Couple of weeks earlier...

The cave welcomed Ayu, as always, with a serene calmness and silence. The hidden grotto with the Namekian ship inside was always a spot away from everything and everyone else, helping her collect her mind and rest. Well, as much as subjugating herself to ominous pressure and crushing gravity could be called a rest... Yet, once again, she was here. Ayu walked through the chilling cave, passing by the luminescent fungus growing inside the cave as she opened the hatch. The contrast between the grotto and inside of Namekian Spaceship was too clear. The light on the walls lit up, showing her a neat but empty space inside the main room and Gravity Chamber. Right. The tilted floor, tall walls, old and used, but the clean seat, and... Well, that was it. A minimalistic and modern piece of technology looked out of place in the natural mess of a moss-filled cave, but that was the charm of it. Ayu didn't know the story behind this craft, and why was this ship hidden in the cave nearby her house - it looked like it wasn't moved for decades... She wished she could ask Mr. Popo about it, but since he showed her this place, she never met him again. Sometimes she wondered if he was even real, but she couldn't deny that the ship that was left in her care was here and was very much useful. Taking her shoes and sweater off, she turn on the settings, and in a matter of a few seconds, the operating system started to work.

Ayu got here quite often. The Gravity Chamber wasn't something she was able to easily adjust to... But it became a routine. A very much-needed routine that kept her in check, calming down her abilities. It wasn't that much actually, but her inability to control her Ki was slowly starting to be a bigger concern with each passing day. Weighted Clothing she wore was still effective, but not as much as before... Like the chain to her anchor was starting to get loose. Scary. Hopefully, she would be able to get a grip on her Ki before anything would happen. The pressure set by the operating system was gradually growing with each time she used this place, but her body needed time to adapt to everything. It wasn't pleasant, but it was helping when Ki in her body was growing unstable - though she needed to stay there for a long while every time she felt her energy spilling out of her body. The overwhelming pressure could hurt. It was painful to breathe and it felt like her blood was boiling, trying to flow in her veins, opposing the force squishing her down. Ayu could almost hear the creaking of her bones when she breathed, and sweat marked her temples. Just staying here was exhausting, but she needed that... That's why the young woman was taking her steps slow and steady. It was enough to just stay in the Gravity Chamber, meditating, sitting, reading - sometimes walking around and stretching when she felt optimistic enough.

This time wasn't any different. After fighting through the first wave of pressure, Ayu tucked her legs under her and sat in a meditation position, joining her hands and straightening her back. The force was cruel to her shoulders and legs, but she couldn't complain. She needed to get stronger, even if she had to take everything in slowly, getting used to the gravity. Blood flowing through her veins, bones, muscles - she felt everything being pressured by the force, but she barely frowned. It will be alright after a moment... Like a pair of sore legs after a day of walking, she just needed to get more practice, that's all. Calming down her breathing, the young woman closed her eyes, trying to focus on her thoughts, distracting herself from the uncomfortable sensation of omnipresent pressure.

Strength. That... That was actually scary. The more Ayu thought about it, the more uneasy she was becoming - because if she wished to gain more power, she wasn't any different from all those warriors around...
She hated to see everything in this white and black scheme, where weaker people were always on their own, and those possessing more might had every right and reason to oppress everyone under them. It pained her to realize that the main motivation for people to get strong, was to either protect their loved ones or avenge them. Maybe she wasn't that different after all... When she was thinking back to what has happened to Cress and her brother, to how Liari was taken advantage of - the guilt was eating away at her soul. She wasn't there, she wasn't strong enough, she couldn't do a thing for them - those words weren't excuses, but very much a reality she needed to face. Even if the reality was hurting as much. Though, would she need physical strength like that? The young woman wasn't a fighter. Bluebell told her she was strong already, but she wasn't able to utilize her abilities in training at all. She was simply someone who got caught up in the tangled relations between people, whose actions led to a few smaller disasters on Earth... Orange City and West City both suffered greatly, and the future was looking uncertain. There were so many strong energy signatures around the planet lately, and Ayu didn't know what could happen the very next day.

She started breathing slowly, each breathing deeper than the one before it, so the blood inside her body could warm up and flow easier. Ayu knew she wasn't exactly... A confronting type. She was eager to mediate and make amends rather than try to settle things more violently. That's why she wished to be a little stronger. Not muscle-wise, she didn't even need the Ki that was dwelling in her - she just wished that she'd be powerful enough mentally. Confident. More decisive. Instead of holding her fidgeting hands, she wanted to be able to walk up to someone and tell them what she felt, to stand up to the opponent, to speak up her mind, to-

To do everything she was never able to do. Ayu felt her eyes opening, her eyelids heavy when she glanced down at her fingers. A deep, somber sigh raised her chest with difficulty. She was alone in an empty spaceship, sitting on the floor, while both the gravity and the pressure of her feelings were now hurting her. That was a little typical to her, wasn't it? Her hands started trembling, and with some struggle, she raised them to her face. Each teardrop on her face felt like it weighed a ton and her eyes burned again when she rubbed them with her sleeve to stop herself from crying. It won't solve anything, it never did... But she couldn't help it. Who was she kidding, she will always be her soft self. Anxious and nervous in front of strangers. Afraid of hurting people, and worrying to a fault about others, hiding behind trees when she was startled by anyone she thought was mildly irritated by her presence. She felt too much and too strongly. Sometimes being an empath helped her to notice how others must have felt, aiding her with talking to them to soothe their moods... Other times it was an overwhelming maelstrom of emotions, that brought tears to her eyes and squeezed her heart in an iron, painful grip. Sharing pain with others was as much important as sharing happiness, but she wasn't able to choose what she was going to feel. It was never easy like that.

Slowly shaking her head, Ayu wiped her cheeks, scolding herself in her mind for this small outburst of tears. It wasn't needed and she had to focus on something else... The last thing that she wanted right now was to get swallowed up in guilty or worry - it won't help in anything. There were so many things to do and she couldn't get blinded by doubt.

Brushing hair away from her sweated face, she closed her eyes again, stray tears hanging on her eyelashes, while she was evening her breathing. Stop and think. Inhale and exhale. Ayu tried her best to shift her focus to something else and it helped when her concentration poured its stream elsewhere - outside of the ship. Her Ki sensing was being mindful of every tiny bit of flora inside the cave they were in. Moss and fern growing densely in the humid dark corners, mushrooms found their places in nook and crannies, their pale, luminescent mycelium gently glowing in shadows. Her mind noticed tiny, tensed dots of energy belonging to bags and lizards. There were crawling in the cracks between rocks, making the cold, dark cave their home... Up above, Ayu hasn't noticed to this moment, that there were a bunch of small animals on the ceiling, most likely bats. They must have entered the cave through many of the holes and fissures above the ship. To be honest, the cave itself was small and it seemed to not be made naturally - the hill was here since Ayu remembered and she never dared to think that it was hiding an intergalactic spaceship... But the way the grotto was shaped gave her the impression of something or someone piling up rocks above the vehicle and merging them together. With time flora and fauna have overtaken this place, hiding this place in the forest from any stray eye. Perhaps that's how it was here.

Outside of the cave, she was able to sense lots of life. The beating, steady heart of the forest was the same as always - filling her troubled self with comfort. The calm, silverish trees were mighty, their signatures dispersed and yet so solid. She felt individual blades of grass, their tangled roots down below the ground and the wide branches high above. Each leaf was carrying a bit of energy with itself, every blossom was showing a very faint spark of Ki. Flora was so different than the energy of a breathing, bleeding creature. Life carried on in every part of the plant organism, they couldn't move or act like animals, but they still were very much alive. If plants were carrying energy dispersed in every part of their being, from roots to leaves, Earthlings, animals, and other races alike - well, at least those that Ayu has met - were quite different. Their signatures were tied to their body and their beating hearts, and the functions of their organism was depending on their life forces - they moved, they thought, and acted.

Emotions were a different thing. Ayu knew a lot about feelings and was aware that animals and plants felt them too - but not to the same degree as the races that deemed themselves intelligent. Animals were guided by instinct. They knew fear, and hunger, they cared for one another, and they weren't strangers to the fear of death or starvation. They could bond and show affection. Their energies were always pure to her with no hidden meanings or second thoughts. Because nature was honest. It wasn't always just or fair, there was beauty as well as cruelty, but nature never lied. Contrary to people... She could feel her hands shaking again when Ayu thought back to the times when she was talking with others - and their expression and voices did not much their energy. They could smile with their Ki enraged, or yell at someone not from irritation, but with satisfaction. It was one of the reasons why she wasn't feeling comfortable in front of people. Lots of them were greedy and malicious, deceiving, and were making her anxious.

But flora was something else. A plant did not have a nervous system, it couldn't feel pain, complex emotions, or anticipation, yet... There were electric signals caused by chemical compounds in the plant cells. Ayu was able to understand what the flora was saying, but there were no words or clear signals - only vague sensations. The discomfort of having the branches snapped away or roots cut down... The somber yet quiet awareness that the illness was taking away plant life, eating at their stems and leaves. A gentle fulfillment when the blossoms appeared... Or a reaction to the vibration in the ground, that has many times warned her that someone was approaching before Ayu even spotted an energy signature nearby. And yet, she loved nature so much at times it felt that it cared back, soaking up her feelings and returning them to her. When she was worried or scared, trees would sprout from the ground to hide her from a stern gaze. While uneasy, they would wrap their tendrils around her wrist, as if they were holding her hand... It felt comforting, but at the same time slightly uneasy... Plants shouldn't be able to do that - but Ayu's presence, or rather her spilling energy, was affecting every piece of flora around her. It couldn't be helped, even if she wished she got more control over this ability.

It didn't change the fact that deep down she was worried that she might overdo it one time. That Ayu won't make it in time to Gravity Chamber to hide her energy under the pressure, forcing Ki to calm down... She did cause some minor issues, destroying small objects or breaking something - simply because her emotions were running high. And let's be honest here, Ayu was someone who felt so strongly and so often, her feelings were always strong. It seemed like a matter of time until something would happen. She really didn't want to think about it. She was afraid to think about it...

That was one of her fears. Fears... Well, she got a few of those. Another one of the more earthbound things Ayu was afraid of, was darkness. It sounded childish, but it was the truth - she didn't really understand why herself. Bugs, amphibians, snakes, animals in general, things that could be considered gross and nasty - it never bothered her, but this? She saw the darkness when she closed her eyes - that was the natural thing, wasn't it? But through the thinner-than-hair gap between her eyelids, she dimly saw the light of day. Even this darkness wasn't a void of blackness, not, it was more like patches of greys. It didn't scare her when she was aware that the day was still present. Ayu might have been afraid of the dark, but that wasn't it, not at all... It didn't stab her heart with panic. The night wasn't like that either, with starlight and moon shining from above, the lamp on the nightstand softly glowing in her room... She was scared of another dark. Pitch black. No hint of light, not a shade of grey in this overwhelming, suffocating nothingness. There were rare times when she was scared like that, each time she couldn't feel her throat, she wasn't able to catch her breath. It was exhausting. After those panic attacks, she was always asking herself why... For some reason, her mind was turning into a mess of panic and scattered thoughts, even if Ayu knew that there was nothing wrong with darkness like that. Was it phobia..? Well, it was the only thing she was worried about that caused her to panic without reason, because... Other things that concerned here were rooted in more sensible causes.

"Does it really matter..." Ayu muttered to herself with a resigned voice. Fears were fears for a reason. The young woman changed her sitting position, crossing her legs and holding her head with both hands. Her forehead felt hot and heavy, but she did not want to leave the Gravity Chamber just yet. Ayu wanted to train some more, adjusting her breathing, getting used to it all - but was that right? She was doing nothing, pretending that she is - or was it only self-doubt kicking in? Because she was aware that she was fighting. Ayu was breathing deeply, slowly, taking care of her breathing. When she inhaled, the thick air filled her lungs with this uncomfortable sensation, and when she emptied her chest, the relief was there only for a second. She was sluggish, her reactions were slow, like the oxygen in her blood was transported through her body at a slower rate - and maybe that was it. The pressure of gravity was affecting her strongly - her and every part of her body. Her insides were having a hard time doing their duties, heart pumped blood gradually because the regular rate was simply too much. Maybe that's why her thinking process seemed kind of odd today... Ayu wanted to slowly lay down on the floor, but the pressure pushed her down and her back painfully hit the tiles. She frowned and sighed, closing her eyes.

The pressure on her spine and skull was causing her head to ache. Ayu tried to focus her concentration on her body - not as in the Ki-Sensing thing, no, she did not want another nosebleed - but she tried to feel her muscles. To sense every voluntarily and involuntarily move. Heart slowly, but steadily, stubbornly beating in her chest. Some minor muscles twitching. Her stomach squeezed, reminding Ayu that after training she should grab something for dinner for herself and Liari. Her big little sister seemed to be getting used to life in her small house, she was grateful... Another deep sigh made Ayu frown in discomfort again, because her ribcage went numb for a second. Ayu was worried about Bluebell. Not so long ago she came back to her and first time in forever the young woman felt frustrated. The little Majin was taken advantage of by someone, forced to kill and absorb people, appearing at her doorstep looking much more mature, bigger, and... Sadder. That event stripped Liari from her innocence and simple, child-like trust, and Ayu would never stop thinking that she should have done something to prevent that - even if she knew very well that she wouldn't make the difference. What kind of older sister she was..?

Those thoughts hurt so much to the point she could feel them in her bones. Ayu feared the helplessness - because given the time and situation here on Earth, standing idle was the worst thing that she could have done. And still... It happened. It could happen again. People could die like Callion or would get hurt in more than one way as Liari was. Would Ayu be still there, standing on the side next time when things would turn sour? She feared that badly, because - she wasn't a warrior. She never fought, never hit anyone, what could she possibly do? She hoped to be of use if there be another danger approaching here but was she strong enough for that..? Ah, thinking like that was messing with her head so badly... She stroked her temples, trying to get rid of the incoming headache but there was no use. How hopeless she was if mere thoughts were hurting her like this? That's why she was determined to train, to be more confident, to be brave enough to try and do something in times of need... Even if she was going to fail. Would the awareness that she did everything she could be enough, even if there would be no difference in the end..? Another bitter thought without answer. Ayu sighed, stretching her arms on the floor.

Maybe it all was a bad idea, after all, she thought while closing her eyes again, after a brief period of staring at the ceiling. Her head was pounding, she was exhausted and worried and... It felt better to let her thoughts flow and lay here with a blank head. Soon enough, Ayu's breathing slowed down to a regular pace and she fell asleep.

Just like that, tired to the bone, she dozed off. Under the crushing wave of gravity, on cold tiles, and without a single blanket - she closed her eyes and soon enough a dream swallowed her up in one piece.

It was a weird dream. Her mind was filled with the darkness of the worst kind - thick, velvety and cold. Ayu couldn't make up anything in front of her, everything was lost in the void. Every sound and every sensation. It felt like nothing was there like she was alone in the whole wide world... But if there was nothing but emptiness around, the world must have disappeared too, right? Was it normal to feel so lonely in a dream that she wanted to cry out? Nothing. She couldn't tell when her eyes were open or not because everything looked the same, to the point that the fear creeping in make her sick to her stomach. Just nothing, but overwhelming darkness, that clutched her heart with a freezing iron grasp. It felt so abstract but so real at the same time, that she couldn't understand how was it possible - or where was she. Nothing was obstructing her touch, there was nothing to see, smell, or taste - cold, empty nothingness was filling everything, up to her very own soul. She couldn't see her arms or legs, but she felt them - she also felt her body, but the sensation was so alien and weird. She was here but, was she breathing? Was the blood flowing through her veins was she moving? There was nothing to sense around, not Ki, no ground, as if she was flowing in the thick air. It hurt. That was the only thing in this void state. It was aching so badly, but the pain was making her feel numb and sleepy... Like her body wasn't hers completely and her awareness was slipping away. She noticed the burning sensation in her wrists like something was painfully holding to them, digging claws in the flesh - but nothing was there. Her heart was pulsing painfully. Her eyes were full of tears and the throbbing in her head was growing stronger with every second. It all was just so much, Ayu wanted to cry out for help, to call Liari, anyone... Then she realized she couldn't. She wanted to take a deep breath - but her throat was clogged as if the fear manifested as thick tallow filling her mouth and lungs. She choked violently and tried to breathe, in panic holding onto her neck. It hurt. It hurt. Ayu was suffocating in the darkness, by the blackness itself, struggling for every breath that she simply couldn't take - and soon enough her mind started to fade into this void too...

Until she realized that she could breathe again.

The scenery didn't change. Ayu was still very much suspended in the dark, void wrapping around her like a cold veil - but she could breathe. Nothing was hurting, her body felt just fine with an even heartbeat and clear thoughts. But her senses were blocked, the view was, all the same, presenting in front of her neverending darkness. She was lost in the nothingness and there was nothing else to do or think about... It was calming, but the sense of dread she felt a moment ago made her vary of everything as if she was waiting for something to happen. Yet, did it even matter? Ayu could feel herself resigning from caring about it, her mind simply flowed away with any meaningful thoughts, and she was getting numb. It was almost scary how easily her thoughts melted away into nothingness as if she was becoming one with the darkness that was often scaring her so much.

It was hard to tell how much time has passed - was it a few minutes or long hours - but something started to change. A sensation appeared, blooming in the cold void with a warm presence. In the omnipresent darkness, the shape of a silhouette started to form. A faint glow of white light painted a thin, barely noticeable outline of a tall figure wearing a long robe. The shine that accompanied that person felt dulled and obscured by something. Ayu's dazed gaze was barely focusing on this phenomenon, her eyes indifferent and tired. The shape of the person was floating in the air in front of her, close, so close, but she hardly saw anything... Only a thin, shining line painted with a warm glow, creating a shape of a person... Well, she was almost certain that it was a person. There was a shape of a head and arms and long cloak, nothing more, no features, no details. Could she even be sure that it was a person? For something that felt like an eternity, the eerie stranger seemed to look at her, but their eyes couldn't meet like they both couldn't fully notice the other's presence. Ayu wasn't sure at this point, was there someone here or her mind was playing tricks on her in this darkness? Wherever she was, however, she ended up in this forgotten void, she couldn't make heads or tails of it... So perhaps it all was a dream. Yes, it was a dream. After all, the crushing sensation she felt for a long time now was because the Gravity Chamber was active and she was resting on the floor, wasn't she?

As the mysterious silhouette stretched her hand toward her, Ayu's eyes snapped open, pulling her back to reality. She found herself, indeed, laying on the cold floor, with her trembling hand desperately clutching the fabric of her shirt. She was wheezing, panting, breathing as if she was drowning and only now could take a solid dose of air straight into her lungs. It took her a moment to realize where she was. The first sensation that was as painful as the enhanced gravity was panic eating away at her senses. She tried to stand up, but was too weak against the pressure, so the young woman curled into a ball, breathing desperately. Her throat hurt. Her wrists were on fire for a brief second and the pulsing in her head was deafening... But it all melted into one panic attack that Ayu couldn't stop. She held her hands together, closing her eyes, trying to calm down, to calm down... There was nothing or no one to hold to so she needed to manage by herself. Think - she needed to think. To focus on something so she won't spiral down in this helplessness that was pulling her to the ground, that was ready to swallow her and trap her inside. Oh, panic attacks were rarely reasonable, were they? The floor. The floor was cold. Ayu felt the cool tile on her heated cheek and sweated face. She placed her hand on the ground, pressing her stretched palm to the surface of the tile, concentrating on the temperature she felt on her skin. Good.

The more she was emptying her mind, focusing on the basic grounding method, the more the tensions were fading away from her body. It might have taken more time than she'd like, but at one point Ayu found herself fully back, in reality, her head heavily laying on the ground and half-open eyes staring at the ceiling. The lamps were shining brightly above her, reminding her of something that she saw in her dream.

Wait.

The dream!

Ayu sat back so abruptly, that she almost didn't notice the gravity that tried to push her right back onto the floor. Her headache on the other hand detected that one, with a sharp stab on the back of her head telling Ayu to not move so unexpectedly. Murmuring something under her breath, she rubbed her temples, trying to remind herself what has happened - exactly. Did she doze off? It felt like she did and she was pulled inside this weird dream. She could barely make out something of it - there were no images or memorable sounds, only sensations. Could it even be called a dream? The void and this suffocating panic - Ayu shivered again at the sole thought of that. As much as she wished to know what that dream or vision was all about, she didn't need to go through it again... The worry twisted her stomach. Well, it was obvious that she will be skipping dinner today. She crossed her legs and leaned forward a bit, staring down at her hands but nothing was out of the ordinary. With trembling fingers she untied the wrapping around her left wrist and pulled it away, glancing at her skin... The rings were present on her body. Ayu always got those, two thin rings, three even thinner lines marking her wrist like they were naturally carved in her flesh. The young woman frowned gently tying back the weighted strap - nothing marked her body, proving that the pain she felt was only a dream. Or something made up, even if felt so real that she could still remember this prickling, hot sensation in her hands.

Wiping away the sweat from her brow, Ayu tried to figure out the meaning behind it... She was looking for a clue in her mind, but it was useless. First of all - she needed to remember the vision. Coming here, to the ship today, she never suspected that her free time would be spent thinking about dreams... Ayu rarely had dreams. To be perfectly honest, she didn't remember having one for a very long time - when she was little there were some short, vivid, and colorful ones, but they were melted into nothingness as soon as she woke up in the morning. And now something like this happened out of blue, it felt too convenient to blame it on coincident, but what should she do now? Ayu rolled back down on the floor, her pale yellow gaze staring at the ceiling while her thoughts were raging in her head. Thinking back about it... What exactly did she see? What did she feel?

Prying back to the unpleasant dream right after it happened wasn't the most reasonable thing to be done, but it wasn't the worst. Ayu rubbed the bridge of her nose, trying to get her mind relaxed enough to think about the unpleasant matters. Seemed that lately, it became quite a habit, didn't it? Ayu was thinking over and over about what Liari said and did, about what has happened in the Orange and West City, silently mourning the death of people and many, many more... It would be easier to pretend like it never happened and carried on with her life, but that wasn't the point. Something bad could happen at any moment, and not paying attention to signs or anticipation would make it only worse when the critical point would appear. That's why, even if it was a silly, meaningless dream, Ayu wanted to check, to think it through - to be sure that it was indeed, only a childish scare. Even if she felt her arms tensing and hands trembling, she regarded it as something that she needed to do... Right, deep breaths Ayu, deep breaths. There was nothingness. She remembered the darkness she feared so badly, thick and smooth all around her, and a reminiscent of the panic hastened the pulse in her temples. No, she was safe. Ayu was laying on her back inside the Namekian ship in the forest - the sun outside was bright and lamps were lit inside too. Nothing bad happened outdoors or even in the vehicle, it was all inside her head. It was only that. She remembered that there was the pain and suffocating fear, and Ayu was convinced that she was going to die out there, because despite her struggles and silent cries - the pain was only growing stronger. That's when she woke up, snapping back to reality.

But it wasn't only that. A presence appeared in the dream if she could only call it that - an outline made of a line as if drawn in the air with a glowing stick. Ayu was almost certain that it was a person. There was this saying that a mind can't make up a stranger's face in the dream, so perhaps the same thing was tied to energy signatures... Yet Ayu couldn't say she was certain she even felt Ki. It was all too vague. Maybe her mind was playing tricks on her, but it could very well be just a part of the dream. When she thought back about it, she couldn't explain how this sensation went, would she alone be able to recognize that energy? No, of course not. It was barely a dream... And yet, she couldn't shake the feeling that something wasn't alright. Why did it happen now? Here of all places? Under enhanced gravity, when Ayu was exhausted by simply meditating, soundlessly fighting with the force that was pushing her down.

"Maybe I am going crazy?" Ayu rubbed the side of her face, feeling how her cheek was at the same time covered in a cold sweat and heated by the physical effort. The Gravity Chamber wasn't the best for her health, was it..? Now she was hallucinating... And maybe the fact that she started to talk to herself was a sign too. Or the vision, dream, whatever it was, it dug deep into her mind, burning the darkness inside. Ayu felt the painful shiver and wrapped her arms around her, sensing that her breath started to hasten again. Slowly shaking her head, she closed her eyes. It was too early for another panic attack, but she could never be too careful, she did not want to break any records after all. Perhaps some old-fashioned breathing exercises will help. Slowly Ayu sat down in the right position, placing her hands on her lap and trying to empty her head from excessive thoughts. This effort seemed pointless at first. Her thoughts were like a fountain, streams and trails were overflowing in every direction, chaotic and scattered around in panic, without a reason or order... But slowly the excess started to sink in. Breath after breath, the Ki and the worry started to soften, smoothing the uneasy surface of her mind.

Sometimes Ayu wondered why she was blessed, or cursed, with all those uncanny abilities of hers. Whatever her race was, maybe it was their staple set of skills, who knew - but she had to learn everything on her own. In the age of warriors exploring universes, it wasn't something weird, but as she stated herself many, many times - Ayu was not a fighter. She did not need these skills. She shouldn't have them. Surely, talking to plants and breathing underwater seemed fun and that could come in handy, but sensing energy more often was a source of dread than comfort. Ayu enjoyed communicating with flora and being able to sense the whole ecosystem, helping plants grow too was a great bonus on its own... Just, she couldn't understand why she had those powers. There were people with green thumbs who loved plants and could not sense their moods, she could be very well one of them - but fate decided to throw something extra. It's not like she was complaining, she just wished to understand more... But she couldn't because she knew too little.

Everything that was happening to Ayu or people around her was often connected to something bigger. To something shady or gravely serious, that was going to affect her life in ways she never imagined... And not only hers. They were all connected by fine lines of fate, and when one of them was disturbed, it affected others around greatly. Maybe it was a poetic description, but it was the truth - and because of that, Ayu was sometimes thankful that she did not have many friends. If anything were to happen to her, not many people would be affected by that. Was it selfish or selfless, she couldn't tell herself. It just... Felt right.

It didn't feel like the right place and time to ponder the nature of relationships between people, so Ayu clenched her teeth and straightened her back. The gravity was, as always, cruel. The pressure was pushing her down to the ground, starting from her very core, squeezing her insides. The bones were creaking and her joints felt weaker under the force applied to her. If she would use a stronger setting by any chance, she would end up with a crushed skull and spine and there was no turning back from that... A cold shiver danced on her back. Maybe that's why Ayu was always checking three times if she did everything alright when she was checking the options. That would be one dramatic death caused by carelessness... Well, gravity surely did its thing. Her muscles were getting sore simply by moving at her own pace, or even slower to be honest, because the gravity was making her movements sluggish. Breathing was a workout. The air was thick and heavy, and finding a rhythm between exhaling and inhaling was quite a chore indeed. Ayu did her best to relax her body, but it did not work that well. She needed to have her muscles tensed and her body ready, because the gravity wasn't going to let her relax. If her mind would wander, the pressure would squeeze her right into the tiles like a careless bug and that was a horrid vision.

Breathing... Breathing. If she would focus on Ki, it carried a possibility of Ayu ending this training session with a headache or nosebleed again, and she did not want that. Her mind had to focus on something else entirely. Why not something useful, while she was at it? Adjusting to the breathing inside the Gravity Chamber was probably the hardest thing of all in this place. The air was thick and her lungs felt like they were squeezed by something sharp and hard, which only made the whole ordeal more difficult. The flow of her blood was slower too, no doubt that the breathing was so hard - after Ayu started to take the second breath, her body barely processed the first one. She needed to warm up her veins and muscles without getting up and running around in the dreadful gravity. Relaxing her body was out of the question, but what about her mind..? With her mouth closed, Ayu inhaled slowly through her nose, keeping this slow and steady until she felt her lungs full. Then she stopped, counting to three, pursing her lips as if she was going to whistle. The exhaled air escaped the tiny gap in her mouth, at the end Ayu forced the rest of the air from her chest - but before she could gasp, she slowly exhaled with her nose again. The whole process seemed funny from the side, but with each careful breath, Ayu felt her blood heating and flowing through her body more easily. It was effective, that is what mattered here.

The more she focused on breathing, the circulation in her body grew better and stronger... The oxygen finally caught up to the real-time and stopped being so slow, the blood flow returned to normal. As if, the out-of-the-gravity-chamber-normal. In the aftermath, her muscles started to warm up too, the gravity was less obstructing her movements. Ayu could raise her head and arms, not feeling the sharp pressure trying to knock her out. It wasn't ideal of course, but very carefully she allowed herself to relax her shoulders and neck, stroking her chin. It worked very well, but one step forward did not mean that she could stop. Ayu shook her head slowly and returned to her position, once again closing her eyes. She needed her focus. Her concentration was overseeing how she was breathing, how the inhaled air reached her nose and down her throat and windpipe. It flew down to her lungs, being caught and diffused in blood, while she was preparing for exhaling. Another breath escaped her mouth, going back the same way the previous one went into. Most people are taking breathing for granted, and as now Ayu realized, in this enhanced gravity it was quite an ordeal to maintain and focus on... But perhaps it was just her. She could hardly imagine a warrior being troubled by breathing while training, they knew very well what they were doing. She believed that. Well, if they could only see that Ayu was using Gravity Chamber for breathing exercises, she might have been scolded pretty badly.

She was growing. Slowly, not with ease, but with time Ayu's soul was maturing. Maybe she couldn't feel that fully, or she still lacked the resolve to accept that or focus on that matter - but she was changing. Gradually, at her own pace. It wasn't the matter of ever-growing energy and her abilities popping out unexpectedly one after another, no. It was something more subtle, more finesse... Life wasn't kind lately, showing her more reasons to cry her eyes out than to laugh. It gave her frustration and bitter tears, sleepless nights, and worries, but still, she didn't hate it. She couldn't bring herself to. After all, there were people she met and cared for, things she wished to do, so abandoning it all felt too easy, too dreadful. Can't have sunshine and rainbows without rain, though she would be grateful for more sun rather than storms that were often clouding her thoughts and face. It couldn't be helped, could it? Ayu needed to move past that. She was scolding herself a while ago that she won't ever grow out of her soft, worrywart self, because she could never spot the changes in herself.

Only time would tell. A young sapling doesn't realize that it sprouted its first leaf, it doesn't see the growth at first. The stem grows and hardens, creating bark and branches, and the roots dig deeper, more confident and stronger than before with each passing day. It takes time, but the plants do not have the sense of time. Before they even realize it, the trees are in their prime, stretching their roots deep down and crowns high above. It always was telling Ayu that the most important changes do not happen in one moment, they are often happening gradually, working through the chain of events and lucky or less lucky events in life. In her life.

Maybe she was that kind of sapling... Or not at all.

It was more than enough today, she felt it in her bones. Ayu raised her arms, stretching them high and a moment later she did the same thing with her legs. After sitting here for hours, oppressed by enhanced gravity in its raw glory, it was time to move those stale muscles. Standing up, the young woman straightened her back and leaned forward, touching her toes with ease. Huh. Well, Ayu was never into gymnastics, but it felt like the amount of Ki she possessed and meditation was affecting her body to a certain degree. She still was a weakling - by her own opinion let's mind that - but she was learning new things every day too. Though it was enough if learn for one meditation session. Dusting her clothes, she approached the control panel, ready to call it a day and go straight back home.

She was about to reach for her sweater, but she stopped abruptly when another painful jab to her temple stopped her in her track. It was so sudden, that she couldn't help but shiver. Her fingers brushed against the wool and that was it. Ayu felt her knees weakening, the room started to spin - and before she realized it, she was back to the nothingness. Exactly as it happened during her unplanned nap, she was pulled back into the void. Cold, empty hole devoid of light... Her body flew in the emptiness, and her senses become duller, noticing only the familiar sensation of pain that focused on the inside of her wrists and her suffocating throat. Ayu tried to toss and kick, but there was nothing to touch or hold on to - her fingers tried to grab whatever it was that was preventing her from breathing, but it wasn't possible to hold to darkness, was it? The fear was skyrocketing, she was sure she will die... She will die here, silently crying, screaming for help, but no sound could be heard, nothing could be seen. The painfully familiar darkness that she saw painted the same empty view in front of her eyes, telling her that she was hopelessly alone in this dreadful nightmare... Ayu was trembling, wondering what she has ever done that her mind hated her like that. This dream was too real, the pain felt so physical she wholeheartedly believed she was in danger. Experiencing it once was already hard enough, why did her vision force itself on her again? She knew it all so why-

No, it wasn't like that. It wasn't all the same. Despite her constant fight for each breath, Ayu begin to notice that not everything seemed the same as before. It was only a dream! A dream, she ought to remember that. A vision created by her mind... She tried to calm down her terrified heart, to attempt to understand more of what was happening, but it wasn't easy. Her body was reacting on its own, survival instinct making her struggle for her life, tossing and panicking in the darkness. When she tried to move her hands to her throat, she felt a faint resistance, as if she was underwater. The sound was muffled as if she really was hiding her head in water, ears reacting to the quiet, splashing noise that each of her abrupt movements created. Was she suffocating because she was drowning in dark water and not void itself..? It didn't make any sense. Ayu could breathe underwater, but even if that felt more reasonable, it would work in different cases - but not hers. So what was happening here... It was cold, it felt so cold that the tips of her fingers were going to freeze off, but the pain in her body was burning hot with fever. Ayu noticed that her wrists weren't smooth. No, they did not feel like plain skin, but rather they were wrapped tightly in something that felt like rubber. Small, pointy objects were poking from the inner sides of it, and long smooth lines made of plastic grew out of them. When she tried to pull them out, it hurt like fire, so Ayu blinked in the darkness, trying to solve the mystery of herself. She began to realize that it wasn't only that. Her back hurt, and the base of her skull was numb from this weird aching sensation. She tried to touch it, but she couldn't reach it. Something was partially holding her in place... How could she never notice that? Ayu felt too small and too lonely in this dark place and now she realized that something was very wrong with her. Not on an elementary level, but she shouldn't be here. Not anymore at least. Everything hurt. All those tubes and prickling objects and weird things frightened her so much, but her mind was pulled away from believing that she was soaking in the cold emptiness, no. She was somewhere else and she needed to know why.

... But how could she know where she was? Ayu realized that she still had no clue, there was nothing she understood, even why this abrupt dream trapped her out of blue. She wasn't able to explain anything to herself, maybe that's why it was so scary. Yet... The more she stared into the void, the more she realized that it wasn't empty blackness anymore. Shades of grays, some small, reflective surfaces emerged. There were lines and vague shapes around in the darkness, sharp, straight forms surrounded her... Blocks? Slabs? Pillars? Nothing made sense, and despite her straining her eyes, she couldn't make head or tails of what she was seeing. She couldn't even trust her own senses like that- but there were few details she wanted to be sure of. She was surrounded by cold water, but it did not feel like a lake or swimming pool, the water was thick and gooey, making it hard to move. Ayu spotted some dots of lights and colors, blinking stars staring at her in the silent dark. And there was a sound... A distant beeping noise was followed by a rhythmic, metallic clutter. Very softly it rang and died. It could be easily swallowed by the water which muffled any sound near her. Where in the world was she... Why was she drowning? What was tied to her body, hurting her so much, why was her throat filled with this thick water, suffocating her, even if Ayu was able to breathe underwater? Nothing made sense. Nothing m-made sense...

Panic struck her again and Ayu tried to kick and wriggle around, clutching to her neck - because it felt once again that something pulled away all the air in her lungs. The mouthful of viscous liquid started to choke her horribly, leaving her breathless and in pain. There was nothing to pull from her throat, she couldn't do anything. Her body moved by instinct on its own, tossing in the water, trying to do something even if her mind had no idea what to do... And then something changed in the dark. There was a faint glow of red color, that died and lit up again. The crimson hue almost blended with the blackness, but Ayu did notice this weak glimmer. Maybe she even heard a very distant buzzing sound, she wasn't sure - she couldn't pay attention to it while she was trying to survive. She tried once more to cry out, holding to the faint hope that someone will hear her... Only to feel the last of her breath escaping her mouth with scarce bubbles. Maybe that was only the dream, but the fear of the unknown and the inflicted ache and distress she felt were so disturbingly real she easily forgot it was only a vision. Maybe it was a fragment of reality.

Suddenly another source of light appeared in the darkness, a faint outline of a person emerged from there. Glow was weak and fuzzy, but she noticed the movement in the corner. Ayu watched with half-open, dazed with pain eyes, as a tall, wide figure reached its hand to her... But the movement was quickly stopped and the focus of the silhouette shifted to something else. Her stunned, blurred gaze could barely make anything of what she saw, but she was able to notice something... That the broad shape of a person was standing in front of her and it leaned down frantically searching for something. Was there anything important somewhere there? They weren't here to help her it seemed... Ayu watched with resignation at the frantic gestures and a cascade of muffled, inorganic noises created faint vibrations in the water. Shadow and lack of lighting obstructed the features of this person, she couldn't spot any other details, but maybe her eyes were simply too weak for that. It seemed that something was shining behind this stranger, but something about it felt... Familiar. Why? There was no need to think about it. Ayu didn't have even the strength to blink anymore. The dots and lines she worked so hard to see in the void were overtaken by darkness and her vision blurred into nothingness. The pain and suffocating sensation that was tearing apart her throat and lungs started to fade away too... She was so tired. Exhausted to the point that she gave up already and Ayu only wanted to sleep. To drift away, to not feel a thing anymore, just letting go of this fear and aching that was rooted deeply in her body.

She only wished for... For what exactly?

When she got back to her senses, Ayu was laying on the floor next to the pilot seat of the ship. She was back. She returned to the silent, empty space of the active Gravity Chamber, surrounded by quiet, dense woods. It felt so eerie now, knowing that a second ago her mind was trapped in a suffocating void with no hope of escaping. Ugh, that dream was too real now... And now everything was so normal. It felt almost scary how everything turned to the way it was as if by the flip of a coin. The vision knocked her down so suddenly she must have stumbled to the ground and fallen unconscious... She didn't hit her head, so she couldn't blame her vision on the concussion. Even if, for a while, she badly wanted to. There was no rhyme or reason behind the dream sequences, why did it happen, and how? There was no one to ask and no one that could answer her. Ayu couldn't simply get up, dust her clothing and continue her day like this. Throbbing in her head and nausea digging inside her stomach weren't helping her with collecting her thoughts. For a long while, she stayed on the floor, gazing at the ceiling and bright arms above. Ayu was too overwhelmed to move while the things she saw were slowly settling down in her mind. The vision... The pain. What was the place she saw? Why was she submerged in water, who was that person, what was happening to her... Only more questions appeared in her head when nothing else was resolved. Ayu was tired of the list of troubling her issues growing larger with each passing day. She never went through something like that before, didn't she? Though, the more she thought about it, the more uneasy suspicions started to emerge from the back of her mind.

Maybe it wasn't a dream? It felt too real, almost like Ayu was going through something that has happened to her already. But if that was the cause, why she couldn't remember it? Maybe it was a memory... A repressed one. Ayu couldn't remember anything that have happened to her during her life before the accident and before she woke up. Right, she was in a coma for around a year or so. During that time, they have tried many things to wake her up and care for her injuries. She heard that some alien technologies got healing tanks when wounded people were submerged in a special liquid, maybe that was it..? Though it was hard to tell if a rural hospital could afford this type of equipment. Ayu didn't know much about the vehicle crash she miraculously survived, but she was aware that she ended up with grave head injuries and doctors didn't expect her to make it out alive. Perhaps it was a memory flashing through her brain painfully... Maybe, just maybe, could she be slowly remembering things she couldn't for years? Was that memory from the time she was in the hospital? It would make the most sense, but why did it appear without a warning like that, causing a headache and conflicted feelings...

Why was life so complicated?

Ayu slowly sat on the tiles, reaching with her shaking hand to her forehead. She took a deep breath, calm and collected - not through the acceptance or some inner strength - Ayu was simply too exhausted now. Her gestures became automatic at best and sluggish, so the confidence in her movements wasn't fueled by reasoning, only exhaustion. The only thing she wanted right now was to get back home and rest, forgetting about these failed meditation attempts. Forgetting about the suffocating darkness that will hunt her in her dreams... Well, wasn't it a funny coincidence that Ayu always felt choking fear each time her eyes were obstructed by blackness? She wiped out tears from the corners of her eyes, rubbing her pale cheeks and sighing. When she was in the dark, without a hint of light, the panic she felt was sucking the strength and air out of her, leaving her feeling as if she was suffocating. The parallel here felt too matching to simply be brushed off as nothing. Ayu couldn't wring up her hands in despair, she was too tired for that... But that was scary. Did something like that really happen to her, leaving her scarred like that and afraid of the darkness? Or was it merely a dream? Did her wild imagination create that fear - or rather it was indeed a repressed memory she didn't want to remember?

"What is happening to me again..." Ayu whispered helplessly. Her temple was pulsing with heat and her terrified heart was raging against her ribcage. Whatever the past and future had prepared for her, she did not like it one bit. She was so fed up with being clueless about everything, being left in the dark by others and there was nothing and no one she could turn to for help. Liari wouldn't know what to do and she would hate to burden her with her problems. Asking Zhang was impossible - he was gone and she wasn't sure if the police had any information about his disappearance. There really was no other person Ayu could ask. In moments like this, the painful loneliness was biting the hardest... But there was no point in dwelling on this more than needed. "That's enough training for today," she decided after a while, pulling herself up from the floor. Shaking her head and fighting with gravity, Ayu rested her side on the seat, her fingers grabbed the sweater she left on the back of the chair. It wasn't only her hands that were trembling, she was shaking to the depths of her core. "S-Stupid Ayu," she couldn't help but clutch her mouth in a thin line and mutter a scolding addressed to herself. "It was only a d-dream. That's e-enough," pulling herself together, the young woman patted her cheeks. It wasn't exactly the most convincing procedure, but she needed to look well enough when she'd get back home. She'd hate if she would trouble Liari more... Lately her Ki control started to slip away and that was concerning enough as it was. There was no need for more problems in their little household.

Hopefully, the future won't be as challenging as the past. Very slowly Ayu grabbed the sweater, her arms fitting in the loose sleeves with ease. She buttoned up the oversize woolen clothing and put on her shoes. Before she left, however, she turned off the Gravity Chamber - with her scattered thoughts and worries, she almost forgot that it was still active - was it a good or a bad sign? No matter. With a few clicks she turned off the entire system and the Namekian ship was put to rest, as she liked to call it. Maybe she should name it... This place saw her so many times already, that she became attached. Smiling faintly, Ayu patted the wall of the ship before she opened the hatch. Cold, fresh air, soaked in the scent of vegetation welcomed her again and she gladly filled her lungs with it. With two small jumps, she reached the ground and the entrance to the ship closed behind her. For a slow while, Ayu was admiring the vehicle that she was given, staring in soft awe at the shape and size, wondering once more, what was the story behind it. Maybe she'll never know... But she would ask if she will be only given the chance. Scratching her cheeks, her eyes turned to the dim light at the end of the cave, obstructed by a breathing curtain made of ferns and vines. Ayu walked out of the grotto, standing in front of the woods in the same way the child was standing on the doorstep of a friend's home. In this case, she was the one who treated the forest as her friend. Finally, a faint smile bloomed on her face, and running fingers through her hair, Ayu turned to the direction, where her house was.

It was time to go home. Someone was waiting for her there... And that was the best feeling she ever felt in her life.

---

Gravitron 4.0 - In Use, 175x Earth's Gravity
Power Level - 201,104
Word Count - 10,020