Spider didn't manage to go unnoticed, not even further than his father's room. Mansk stepped into the hallway and noticed him, both of them freezing while staring.
"...What are you doing?" the recom asked and looked at Spider's atypical -for the boy- clothes and the bag.
"What are you doing?"
Not a clever answer but Spider panicked after almost getting a heart attack because of this big dude.
"Going to bathroom, you?" Mansk casually repeated and waited till he got the confession. About the boy wanting to help the girl to escape. The soldier looked disappointed, annoyed too, but instead of telling Spider to go back to bed or snitching: "You can talk to her but I'm coming with you. After I've used the toilet." He knew the boy. Stubborn as the colonel to a fault. Would just get into trouble and it would reflect badly to Quaritch and the rest of the team.
The young man was surprised but didn't want to miss the opportunity. He walked next to the recom, glancing up to him.
"You knew about the girl? Everything?"
It took a moment for Mansk to shortly nod. Then add: "I knew Zdinarsk and Andíla since they were teens."
"...What happened to the sister?"
It took more time for Mansk to answer, then answer in soft tone: "She was robbed and it went wrong."
Z-Dog had bitterly laughed at the irony of it. Her little sister getting jumped at a street and killed by some lowlife. Mansk swallowed at the memory of his friend's shaky laugh and the tears she couldn't stop. He too had been broken by the news, missing Díla who had been like another little sister to him.
"Wait here," he ordered as he went to the toilet alone. It's not like Spider would get anywhere on his own if wanting to help the girl. Though it was unnecessary. Tomorrow she would be given to the clan and doctor Spellman. But colonel's son wouldn't believe, that the girl was safe, until seeing for himself. So Mansk humored the yrrn, and in truth, he also wanted to make sure the child was okay after hearing about the episode earlier.
When they arrived, Mansk talked to the soldier guarding the door. He knew them and so managed to get permission for Spider to meet the clone for a moment. He looked at the boy as the door opened: "Go. I'll be here."
Spider wasn't sure what to expect when stepping into the room, but he was nonetheless puzzled. The room was lit and the girl sat on a bed, almost happy and moving the back of her fingers against a tabloid which rest on her lap. She glanced when hearing the door opening and closing. Seeing him caused her to smile.
"Spider! Hey!"
"Hi... What- What're you doing?" he wondered while approaching, pulling down his hood.
"Reading, the doctor gave me this. It tells about the na'vi." She looked back at the text and pictures, her tail excitingly moving. "Their bodies are funny. I know what kuru is! It's the queue that na'vi have on their heads?" She touched her neck and top of her head. "I don't have one, you asked about that, right?"
He nodded while sitting next to her. "You seem fine, how's your finger?"
"Hurts a bit," she mumbled with droopy ears, then bringing back her attention to the tabloid. "Look, queue is some nervous thingy that looks weird. Doesn't it?"
Spider looked at the picture. "Yeah, like tickly worms," he joked and then tickled. The girl squirmed and laughed, her tail smacking his shoulder. She was surprised it did that. "Sorry, did that hurt?"
"Nah, barely felt it."
"It's weird too, the tail." The girl moved it around experimentally, following it with her golden eyes. "Like arm or leg." She frowned when it didn't move exactly like she wanted to. It was somewhat clumsy thing, but still fun!
Spider opened his mouth but stopped himself. He was going to call the girl Andíla, but she wasn't her, right?
"Hey, you, um, what's your name?" She looked at him. "You never told me?"
"Name?" the child mumbled and looked up, squinting from the lights or from thinking. Her tail thumped in concentrated rhythm. "Mmm, don't know. Guess I don't have one."
"What?"
"Well, that man, sir, he said I don't have a sister," she reminded: "And that I'm all alone." She looked down at her hands. "I don't look like human, but... I remember being one, maybe. I see pictures in my head, now and then. Memories. But- No, not memories. Like a dream. All kinds of things in my head."
She shrugged and returned her attention back to the tabloid: "Doesn't matter." Yet her hands shook a bit and her ears were almost pinned against her head. "Yeah, doesn't matter."
Spider watched with sadness as the kid just stared but didn't read the text on the screen. He had wanted to tell her what father had told, about her being a clone. But now, the boy wasn't sure should he do that after all. Knowing you were just something and not someone with a past and a family sounded really confusing. He also didn't want her to feel alone, uncared for and lost. Like he had through his whole childhood. Never fitting with the humans, with his foster family nor with the Sullys. Neither side wanting him and accepting him. Spider didn't want anyone to feel like that. It was awful.
He was lucky enough to have the Sully kids and now the recoms. And his father.
"Want me to come with you," Spider suggested, the girl looking at him now: "I grew up there, where you'll go. I know places and people, it could be fun?"
He was easily ready to accept rejection. Instead of that he saw relief and happiness. The girl didn't say anything, but whimpered while nodding and closing her eyes as tears threatened to spill. She kept nodding till her shoulders started twitching from crying. Feeling like crying too, Spider moved to hug with one arm. Pressing his forehead against the kid's head as she silently wept. He put his other arm also around her, swallowing piece in his throat while trying to find any right words to comfort. Finally it was those words, that he had wanted to hear as a kid without any real family.
"It's okay. I'll come with you. Promise."
The clone sniffled, leaning into the hug and her tail curled against Spider's knee. She was scared. A lot. Trying not to think about the mess in her head and how invisible she had felt by the adults. She was afraid of meeting the na'vi and Spellman who had been mentioned. But if Spider would come with her, it would be better, right? At least she felt relief that someone who she knew would be there with her.