"Why do I even put up with it all?" Dina thought to herself. She was sitting in the command center, watching Chiro and Sparks play their favorite fighting game. Nova was giving out cheers and encouragement, as well as a threat every time Sparks asked for a kiss when he won a round. Otto was constantly wanting a turn but also giving constructive comments, and Antauri was sitting in his pod-chair, looking over every once and a while and sighing, then going back to peace. Flori was watching them both play with much admiration, and Jacey sat quietly by Antauri, playing a game of cards with herself. Of course Dina wasn't talking about all going on around her, she questioned what was going on within her. She walked to the tubes and a different area of the robot. "Why? Why me? Why is it I who is cursed with such antagonizing pain? Where does it even come from? Why can't I get rid of it? Why do I even put up with living in such pain? Dying would be so much easier." As she was in her mental debate, she walked into the training room, setting the pillars to the highest level. She needed to blow off some steam. She was too angry at the world to care about the fact that someone needed to be monitoring the controls.
She grunted, sweat pouring from her face. She'd been at this for nearly an hour now, having a few bruises and cuts, but nothing too major. Her mind was a-blaze. "I can't do this anymore. Why does it always hurt? Inside me, why can't it leave me alone?" She could feel hot tears beginning to rise. "I want only to be happy. Why won't it let me be happy?" She was attacking the pillars with all her might, pushing her limits to the en-th degree.
"You aren't meant to be happy."
The voice sounded like her own, though cruel, deep and un-caring. Dina stopped attacking and shivered, looking up at the pillars, her muscles no longer being able to move. It was as if she were a puppet, and the strings had been cut. "W-Who are you?" Dina was so entranced she didn't even notice she spoke out loud.
"I am what you are meant to be." Dina's knees suddenly went weak, collapsing on her knees to the ground. "I am your commander, your fire. I am the superior being, while you are simply a waste of space: A weakling under a paper-thin covering of brave stupidity. It won't be too long now, you cannot hold your own sanity, and I will break through." The room around Dina suddenly burst into red-hot flames, skeletons rising form the flames, crumbling, falling weakly before her as they struggled to get away from the flames. They were melting, seeming to scream in agony as they all reached out to Dina in a kind of circle, begging for help, and relief from the flames. Dina smiled a small, nervous smile. Her eyes became small with pure fear; terror. This couldn't be real. There was no way. This was insane. "If you will not submit, then I'll take you to hell myself! Why don't you just die!"
"No…" Dina's voice was almost a whisper. Just as quickly as the room burst into flames, the flames and skeletons disappeared, the room seeming back to normal.
Then pain. Before Dina could register, a claw-like attachment had stabbed her hard in the lower chest, pushing her body into the wall. She crumbled against the wall and grimaced in pain, feeling a hot wetness as blood began seeping from eth open wound. There was a lot of it too. Dina grabbed her lower chest, her muscles suddenly coming back to her. She reached her hand up and her pupils became small again, her entire body trembling. Her blood was not a deep, crimson red, but black. She looked down to the wound, seeing black blood pouring from her wound. In a most uncharacteristic manner, her mouth opened wide, a deafening scream of terror coming from her as she suddenly blacked out.
She awoke to a bright light, so bright and blinding, she was sure she was dead. "Is this heaven or hell?" She mumbled to herself, wincing and grabbing her chest in pain. "Must be hell." She thought.
"Thankfully neither." Came a very familiar voice, one with a British accent. Dina turned her head to the voice, only to see Gibson with his back turned towards her. He turned around and frowned. "Don't pull the bandages." He said in a scolding tone. Dina hadn't realized she'd been bandaged up. She felt wetness on her hands and lifted it up to find a deep-red liquid on her hands.
"Blood…" She mumbled. Gibson huffed and applied new bandages.
"Yes blood. What did you expect when you train alone?" He was starting to go off into a scolding rant of sorts, disciplining her about her behavior. She listened to him talk, but didn't pay attention to the words. She smiled. Just listening to him speak was like heaven on Shuggazoom. He was soothing and so delicate with his hands as he wrapped her. It was only for a moment that he smiled back at her, making her smile a bit wider.
"Oh yeah" She thought. "That's why."