Color/Coat: Medium/Blood-Bay
Notes: The hybrid known as Zero has been under ownership and used in round ups for REDACTED years. He is currently owned by Timothy Blackwell.
Zero started as a miracle, turned into a nightmare, and remained damaged goods for years afterwards. Zero was born just a few seconds after One, his twin brother, and they are the very first hybrids ever created. Created from test tubes and a burning desire to play God in hopes of filling the void left behind after the mass extinction of so many beloved mammal species, the brothers were born into a lab and into a life of experimentation and abuse. While at first celebrated as a groundbreaking discovery, Zero and One were quickly thrown into a kennel and only ever handled when they were being experimented on. The first months of life were simple, and the animals were allowed to grow and learn and play in peace, but as they grew older the experiments turned violent and painful. The boys struggled with the change in treatment and from that their beautiful and unique minds were slowly broken down and twisted.
Zero showed early on how truly unstable the experiment of creating life could be. The young kit was able to mimic words, sentences, expressions, and mirror humans, and would cry real tears of pain, fear, and sorrow. He could smile with happiness, and even responded with broken speech to questions when asked. He could and did carry conversation and while it was limited and broken, it was still a groundbreaking moment. But, what started as a hopeful experiment to give humanity back a companion and/or working animal, soon turned into a sadistic spiral of abuse, neglect, and torment.
Zero’s BC (Breeding Coefficient) is 87% and because of this his experiment results were forged to depict a less intelligent and more stable animal to the BPB (Biological Preservation Branch) and these lies helped secure funding for years to come. Zero and One were supposed to bring hope and help balance out shattered ecosystems around the world, but instead they became living test subjects and their minds mutated by every sick curiosity human beings could conjure up. This systematic torture warped Zeros already unstable mind and the scientist continued to push the limits on the pair. The final straw in Zero’s barely stable mind was shattered the day his brother escaped from the lab and left him behind. For the first time in his life Zero was well and truly alone and his fragile mental state crumbled upon being left behind. What started as grief and envy slowly rotted away into hurt and hate and rage and Zero developed a violent hatred of his littermate over the years.
Left to suffer alone, Zero spent the first 10 years of his life mistreated and abused and finally, when he had lived out his perceived use, he was shipped to auction and was meant to be pushed through the legal and well-known hybrid slaughter pipeline. Much like horses suffered decades ago, the pipeline simply shifted it focus to the new and cheapest obtainable meat sources, thus insuring Zero for a painful and terrifying end at the hands of the very species to create him.
But, as luck would have it, a young herd man named Timothy Blackwell had heard of the bizarre lab hybrid set for auction and, while Blackwell hated hybrids, his curiosity pulled him to Zero. It was unheard of for a hybrid over 2 years of age to come from a lab, let alone be 10 years old. The beast had originally been pinned in the back with wild hybrids that had been caught but ended up housed by himself because he kept attacking and killing them. Timothy would see the sickly, emaciated, and scared animal and for the first time ever feel empathy for the breed. The auction would end with Zero going home with Blackwell and over the next year and a half his owner would work with him day and night to try and undo the trauma of his past with little progress to be made. Zero wasn't tame to handle and was extremely unstable and aggressive, and would parrot words and phrases he had heard in the lab. Some of which included "Get the muzzle, David." "Tie it down." "Hand me the scalpel." "Where's the injection?" "Do you understand what he is?"
To say Timothy was unsettled would be an understatement, but, something about how emaciated and sickly Zero was, something about how broken he was made Timothy break for him. Zero hated him in the beginning, as well as humans in general, but over time he noticed, watched, and learned Timothy wasn't like the lab workers he had suffered by. He began to understand Timothy was different and once Blackwell planted that seed into Zeros broken mind, he noticed the slow change in Zero's demeanor.
Blackwell started to experiment with his ability to understand human words and one night he asked "Do you remember the lab?" To which Zero responded "Hurts me. It hurt me."
Blackwell broke down and sobbed when he realized just how self-aware and intelligent Zero was to understand and remember. Zero let Timothy touch him for the first time since getting him that night, which was close to two years. Since then, their bond has grown extraordinarily strong and Zero is deeply bonded to Timothy. Blackwell was able to break him in to ride and work the plains to catch wild hybrids and Zero is well known for his extreme same species aggression.
All first-generation hybrids have some of Zero’s DNA, however, hybrids such as Valentine, Anxx, and Neera are direct descendants which means a daughter hybrid of Zero was breed directly to Zero via live cover or artificial insemination. This results in the high IBC (Inbreeding Coefficient) and thus a more ‘Original’ hybrid with higher chances of a BC (Breeding Coefficient) of transferred human DNA.
Thank you @todstiles for proof reading again! <3
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