9 AM the next day

Last night was a rough one. Between anxiety over the experiment and the possible culling I only got about two hours worth of sleep, which isn't enough for anyone. The thought of how hypocritical I'm being by keeping this "culling" from Alaric and the others kept invading my head every time I even tried to attempt closing my eyes. I ended up angry when I woke up, so I didn't even leave my bedroom to go with the others for breakfast. I thought a few minutes of extra sleep would do me good, but right as I was almost back asleep, someone knocked harshly on the front door.

After sluggishly dragging myself out of bed and making my way to the common room, I open the door and see a small book labeled "Elitist Keys" on the floor, and a beige folder underneath it. The hallway is seemingly empty though, so whoever left this stuff already headed out. Takara's name is written on the front folder and immediately my bad mood fades into excitement. Commander Riley said that he had to find the journal, so he hadn't been able to give the file or book to me the night before. I'm just excited to have it now. When I pick up the items, a note falls to the floor.

"Take till' lunch to read through this stuff. We'll meet in the paddock with your team afterwards." The note says, and is neatly signed "Marko Riley - Elitist Commander," near the bottom.

I quickly go back into the dorm and head for the refrigerator. I pull out an apple and retreat to the couch, getting comfortable as I open the front of the file. On the inside of the cover is a photograph of a group of young Dryptosaurus'. 5, to be exact. A black drawn circle around the smallest of the group shows me which one is Takara. Despite the size difference, her patterns and colors are identical to the others in the picture. Commander Riley said she was raised here, I assume that means these are her siblings.

I frown as I inspect the image closer, noticing that not only is Takara the smallest of the 5 Dryptosaurus', she's also alone and off to the side. While all of the others seem to be engaging with each other and playing, she's watching from several feet away. The others also have light, shallow scratches across their faces and sides, but the little runt doesn't. This shows me that not only is she just not playing in this picture, she hadn't been previously either. Most species do cast out their runts because they're least likely to survive.

From what Oliver told me last night about the species though, Dryptosaurus' are pack hunters, and they stay within their family units until a mate is found, then they create their own. It surprised me to hear how similar it is to our own human behavior, except we pretty much leave the "nest" the moment we can. It's common for dinosaurs to protect their young and at least teach them to hunt in the wild, but it's rare for them to care past the juvenile stage. Oliver said that it's one of the reasons that the Dryptosaurus is considered one of the smartest species, alongside the Giganotosaurus who shows a different type of intelligence. They're almost just as rare too, which explains why I had never heard of them before.

I tear my eyes away from baby Takara and her siblings, and set my sights on the actual first page of her file.

"Name: Takara

Experiment number: 105

Height: 7 feet 6 inches (fully grown)

Length: 20 feet long (fully grown)

Note: As of the runt of her litter, she is slightly smaller than the average Dryptosaurus.

Paddock Dimensions: Length 30 meters/ Width 45 meters/ 2 stories tall

Paddock Notes: Has an upper balcony above the bottom safe area and the fence for standby guardians."

The paddock is roughly the same length as a typical Alamosaurus, which in itself is absolutely incredible. It was hard for me to tell the size of the inside of the paddock from outside of the fence, but I didn't think it was that big. In training, we were trained on maneuvers to move out of the way from an incoming threat. I was worried I wouldn't have the room for any quick escapes if things did happen to turn out bad but it seems I won't have to worry about that. The upper balcony also gives me a better sense of security, but with Takara not taking well to guns pointed at her, it almost seems useless. If anyone was to shoot that animal with me in the pen, it'd likely end with me mauled or eaten unless they managed to put 3 darts in her at once.

"Previous Handlers: Elitist Keys, Elitist Tara, Elitist Gunner, Elitist O'Neil.

Experiment Failures: 3

Remaining Experiments: 1"

"Come on where's the good stuff?" I mutter quietly, flipping the stapled pages over until I see the word "History" written in bold letters. "Here we go," I whisper, slumping deeper into the couch as I start to read again.

"First entry (1 week after birth): Takara was born out of a litter of 5 eggs, and was the smallest. She was 75% of the size her siblings were when hatched.

Takara's siblings, Arata, Kai, Tora and Akio pay no attention to her, but she prefers solitude over living with her own kind anyway. She stays in a separate corner of the paddock at night. She can be aggressive towards her siblings if they come too close. This may make breeding her difficult in the future. We hope she'll become accustomed to them as she gets older.

Despite being the runt, Takara's initial veterinary exams show that she is in better health than any of her 4 siblings.

Second entry (6 months after birth): Takara is growing faster than her remaining 3 siblings, and is a whole 5 inches taller, and longer, than them. We speculate this means that she will stop growing quicker as well. We believe she will still be a bit smaller than the typical Drypto despite her size now.

Takara met her Handler 2 weeks ago, and has bonded with him more than she ever has with her own kind. She has already begun following Elitist Keys' commands. On top of that, Takara still doesn't mind meeting new people while her siblings are becoming more and more aggressive.

This Dryptosaurus is still in perfect health. Her brother, Kai, died from health complications last month, so we were worried she'd also begin to get sick as the runt.

Third entry (11 months after birth): Takara has stopped growing, and we were right, she's several feet shorter than the rest of her siblings. She stops at 7'6" tall, whereas her siblings are 9'5", 9'8", and 10 feet tall.

Takara has been moved to her own separate paddock. She attacked, and killed, one of her siblings (Akio) for becoming hostile towards Handler Keys when he entered the paddock to feed them, like he's done every day for the past 5 months with no issue. Her veterinary exam after the fight showed deep wounds on her shoulder, but other than that she came out unscathed.

They started stage 2 of the experiment yesterday. Handler Keys and his team all in Takara's new paddock. She didn't seem too keen on the new visitors until her Handler proved that they weren't threats.

Fourth entry (12 months after birth): Today, on Takara's first birthday, and the first day of Stage 3, Elitist Keys was killed in combat. He lost his tranquilizer in combat with the Carnotaurus and Takara simply wasn't quick enough to save him. She wouldn't allow his team to retrieve the body, and sat beside him for an hour afterwards. She also would not eat dinner.

Takara shows empathy, compassion, and curiosity towards humans that none of her siblings ever showed. The remaining two were released into the wild today for aggression towards their handlers. While other specimens have gotten to the 3rd stage, Takara is the only one out of an entire 10 years to not show any sort of real aggression towards a handler. We theorize that its because her siblings wouldn't interact with her and humans would. We hope that her Handlers death won't make her aggressive.

Fifth entry (13 Months after birth): Despite her perfect physical health, Takara has shown signs of depression since Elitist Keys' death, so Commander Riley found another handler for her. Elitist Handler Tara will meet her today. We hope to rush through the experiment and be at stage 3 in 1 month."

Even though Commander Riley said that Takara had 2 more handlers after Elitist Keys, that is where the history stops. It doesn't give me anymore than that. The beginning of the file even had my name, but they couldn't detail the history of the 2 other handlers? I shut the folder and sigh, wondering how in the world I'm going to be able to do any of this without a full background. It seems like the main thing I need to do, is treat her with respect... and not turn my gun on her from what the Commander said. I'll have to ask him later why the history for the other two handlers is missing.

Just as I'm about to pick up the journal, Axia and the rest of my team come through the front door. "Oh, hey Lexa! Did you get any more sleep?" The female asks, coming to plop down on the couch at my feet.

"Nope, but I did get these." I hold up the file and journal to show them.

"Oh, awesome! Let me see the file." Oliver reaches and takes the file before I can respond, and I roll my eyes jokingly before handing the journal to Axia, who no doubt also wants to see.

"Did you learn anything interesting yet?" Quincy asks, looking back and forth between Axia and Oliver, who are already immersed in reading.

"Well, she was the runt of her litter, and the only one to make it to the end of the experiment." I reply, turning forward on the couch and sitting up. "Umm, she doesn't like to live with her own kind even though usually they stay together. She was also the only one to not show any type of aggression towards people."

"Until she killed two handlers," Alaric reminds me, "You can't forget that she's still a dinosaur, Alexandria."

"Well, I didn't get to read about that from the file. It's not there." I glance towards the file in Oliver's hand, "I think I've got an idea on how to handle her though, no pun intended." I chuckle awkwardly.

"Take this serious-"

"I am! She's been handfed by a multitude of people since hatching. She likes humans."

"What will you do when you have to go into the paddock with her?" Oliver asks out of nowhere, looking up from the file to shake his head, "That's part of phase 1, you know."

"I know. Phase 2, you all meet her face to face."

"How're you going to prove to her that we're not threats? It says here that that's what her first Handler had to do."

Oliver's questions, come quick and I hesitate to respond. My eyebrows furrow as I try to come up with a response that won't prompt another question. "You know what, I don't know yet." I finally spit out.

"I bet I could tell you." Axia interrupts, "This is a journal of daily entries from the first day Handler Keys met Takara until stage 3. They're dated by the experiment stages. Let's find out how he did it. The first entry is really detailed so I bet the rest is too." She begins to quickly flip through the book.

"Yeah, we'll figure this out together," Quincy pauses and looks towards Alaric and Oliver, "Instead of trying to put it all on Lexa."

"Here it is!" Axia begins to read the page intently, leaving the rest of us to sit in silence. A few minutes later, she's finished reading, and looks at all of us with a chuckle. "It's way simpler than I thought it'd be. They just put their weapons down."

"What? Really?" I ask, my face scrunching in disbelief. I reach over and grab the book, quickly reading over the page. Just as Axia said, Handler Keys asked his team to put away their weapons. As soon as they did Takara apparently allowed them to get close, and even touch her if they were comfortable enough.

"Commander Riley did say that she only attacked her second and third handler because they turned their guns on her... I guess that's why." Quincy says, "It makes sense.. kind of. I mean she's a dinosaur, it's hard to believe she's really smart enough to know the difference."

"Her species is supposed to be as smart as the Giga, so it's not too hard to believe. If the Giga can remember specific people to get revenge months later, then a Dryptosaurus could definitely determine whether or not someone is hostile. She can also follow and understand commands, so it's not a stretch for her to be able to know that guns are bad when pointed at you." Oliver responds, having now read deeper into the file than I did. "Did you see this? She can foll-"

"Wait, did that really happen? A Giga getting revenge?" Quincy interrupts, his face covered in genuine shock.

"Yeah, you've never heard that story?" I raise an eyebrow at Q. He shakes his head in response so I continue, "Well you know the one Giganotosaurus we have tracked now is the only one that's been tracked in 20 years. His name is Green, or at least that's what the team who tracked him nicknamed him. They spent 2 days hiding from him and then 2 whole hours shooting darts into him before he finally went down. They placed the tracker and came back home. 6 months later, they got the bright idea to return to the place they got him, and Green was there waiting. He killed the Vet, and both warriors of the team. According to the surviving Medic and Techie, he purposefully left them alone, since they're the two who didn't shoot at him."

"That... is horrifying, Quincy replies hesitantly, "Axia, I am so sorry I picked on you for being scared of them. I see why now."

Axia laughs, "Now you know why that is my biggest fear. I promise if we ever come across a Giga, I'll probably just fall over there."

Oliver taps me on the shoulder, "As I was saying before I was interrupted.. Did you see this?" He hands me the folder and points to a page, "It says she follows commands like: wait, stay, stand down, heel, follow, search, stand tall and several more. She apparently even recognizes the hand signals for those commands."

I take a closer look, and beside each command is an explanation on what it gets her to do. "No, I didn't see this. I went from the first page to the history." I reply, taking a moment to read a couple of the descriptions given. "It says here that I can get her to attack something on command too." I say, giving the folder back to Oliver.

"If she's able to attack on command, she would be quite useful outside of the Fence. Especially in a situation like the Carnos on Testing Day." Axia says, giving me a smile.

"I'm still not happy about this," Alaric shakes his head with a sigh, "What happens if she turns on you? Every other person in this experiment has died."

"We'll figure it out," Even though I'm not totally sure about that, I give him my best smile, "Trust me."

While the others continue to debate on whether or not we really can do this, I pick up the journal and begin to read the first page. Handler Keys met Takara when she was almost 6 months old. He explains that he had to go into a paddock with all of "Drypto-Siblings," and that she was definitely different from the rest for a variety of reasons. Takara was easily hand fed and touched on the first day, while it took the other Handlers several days to not almost lose a hand. She also followed commands easily and her siblings showed signs of understanding but would resist in listening, all in the first week.

I believe it's incredible that the species, especially Takara herself, is smart enough to actually listen and understand our language and movements even in small commands. If everything Handler Keys says in this first entry is true, then this experiment will be much simpler than I originally imagined. It's stage 3 that we need to worry about, and that's only because she'll have to protect me from a Carnotaurus. I have no idea how she'll react, but I know from the details in the file that I shouldn't lose my gun. Handler Keys made that mistake and Takara was too late to save him.

We spend the rest of the morning preparing ourselves for the day. Oliver brought up the fact that the file says they sped through the experiment with the second handler, and had them at stage 3 in just a month. We all agreed that it would be best to assume they'd be doing the same with us, and all read through the files and book to get a better understanding of Takara and what we're doing.

Axia found out that Stage 1 consists of introducing the handler, hand feeding, then meeting inside of the paddock, and using commands successfully. The thing that worries Alaric the most about this, is that by hand feeding her she'll begin to associate me with food. I'll have to feed her in the paddock too, which by Elitist Handler Keys' words, is not an issue. Still, we're all a bit on edge about it, because animals can become aggressive over their food. Not having a barrier between me and her will be a huge risk.

Stage 2 is introducing the team and getting them used to the dinosaur. They will try using the commands, but it's not necessary for Takara to follow them, just for her to not be aggressive towards the team. We already know how to deal with this, thanks to the journal.

Stage 3 is going to be the hardest part. The first day, I'll be in the paddock with Takara without my team, and a Carnotaurus will be released into the pen. Takara is supposed to protect me while I take down the threat by tranquilizing it. Not only is this a problem for me, who has never fought without my team, Takara will be in danger too. A Carnotaurus is bigger than she is, so it'll be an interesting fight. My team will be on standby, of course, up on the balcony, but the thought of not having them there makes me ten times more nervous. Not only that, but I have no clue what happens after the first training session. Handler Keys died on the first day, and the history for the other handlers is missing.

As lunch time grows closer, Axia cooks us her famous rice and we all discuss plans for later. We decide that in order to get Takara used to each of them separately before they enter the cage, each of them will come and meet her at the fence while she's eating. After we determine whether or not they'll trigger any aggression upon approach anyway. I'd hate to lose a hand this early in the experiment.