My little observation period actually seemed to fly by. Mostly I just sleep, but I also messed around with my powers a load. My favourite trick was to alter Skull's emotions to loving or ecstatic or something like that. It was always great to see what he did. Sprocket agreed not to tell them about my ability to change emotions since it's not her place to tell them absolutely everything about me, but I'm not allowed to manipulate anyone with any negative emotions or do anything stupid about it.

She's deemed my Skull antics as not too bad since everyone seems to find it enjoyable enough (except for Skull himself, but I've learned that he never likes anything), so I'm off the hook.

The only time I've applied any less than positive emotion on anyone is when I could hear Hex and Skull arguing. I couldn't take their noise or distractingly increasing anger anymore, so I just made them both feel guilty. They apologised on the spot, then I made sure they were both happy again. Everything was sorted and Sprocket even came up afterwards to thank me for it. I'm not the only one who wanted them to shut up.

I also continued to absorb excess aura from what ever I could, though I never went beyond excess. Nope, that's for emergencies or killing trees and stuff only. Otherwise I'm too scared to do it. I use this extra stuff to grow stronger, meaning my 'recovery' was much faster than Sprocket expected it to be.

Thanks to this, I was allowed to start using the training equipment that we agreed I would be fit to use; training dummies and targets. Not much, but still useful and much better than being stuck in that room all day. I have to have at least one person with me at all times still to make sure that I don't die or whatever, but it's still training, so I couldn't care less.

Well, except for the fact that they won't let me train.

"Okay, so this is how you set up targets."

"Let me show you how to really blast these dummies!"

"You've never even used a training dummy, have you? I'll show you the basics."

I've spent this whole time where I'm allowed to train just sitting there waiting for them to shut up. By the time they finished, I'm getting forced back indoors again because they think that since I'm not training, I've grown too tired.

From what?! I've just sat there! What could I possibly have done that would make me so tired?! Well, except listening to these guys.

So I'm not getting my training time in exchange for listening to these guys tell me how to use stuff I already know how to use. They're not even going past basics and they dumb down every single word for me. It's ridiculous.

I've taken to sneaking out at night. I'm not stupid enough to use the holograms or obstacle course despite wanting to, but those weren't part of the agreement and frankly if something bad happens there's nobody around to stop everything. Plus the noise would definitely wake someone up.

So I train in the usual, familiar, peace and quiet. It feels good to finally work off some energy for once. I think I took just a little too much excess and now it's making me restless.

But all good things must come to an end.

"Why is this tree covered in scorch marks?" I hear Wind-Up asking from outside. I'm in bed as usual. Boring, but I don't exactly have a choice. I keep quiet, not bothering to comment despite knowing the answer.

It was me last night. But they didn't need to know that.

"I don't know," Hex says in confusion. "That's not like any scorch marks I recognise. They look like they dragged up the tree."

"It's over here, too! And look at those claw marks!"

"Was there a fight right outside our house?"

"I don't know, it looks like whoever was here had quite the struggle."

"Must've been like Eon going against a cadet; very one-sided."

"Yeah. But how didn't we hear it?"

"Because Hex and Skull are always too busy arguing?"

"Keep blaming us and you'll be next."

"Skull!"

"I'm not apologising!"

"Guys, we need to find out what did this. What if it happens again? Or someone got badly hurt?"

"It was probably just some wild animal."

"A wild animal that shoots fire lasers?!"

"What about Vexelle? Maybe she's done something?"

"No, she can't blast stuff like that. She would've done it already or at least said something. Besides, she wouldn't be able to pull this off, she's really inexperienced with fights and stuff. She's new to everything about fighting."

Um... say what now?

"Hm... good point. Should we tell Master Eon?"

"What exactly would we tell him?"

"I say we just leave it for now. If it happens again, then we get involved. It might just be a one-off."

"I guess so. But I feel bad for whoever got hurt."

"Let's just hope the fight went well for the right side."

They all then disbanded and I fell asleep after that.

~•~

"Where is she?" the girl asked, but, noticing the pale face of the boy, grew worried. "Is she alright?"

"Her cave was collapsed in," he said, sounding distraught. "Looks like a forest fire brought down some of the cave, then something hit the top and took down the roof. I tried to find her. I didn't even see a body, so she might've got burnt up in the fire, but she also might've escaped."

"Well, I'm sure she's safe," the girl stated, but she sounded more confident than she felt. "She couldn't be gone," she added in a quieter tone.

The boy walked over to the girl and hugged her. "Don't worry, F," he tried to console her. "She's strong. We both know that. She'd kill us if we didn't." 'F' let out a tiny giggle at that, knowing it was true.

"She's safe, I'm sure. What happened is that she got away and isn't coming over right this second because she's busy catching up on her training or finding a new place to stay or whatever. You know her." 'F' nodded at that.

"It's true. Lilac would never go down without a fight."