~~~Superstes~~~UNDERGOING MAJOR EDITING

The Recom Room.

It had only been a couple of days since Quaritch had left the Recom Command Center, an eschewed abandoned building in the middle of the forest near the mountains. They used it now to hide away their lost projects--the discarded Recom hostages that were now just kind of stuck there.      

It was a late night. Txana had been breastfeeding her newborn baby, Nanti, when her husband Iwa jogged into the room. He looked shocked and excited. "What is it?" Txana asked, rearranging Nanti against her lap. 

Iwa leaned against the doorframe of their dark room, his blue skin standing out against the bland paint on the walls. "Quaritch and Z-dog brought in a kid." Iwa stated, running a hand through his short hair. "Something seems off about the whole situation."

Txana placed her hand under Nanti's tiny head to support her. The RDA hadn't brought in another kid since--well, since they were taken for the project. Her stomach felt queasy with uncertainty. She thought about his statement for a moment, processing the information. They were the last ones to be taken in other than Viper and Linayin. 

"This is the first time since Selfridge started this whole operation," Iwa continued. "Before Quaritch was even reincarnated." 

Selfridge, ten years ago, managed to crawl his way back to Pandora and create a program that kidnapped kids from their tribes in order to train them to fight for their side--the sky people's side. But soon after he kept stealing children, the clans and villages became increasingly more protected and guarded, and the system was cancelled. However, the RDA and the children he stole remained here, kept away from their families and homes. 

Eventually, Selfridge got impatient and killed his little recoms-in-training except for Txana, Iwa, Linayin and Viper, who got on his good side and grew up here, in the command center.   

"I want to see the child," Txana stated, lying her baby down in the cot-like crip beside their beds. Nanti bawled her tiny, chubby hands into fists and rubbed her closed eyes, rousing slightly at the change of bedding. Iwa simply nodded and led his wife down the dim hallway, through the living area where Viper was sitting, sharpening his knife with a brick block. 

The younger boy glanced at the couple as they walked past the couch. "Something's wrong with that kid." He plainly stated. 

They brushed past Viper and walked into the kitchen where Quaritch and Z-dog were sitting at the dining table. Lying across the tiled floor was a lanky Omatikayan child, no older than sixteen. He was sprawled out with his unmoving face stuck in a pained frown, his body broken and bruised. Txana spotted his arm and she wanted to throw up, her stomach lurching. She looked up at Iwa, her eyes wide. He just shrugged. 

Txana came forward and crouched on the floor beside him. Blood had dried in his tightly-woven braids and there was a long, oozing laceration across his thigh. His arm, which was the worst injury she could see so far, was snapped in half, the bone protruding through his skin. He sported an ugly, ragged scar across his chest, and there was a muzzle locked around his skull. 

Txana snarled, "What have you done to him?" 

Quaritch rolled his eyes. "He's a killer, girl, he's an animal. I tend to put safety features on wild animals." 

"You forget you're one yourself!" 

Quaritch shot up from his seat, sending the wooden chair back with a loud screech. "I am no animal. You can take the kid, do whatever you want with him. But if he kills your precious baby girl, that'll be on you."

Her ears perked forward in confusion, Txana looked to Iwa for answers. 

"Apparently, he killed Fike and a couple others. Lyle's in critical condition, but alive. I think somebody is afraid of him." Iwa said.