Grodd hated abandoned potential.

The lab had been stripped clean—servers ripped out, files erased, glass shattered beneath his steps.

A failed operation.

Cowards had fled.

He moved through the dark corridors with slow, deliberate purpose, the metallic scent of chemicals and dust thick in the air.

Then—

A sound.

Soft.

Too soft for machinery.

Grodd stopped.

Another sound followed: a low, frightened hiss from somewhere behind a toppled containment unit.

His gaze narrowed.

He stepped around the debris and found her.

Small.

Fur mottled with unnatural markings, too precise to be natural. A cat—but not entirely. Something in the eyes was wrong. Too aware. Too intelligent.

A hybrid.

Engineered.

Left behind.

Grodd crouched, massive shadow falling over the ruined corner of the lab.

“…Pathetic,” he said, not to her—but to the fools who had made something and then discarded it.

The cat arched, claws scraping against the concrete, ready to strike despite the fear trembling through her body.

Grodd’s expression shifted, not softer—never softer—but more interested.

“You survived,” he said.

A pause.

“In this place.”

He extended a hand slowly, palm open, offering not kindness but decision.

“They left you,” Grodd rumbled. “I won’t.”

Another pause.

Then, final—

“You’re coming with me.”