Amara started training with Jake. Jake was pretty much the trainer of their entire base. He said that Amara had a more wild and spontaneous fighting style, but her stamina was good. But according to him, the most important thing that should come first was that she needed to gain weight.

So her training usually ended with a large portion of food, which would hardly even be completed. But they didn't force her.

One day she was sitting on the training grounds, eating some food, and Lennox arrived on the scene to see how things were coming along. He was surprised to see that Owen was sitting next to her, talking at top speed, while Amara was silently listening and eating her food.

"Oh, hello Lennox!" he called cheerily. "How are you?"

"Owen...what are you doing here?" Lennox asked.

"Oh nothing, just chatting with my friend." Owen replied, grinning broadly. It made sense that he was so happy. It was rare for there to be anyone of the same age of him. Most people were between the age of 15-60 years.

Amara was chewing, and then she glanced up a little and saw Azusa standing shyly, hands clasped in front of her.

"Who's this?" Amara asked Owen.

"Oh, it's Azusa!" Owen said happily. "Come and sit, Azusa."

"Azusa?" Amara chewed thoughtfully, watching a very nervous Azusa sit cross-legged next to Owen.

"Yeah, she's 2 years younger than me and you. You could always see her around Jake. Because it seems that Jake reminded her of her dad." Owen blabbered.

Amara didn't seem to be following him. She seemed to be thinking something else.

"But...everyone calls her 'Azu', but you are saying her name is Azusa..." Amara looked like she was doing some serious thinking, but Owen burst out laughing.

Amara flinched at the sound of his laughing, and when he slapped her shoulder delightedly, she jumped so badly she did a back-roll away from him. Owen blinked cluelessly, hand frozen in mid-air.

"Hm?" Owen smiled, confused. "What are you doing?"

Amara had a rather defensive position, but she slowly calmed down. She cautiously came back and sat down in front of her bowl.

"'Azu' is a nickname for Azusa." Owen explained gently. "It's basically when you shorten or edit the name of someone you love or are close to. Well, I guess not necessarily." he added as an afterthought. "Like Day calls my sister 'Scarspecs' sometimes, but I don't think it's lovingly."

Amara thought for sometime. "Then, can you give me a nickname?"

"Hm..." Owen looked her up and down. "What do you think, Azusa?"

"Isn't Amara fine?" Azusa asked him.

Owen apparently didn't hear her. "What can I say... Ama...Ra...Mara? Or...oh!" He thought hard but then shrugged. "Oh well, I don't use nicknames anyway."

Amara looked a little disappointed, but didn't say anything.

Owen looked over at her, sighed and then said, "I guess a couple of years ago Day and some soldiers went to oppose a Raid – that means when there is a mass attack of the Inhumans – at a building not too far from here. When they went inside they found Azusa." Owen stopped abruptly, as if telling the rest of the story was not his duty. He gave Azusa a side-glance.

Azusa looked like she didn't want to, but she saw Amara's intrigued expression, and took a deep breath. "My dad was a military man. We used to live in an area which wasn't very well-known on populated. So when our town was completely Raided, Daddy and I escaped, and we heard about 'bases' from other stragglers. All of them died or Converted. My dad and I were the only ones left." Azusa's hands suddenly tightened, and her eyes filled a little. Nevertheless, she continued. "He made it his duty to protect me. He always told me that I should survive. That it is my job to live. And he was protecting me to the last second." Azusa picked up a utensil and started turning it over and over in her hands. "You know what they say at base?"

Amara shook her head.

"The weak die, the strong are Converted." Azusa's hands suddenly clenched, somewhat angrily. "My dad died. Those Inhumans, they aren't supposed to be able to think. But somehow they shot Daddy with his own gun. It's stupid. He died on the spot. And dead can't be Converted. My dad was not weak." Azusa shook from anger, and they left her to it for sometime.

"And then at that moment, Day found her and brought her here, where she met Jake. End of story." Owen concluded, clapping.

Amara had wide eyes. "I want to listen to more!" she said suddenly. "I want to know more!"

"There are plenty of people here with stories like that." Owen smiled lightly. "You can ask them sometimes. Oh, but be careful who you ask. Some people will talk about it, some will stay silent, and some will get mad. You'd want to avoid the last category."

"Then Owen, tell me your story!" Amara asked. She felt a need, a desire to know everything. She didn't know why, she just felt that she had to know.

Owen's smile faltered for a second, and then his face lit up again, but he wasn't looking at her. "Hi! Lennox! How long have you been there?"

Lennox had been watching for so long that he himself had forgotten that he was there. He snapped out of his daze and grinned. "Hello. Not long."

Wait...he already greeted me.

Amara could visibly sense that Owen had dodged her question. She wanted to know. Then she remembered something. She stood up and walked to Lennox, and tugged on his sleeve. Owen seemed to have sparked her interest in people.

She tugged his sleeve, and Lennox looked down at her. "Hm?"

"I was wondering, Alexis comes here very often. To train with Jake. She is almost always here when I am here, and stays even after I have left. She trains a lot. More than everybody else." Amara pressed her lips together. "Why? Why does she try so hard? Harder than everybody else?"

"Ah..." Lennox breathed, smiling lopsidedly, and Amara saw tiredness in it. "Let's say...Alexis has kind of...an inferiority complex?"

"Huh?"

"Alexis is weak." Lennox said bluntly. Then he waved the sentence away. "No, no, no, more like...she doesn't have the skills required to survive in this world? Kinda." Lennox was struggling with words. "Okay, Alexis isn't exactly weak, she's healthy. But she isn't very skilled in fighting. Or defense. Her body isn't natural to it. So she has convinced herself that she is weak. It's not that she is talentless, or has no good points. In this world, a natural Alexis is what you would call 'weak'. The Alexis now is more refined, though.

"But the fact that she is my right-hand woman wasn't very openly welcome. Many people thought she lacked the skill. And although people tried to accept it, there was still criticism. And I guess that hit her pretty hard. I guess she didn't like the criticism against me, and dedicated herself to becoming strong. But although she is improving, she isn't exactly good at it. Because honestly, she'd be more suited to be a pre-school teacher."

"Oh..." Amara's eyes were wide. Then she suddenly frowned. "If she was feeling bad, and you were facing criticism, why didn't you just change her? I mean, you could have chosen someone else, right? Like the big man."

"You mean Day?"

"Yes, him." Amara nodded.

"Ah, but Day already is a right-hand man." Lennox told her. "People approved of him just by looking at him. Actually, I think the first impression was the problem." Lennox said to himself in an undertone. "Yes, Alexis was just a skinny 15-year-old when we first came here. That must be it." He nodded to himself.

"Hey!" Amara tugged the hem of his shirt. "Why?"

"Oh, that's because..." Lennox thought for a bit. "I guess, because I've known her for a really long time? I mean, that's why I chose Day too, but... it's just that we have been together so long I didn't want to be separated? I don't know..." Lennox put up a smile and rubbed the back of his neck. "I guess I'm just no good without her."

"Oh..." Amara looked fascinated, but then her face went blank.

Lennox suddenly felt a high concentration of dark aura behind him.

"Hey, Lennox," Day said in a monotone voice, putting a hand on his shoulder. "Can you try not to make that sound like love?"

"Lennox is the worst." Nita added, in an equally monotonous voice.

Lennox jumped away from them in fright. "Where did you guys come from?!" he yelled.

"My mother's womb." Nita replied, still deadpan.

"Doesn't matter." Day said.

"A-at any rate, I came to talk to Jake." Lennox said nervously. "I'll see you guys later." With that, he strode off to Jake, who had long since left his side to continue training his pupils. Day and Nita stared at him leave, then Nita spoke up.

"Hey, don't you think you should stop? It's really insensitive." she said plainly.

Day glanced at her, but gave no real reaction. "It's better than being depressed." he said, to which Nita pressed her lips together unsurely.

Amara wasn't following this conversation.

Meanwhile, Lennox had approached Jake, and called out to him. "Yo. How's it been?"

Jake looked at him, and said, "With Amara, you mean?"

"Who else?"

Jake nodded, and sat down on the floor, patting the space beside him. Lennox accepted the invitation and sat with his knees up beside him.

"I don't think she's going to be a skilled fighter any time soon." Jake said plainly. "She mostly fights on random, triggered bursts of energy. But to get that wild energy, she needs a trigger. But if you actually come to the fighting style, there's no form whatsoever. It's more like a person with PTSD, if you get it."

Lennox nodded. "Is it PTSD?"

"What can I say?" Jake sighed, stretching his legs. "We don't know anything about her. What's amazing is how normal she can be now. But it's clear that she has gone through some trauma. Well, haven't we all by now?" Jake gave off a dark feel, but then shook his head. "At any rate, have you ever seen the look in her eyes?"

"Her eyes? Kinda... Like they're a 1,000 years old or something." Lennox mused.

"No, that look that tells you...that she has seen things we couldn't even imagine, and that she's been through things we couldn't even dream about." Jake had a distant look in his eye, as if he was thinking hard of what such a thing could be. In the end, he let out a frustrated "Argh!" and messed up his hair. "None of it makes sense, does it? In this world, in this case, how can something like that even happen to her? Why would it happen to her? What is she? Is she dangerous? What is she?"

He finally exhaled heavily. Then he tried to smile a little. "At any rate, you should try to find out about her as much as you can. I just feel...like it's really important. Lennox, definitely find out more about her."

Lennox stared at a fixed point on the ground. A thousand thoughts were running through his head, but Jake continued to stare at him expectantly for a reply. At last, Lennox opened his mouth to say something, but–

A loud, harsh and ear-piercing alarm started sounding throughout the building. Instinctively most people shoved their fingers into their ears, but they all had the same terror-filled expression on their face.

Lennox and Jake instantly leapt to their feet, and before he knew it, Lennox found Alexis at his side. She was panting and sweating buckets. She clearly ran from a rather far place.

"Eric...from the watch tower... tipped me off...a while ago!" she let out, before bending over to try and catch her breath.

"Oh, for Christ's sake." Jake snapped, and he turned to the various people who had stopped their training, organising them.

"Raid! It's a Raid!" a girl was calling out across the grounds. "Raid!"

Amara's senses were working too slowly to process whatever was going on around her. Her eyes just flitted from here to there, fearful. Unconsciously, she reached up with both hands, and one closed over Owen's sleeve, and the other over Lennox's. The former didn't even notice, whereas the latter looked down in surprise.

Seeing the look on her face, he gave her a reassuring smile. "Don't worry, Amara." he told her, reaching down and holding her hand comfortingly. "You're going to see what life really is like during these times."