After lunch we all meet up with Commander Riley at the front door of Takara's paddock. I'm excited about spending more time with her, especially since I know a bit more about her now. Knowing that she has liked humans since hatching puts me at ease for seeing her again, but I still have questions for the Commander. Before he begins unlatching the doors, I stop him, "Wait. I have a few questions before we start."

The Commander turns to face me with a smile, "What is it?"

"The file you gave me doesn't have anything about Takara's two second handlers... Can you tell me what happened to them?"

"Ah, yes," Commander Riley sighs, "You see.. we had to rush through the experiments, like we'll do with you. Both of Takara's handlers ended up dying because they were afraid when she attacked the Carnos during stage 3. They turned their guns on her once she had successfully subdued their threat, and she attacked."

"How long has it been since Elitist Handler Keys died?" I ask, raising an eyebrow.

"4 months." He replies, frowning slightly, "She spent a month mourning him, then we brought in the second, then as soon as that one failed we brought another one. She's had a month between the last one and you."

"Why did you rush through the experiments? It seems the Handlers just didn't have enough time to gain trust in her. Why would you make Lexa do the same thing?" Axia asks, a prominent frown crossing her usually happy features.

"While we normally would take our time through these things.. we have a classified deadline, and can not afford to wait any longer." He looks towards me, and I already know what he's thinking. The culling, 6 months from now, is our deadline. Not only do we have to be through these phases of the experiment, but I'm guessing we also have to have several successful missions outside of the fence before the Chieftess will approve Viadon outposts. Then we need other dinosaurs for the experiment, and Takara is the only one right now. I really don't understand how it's going to work out but I understand the need to take things one step at a time.

"More secrets," Oliver scoffs as he crosses his arms, "You really think that we won-"

"It's because if Takara fails the experiment one more time, the whole thing will be shut down." I lie quickly, giving the Commander a small nod of affirmation. My teammates all give me confused looks so I continue, "I-In the file it says that Takara only has 1 remaining experiment left. Since she's the last of the dinosaurs here for the experiment, so I just assumed."

"You're right. Chieftess Hunts and the rest of the Council agreed that unless Takara passes this one, the experiment is over. We have 1 month to get to stage 3, and 20 more days to get past it. 50 days in total." The Commander explains, his eyes lingering on me for a moment as he nods.

"50 days until this experiment gets shut down?" Alaric scoffs, "Can't I just talk to m-"

"No!" The Commander says loudly, "This is classified information, and a decision that the Council agreed upon. You don't know it yet, but decisions like these can't be changed." A vein on Commander Riley's forehead begins to show as he glares at Alaric.

"He won't tell anyone," I promise, stepping between my group and Commander Riley. "You can't. None of us can." I look at my teammates and sigh with relief as Axia and Quincy nod in agreement.

"I wouldn't of told anyway." Oliver says, rolling his eyes and crossing his arms over his chest.

"I don't get why it's such a big deal... but okay. It's not like I can disobey direct orders from the Commander, himself." Alaric still doesn't seem too sure. His eyes are still sharpened as he looks between me and the Commander, but he eventually relaxes in defeat.

"So," Axia clears her throat to get the groups attention and steps forward beside me. "We've got 10 days for stage 1, 20 days for stage 2 and 20 days for stage 3. Remember what we talked about for stage 1, Lexa. Your safety is priority, no trying to play the hero or doing something you don't think you can do."

"And, when I go into the pen with her for the first time I keep my distance unless Takara approaches me. Respect." I reply, giving her a small smile. She came up with a list of rules for this entire experiment so we can all stay safe. We figured that keeping Takara comfortable with us would be key, especially since it's not just me she'll have to get to know.

"You can go into the pen today if you feel the need but you don't have to until tomorrow, then we'll start working on commands. She already knows them, you've just got to learn them. Are you ready now?" Commander Riley says, his foot now tapping impatiently against the white tile floor as he eyes us.

"Yeah, whatever." Alaric sighs out, waving his hand as a gesture for the Commander to open the door.

Without another word, the Commander let us into the paddock and quickly explains exactly how hand feeding will go. I'm supposed to stick my hand through the opening in the fence from yesterday, and she'll eat from my hand. Simple as that. Hand feeding Takara is just to show her that I'm not scared and that I trust her, and then if I feel comfortable enough I can enter the paddock. As of now, I feel confident that we can do this. Elitist Handler Keys journal entries helped us come up with an idea of how to approach Takara, and the rest of this experiment.

After he's finished explaining everything, I head for the door on the opposite end of Takara's paddock. Just like the day before, she's not in there. Commander Riley hits the button and the buzzer comes on. The metal slab on the other side of the fence begins to rise and soon I can hear her footsteps between the loud beeps. I unlock the small door in the fence as Takara grows closer to the end of the hallway, then grab the buckets of Toro-meat from against the wall behind me.

Takara finally comes into view, her eyes trained on my teammates across the room until I lightly knock on the metal fence. "Takara," I say gently, coaxing her attention to me. "I've got some food. You wanna eat?" The dinosaur turns towards me, her head tilting to the side in curiosity before she slowly comes closer.

I grab a handful of meat from the bucket and take a deep breath, "I'm trusting you to not eat my hand. Please, trust me not to hurt you." I hesitate for another moment before then kneeling to stick my arm through the opening in the fence. Unable to get a good view of Takara from this angle, I sit still and patiently until I feel her breath hit my arm. "Oh, please don't eat my arm." I whisper, closing my eyes in nervousness and anticipation. As soon as the words leave my mouth, hot breath is blown down my forearm and suddenly the meat is gone. I open my eyes, looking up to see her staring down at me from the fence and I laugh softly. It really was as easy as Elitist Handler Keys made it out to be.

"Well, that was quick!" Commander Riley beams from across the paddock, "It usually takes a lot longer for her to trust someone."

"I think I'm okay to go in! This would be a lot easier that way!" I yell back, pulling my arm back through the door before standing up. "Is that okay?" I then add, looking between Takara and the Commander across the room.

"Alexandria just wait until tomorrow," Alaric answers, "You don't want to go too fast. We have a week for this."

"If you're comfortable enough you can try! I'll call in the backup." Commander Riley says, ignoring Alaric's words. I choose to do the same, understanding that he's going to be angry with me later, but if we get stage 1 done faster, then we have even more of a chance to save our people from a culling.

Commander Riley uses a radio to call Elitist's to the second floor balcony of Takara's paddock. I look across the pen to my teammates; Alaric's eyes shoot daggers into me as I look his way. I can tell, even from here, that he's pissed. I can't blame him though... If it was me in his position, I'd be telling him the same thing, but if he was in mine, he'd do the what I'm doing.

"You can enter the paddock whenever you're ready. Feeding her in person without the fence is a much better experience anyway," The Commander calls out, then gestures up with his hands. I look up to see that there are 6 Elitist's surrounding the top of the pen. "They won't fire unless you give a signal."

I nod my head in response before picking one of the buckets and going to the door. Takara backs away and lets out a quiet purr as I begin to unlatch the locks. Once the locks are all unlocked, I take a deep breath and push the door open slowly, keeping my eyes on Takara just in case she decides that I'm the meal. I quickly shut the door behind me, and my eyes widen as I hear the locks clicking back into place.

"Don't worry, when you're ready to come out I'll unlock it." Commander Riley says as I turn to look at the door, "We can't risk her getting out of the pen." He must have walked over while I was taking my time getting into the room.

"Okay..." I reply hesitantly. When I turn towards Takara again I'm surprised to see that she's just calmly waiting several feet away. Her brown eyes are trained on me as she waits, which is really intimidating. I tear my eyes from hers and grab a piece of meat from the bucket, then throw it in her direction. She quickly grabs it from her air with her mouth and gobbles it down whole, then lets out a soft growl as she begins to walk closer to me.

"Hey," I say aloud, hesitantly taking a step back as she nears. Instead of coming at me head on, Takara slowly steps around and stops once she's behind me. I try to stop the nervous shakes that come over me as the dinosaur sniffs at my uniform, her nose just barely touching my shoulder. Soon, Takara has made her way back in front of me, and without warning bends down and nudges the bucket with her head.

"Oh, you want more? I guess I passed your smell test." I say to her, pulling the bucket up so I can grab a big piece of meat. Instead of throwing it this time, I simply hold it out to her. She hesitates for a moment before using her teeth to take the steak from my hand. "Wow, you really are a gentle giant, aren't you?" I breath deeply, stifling a small chuckle that threatened to escape.

Takara takes another step forward, bending forward so her face is just in front of mine. "You really don't know anything about personal space, do you?" I ask, letting out a soft laugh, "And why, Lexa, are you talking to a dinosaur?" I chuckle at my own words, shaking my head in amusement.

"She's trying to comfort you, I think. She can tell you're nervous." Quincy answers, and I look over to realize that all of my team moved to the paddock door.

"You only talk to dinosaurs if you're nervous, at least that's what you did in training when cornered." Axia says, laughing loudly before going on, "It's cute, really. You act like they can understand."

"Hey, it worked on the farm sometimes, okay? If the animals got mad, talking would soothe them." I retort, a deadpan expression crossing my face. I then look towards Takara, "I know you don't truly understand me, but I think I've found a new best friend."

"I heard that!"

"You should see if she'll allow you to touch her!" Commander Riley tells me.

I slowly raise my hand up to her face, and stop a few inches away. "You don't have to let me touch you if you don't want that yet." I say quietly, just to Takara. She stares at me for a few moments before then tilting the side of her face into my hand. She lets out a few quiet purrs as I run my thumb over the smooth scales that cover her snout. Feeling brave, I step closer and to her side, rubbing my hand down her neck to feel the rough fur that covers the rest of her.

Takara seems startled by my sudden movement, and steps back with one foot. I quickly remove my hand as she lefts out a loud huff and I eye her carefully before reaching out once again to touch her. This time Takara stays still while I run my hand through her fur. "Hah," I breathe out, a wide smile spreading across my face. "I can't believe you're letting me do this..." I say, quietly.

Being this close to a creature that I'd normally battle or run away from is more exhilarating than being outside of the Fence in the wild. It's the type of experience that we were trained to avoid. Usually being face to face with any carnivore is dangerous, but it doesn't feel that way with Takara. She really is different, and I can see why Commander Riley wanted to give her one more chance before releasing her into the wild. She's clearly too domesticated to go outside alone, there's no telling what would happen to her out there without human interaction or guidance. She seems to look for a bond with humans, unlike the rest of her species who does the same with their own.

After I finish feeding Takara the Toro-meat, Commander Riley unlocks the door and lets me leave the paddock. He seems proud of the work done today, and quickly dismisses us in order to go meet with the Chieftess for a meeting. Axia and Quincy head down to the town to do more shopping, while Alaric, Oliver and I head straight for the dorm.

"You did good today," Oliver says to me as we walk, "I was surprised at how calm you seemed to be."

"If you could have heard my heartbeat, you'd be saying something completely different." I chuckle softly and glance towards Alaric, who's walking silently in front of us, "I think he's mad."

"Well, you've always been testy, but you've never out right ignored him before." Oliver hesitates for a moment before continuing, "Don't tell him I told you, but he's just worried. He worries about all of us, our lives are literally in his hands as our leader."

"I know," I sigh, "It's just that I can't disobey the Commander either."

"The Commander didn't give you orders to go into the paddock. He said you could wait until tomorrow."

"It ended up fine, didn't it?" My voice raises an octave as I start to become defensive, so Oliver holds up a hand to stop me from continuing.

"You're lucky it did. If you would have died in that paddock, we would have lost a warrior, and he would have lost his second."

"Axi-" I start, but am immediately stopped.

"Axia is the second in command for this team and she'll take over as Leader when you two are promoted. You're supposed to help him lead this city one day, it's different." Oliver interrupts, "Look, I'm not trying to fight. Just trying to show you why Alaric is being the way he is."

I sigh in defeat and stop talking, knowing that Oliver is right. I wish I could tell them why I'm so eager to get through this experiment. They'd understand and probably even help me, but instead I'm sworn to secrecy. I know for a fact that once the Culling gets brought to light, they will all be upset and angry with me for lying, but I really can't risk disobeying orders from Commander Riley. I hope they'll understand when the time comes.

The rest of Stage 1 goes by relatively quick, with me in the paddock with Takara each day for hours at a time. I had to learn every single one of her commands, but by the 6th day, I had perfected every single one. Over the week, I introduced Takara to my team mates one by one through the fence. She initially disliked Oliver, but eventually allowed him to hand feed her through the opening. Quincy was the only one that she allowed to actually pet her though, which for him was a huge deal.

Commander Riley believes that introducing the Team to her early was a good idea, and that it may help us out in stage 2. We'll all be going into the pen with her, no weapons allowed. The hope is that she'll let each of my teammates touch and bond with her like she did with me. We have 20 days to get her used to each of them in a way that she'll follow basic commands from them if I'm injured or unable to lead her. If she's going to be apart of our team, she can't just listen to me.