Obiora returned to drills after a week in the labs, pale and spent but happy to be once more united with his siblings, the 5th generation children were allowed to eat and be together for a few hours thrice a week, asides that they only saw one another at drills and classes where they were taught by grizzled old professors and learnt different languages under the watchful eyes of their handlers.

Omotola’s handler, Katie was kind to her and sometimes told her about her own life outside the institute which was against protocol; Amaka, Babybaby’s handler adored her and spoilt her terribly. The rest of the handlers took their jobs quite seriously and Katie once said they feared the children and their abilities but feared the institute more; she would expertly change the discussion to new topics whenever she tried to get her to talk about the institute.

It was after Obiora’s porcupine stunt that the doctors began wondering if they could force the children to manifest more abilities under duress, unfortunately they were ushered one after another to the labs for harsher experiments, to the painful microbes and syringes. As the weeks ran by, they began to see less of Logan every day, and by the time he was let out of the lab, he had grown so lean a shadow of his jolly self, his golden curls dull and stringy whenever he was asked about his where about and the changes to his body, he would simply smile and said he was just been passed through tests to evaluate the limits of his powers so his regeneration abilities can be cloned into serums.

That sounded like a productive thing but not at the expense of Logan’s health. Concerned, they began to ask questions but the institute did not like these new and curious 5th generation and punished them quite often.

Confused and scared, they began to act unruly and rebelled every chance they had, Shettima’s handler was relieved from his job when he lost his charge quite often, Orchid’s handlers were doubled and were given protective head bands to wear against her suggestion ability, the institutes power supply suffered numerous shutdowns, delaying entire operations with Binta trying to wipe the look of mischief off her face, until the doctors had had enough punished them by cancelling drills and other events except classes in which they were not allowed to talk with one another.

Omotola began to notice changes in Shettima whenever they were gathered for their lectures, he would stare at nothing as if he remembered something spooky he had been trying hard to forget, Orchid would ask him if something was wrong, he would his then openmouth to say something before stealing a nervous look at the hovering mapper drones and the ever present Askaris then shook his head.

Nothing scared Shettima; he rarely showed much emotion and these sudden fidgeting meant he must have seen or known something they did not. The others left him to his devices since he never really talked much.

One day he stared long and hard at Omotola that she could have sworn he was trying to get into her head and then received a shock that made her jumped ten foot in the air when she heard his voice in her head, one of the Askaris stared at her for a while before losing interest.

“Allow the shadows in your cubicle tonight.’’

She heard Shettima’s voice said in her head then the alarm shrilled; signifying class was over for the day and their quality time together over for the week as their handlers hustled them out. Allow the Shadows?, she wondered as she was led out.

Shettima had developed another ability with the institute unaware, she sighed; the doctors will not be pleased.

“Are you alright love? Katie asked, she must have sighed loud enough to have caught her attention.

“Yes I’m fine’’ she answered absently, the plump handler hummed to herself as she dutifully checked Omotola’s vitals on her tablet, satisfied at seeing nothing amiss, she chuckled and asked if she was having boy trouble with the way she was chasing Shettima up and down the past week, the confused look on Omotola’s face must have been hilarious as laughter brought tears to her eyes.

It took a while before what she meant became clear to her, blushing furiously she brushed past Katie as the powered door to her cubicle slides open, the latter came in right after chuckling to herself.

“You know love I think it’s normal for girls your age to have crushes, at least some girls like me were quite unfortunate to waste their first crush on some bloody plonker simply because he’s buff, but Shettima’s quite the catch you know, she said as she winked mischievously.”

“I am not crushing after any boy; Shettima’s technically my brother, eww! And I am not normal’’ Omotola growled as she flung herself on her colt wincing as a wing scattered the contents on her side dresser. ‘’What do you think will happen to us when we’re done manifesting our powers Katie, what if Logan overloads and dies like the rest of his age group, will we ever see the outside world or grow old and die here like Bature.’’

Bature was one of the 4th generation misshapen prototypes, horned like a ram built like a boulder, yet he had been so gentle the institute allowed him to walk freely around sometimes running odd jobs till his death, his body taken away for testing and recycling, useful even in death. Katie smile was wiped out of her face as she arranged the scattered contents back on the dresser.

“I will pretend I never heard you love,” she said. ”I’m supposed to report anything strange to the doctors, they are scared enough with you all getting stronger, thinking and acting for yourselves, you aren’t supposed to be, they said you all are weapons that's not supposed to ask questions.’’ Then she shuts up wide eyed like she had said too much.

“Weapons?,’’ Omotola prodded, “what are they preparing us for.’’ but she was unable to get anything else from Katie as she prepared her for the night, kissed her goodnight, smiled and jokingly called that against protocol then left her to her thoughts. For a while she stayed awake staring at the ceiling thinking about what Katie said and Shettima’s words until she finally understood.

Shadows.

Shettima ports through shadows, she jumped out of her colt to click off the power source, throwing the cubicle into darkness, and then sat waiting.