instantly if feels as if your blood has been turned into lead and you let out an exasperated breath, Above you a surprised hybrid lets out a confused chitter at the sudden disappearance of its bowl, but you're too winded to care.

A smile spreads across your face as you wipe the sweat from your brow. You're finally starting to get the hang of this. Just keep it up and you'll be out of here in no time.