DNA

Discovery

2035

With years passing by, the human colony slowly came to accept Jade among them. She proved herself time and time again to the point that they had no choice but to trust her. It took a lot for Michael to stop setting up ridiculous tests, but eventually he did. Jade was tired of random injured humans purposely trying to tempt her, or being called to defend them, or even getting attacked herself. It was all to make sure she didn't retaliate, ditch, or kill any of them in return. She saw it as a little unfair, but understood, so her complaints went no further than the team. As planned, she trained with the four humans and became the squad leader. As well as being her team, they were also her closest friends. She hadn't ever had any and restricted any possibility for that to happen because she didn't want the day to come where they would be taken away in some form or another. But this group of young men and a single woman grew up sturdy and she felt they had a better chance at survival than most. Which was what her job included, ensuring that they survived on their scouting missions.

She did that and more. Any close calls were tempered by throwing herself in danger. After all, she could take a little more beating than they could. She healed faster than them but slower than she should seeing as she only drank blood from animals and other vampires they fought. With humans hard to come by, the animals in the area were wary of everyone, hiding as soon as their paths crossed. She figured most vampires were living the same way, but with a broken mind, they were even more savage than before. Jade hadn't seen a talking vampire in some time now. At this rate, she would be the only one. A hand came down heavily on her shoulder with a slap but she just rolled her eyes after snapping out of her thoughts. She knew it was Beck trying to bring her back into the present and out of her many musings. They were in the middle of gearing up to go out again. Jade finished before them, not needing much in the way of weapons, and sat down to think. It looked like they were ready, or close to it, now.

"Why are you off being a loner again, babe?" he questioned her playfully. Jade fought to stop herself from rolling her eyes again. In all the ten years that she knew Beck she had to admit that he had grown into his adult body nicely. They had met when he was eighteen, when he was a scrawny teen. Now he was twenty eight and better built. That also held true for both Andre and Robbie who were a year younger. Even Robbie didn't look so useless anymore. Cat was two years younger than them and wasn't as physical, but she too had grown well, gaining toned muscle. It was weird to watch them grow up while she remained the same. Sure, being what she was gave her a great figure, but she was still, and would forever be, twenty. The thought alone agitated her.

"Don't call me that. What do you want?" she retorted, black and white eyes narrowed on him. He shrugged and hopped up on the table next to her.

"Just checking up on you. The others are still getting ready," he answered.

"I hate how fast you get ready. Then I'm always stuck with you for a chat," she replied, scathingly enough to mean it but not for him to take it hard. Beck was well versed in what the vampire said compared to what she meant and rarely ever took anything too hard, unlike Andre who tended to avoid her bitter words, or Robbie who just plain ran away. Cat seemed to take it fine mostly because Jade dulled her words due to the fact that it grated on her nerves to hear Cat cry should she get hurt.

"Aw, come on, you know you like my company," he joked, nudging her. She shoved him back and he almost took a tumble off the table. Her strength was well above the average human's but she often wondered just how much stronger she would be on an all human blood diet. Once in a while she would get to have human blood, but as she suspected, it wasn't something that was done a lot. They wouldn't want her too strong or unintentionally triggering her bloodlust. She felt she had that under control, but even she didn't want to risk it.