50

Yang had her half guard up and was attempting to fend of the hard punches from the old man, but her skin was starting to go numb from the painful impacts, and the illusion of her iron defence was lessened by the fact her posture was crumbling with each attack. And suddenly, completely taking Yang by surprise, Vegeta abandoned her arm and went straight for her face. This impact was so all-encompassing that it made Yang's ears ring. Her legs finally buckled and collapsed beneath her and the huntress fell.

Yang felt like her nose was hanging off by a thread and saw blood on her fingers when she drew them away from her nostrils. Her aura was gone already. Getting up quickly, Yang looked up to see Vegeta standing in the distance. She was hardly surprised that he had moved so far in such a small space of time but couldn't help jumping out of her skin when the old guy appeared within inches of her, his fist pelting through the hot, dense air like a charging bull. This impact was also enough to knock Yang back to the ground...or was it an impact? She had felt the shock and aches of the hard floor against her back, but no pain from her face. For a second time, she opened her eyes and looked up. Vegeta was still there, looming over her like a lion over prey. His fist was still raised in the air and he looked disgusted at the sight before him. His nostrils were flaring and the vein in his temple was back.

"Now do you see!?" He barked, with a cruel little chuckle. "You can't just let your enemy knock you down, you must be the one who stands, not them!"

Yang bit her tongue and didn't answer. It would be worse if she did. As usual, he sounded like an asshole. All day he would yell and make remarks about Yang's strength and how to improve her. If she didn't know better, Yang would have thought that she was being 'trained' more like a dog than a person. But it wasn't just him that was grinding on her nerves, this place was starting to get to Yang. The flat nothing could go from frigid cold to merciless heat in mere moments, and Vegeta did not let yang keep a safe distance. Their training sessions were horrifically long and demanding, the Saiyan mostly just using her as a punching bag, and expecting her to get better, and the gravity made things worse.

"Get up."

Vegeta had withdrawn his fist and folded his arms. He had an arrested look, as though the sight of Yang on the floor was shameful. IT took some doing, but Yang managed to scrape her bones off the white material. Vegeta's eyes scanned Yang's form, presumably choosing where to hit next.

"Again."

"Can't we just stop for a sec, I need a break?!" Yang blurted out, her speech cut with desperate panting. Vegeta looked straight into Yang's eyes and his expression did not change. She had not meant to say that but knew that it was true. Her body was unprotected, and if this continued, this crazy old man might inflict permanent damage. The blood from her nose wasn't stopping and it felt like at least three of her ribs were broken already. Vegeta closed his eyes and frowned for a moment. Yang didn't really know what to do, they had been at this for hours and she really had expected another lecture about her weakness. When Vegeta opened his eyes however, they were joined by an evil smile.

"Fine, I'll make you a deal. Hit me and you can have five minutes." Yang sighed, how many times had they been through this?

"You can't be serious! I'm beat, there's no way I can keep up with you!"

Vegeta's smile lessened, to be replaced with a smug and slightly challenging smirk. The look made Yang's blood boil, and her only remaining fist clench. With deliberate laziness, Vegeta put up his guard.

"If you can manage to land a hit on my face, you get your precious break. You might..."

Vegeta went on to say something else, but Yang wasn't listening. She was experiencing rage unlike she had felt in a long time. An old man was lording his strength over her. She had won the Vytal tournament? Crippled a guy? She was not weak, and yet this guy had the nerve to imply that she was powerless. But the pain in her ribs and nose reminded her of reality, and the reality was that Vegeta was strong, impossibly strong, probably a lot stronger than he was letting on too. Yang clenched her teeth while looking into those black eyes and decided that she didn't care about strength, or about aura, she was pissed off and tired, and if pounding this old timer was what it took, then so be it.

Without any warning, before the Saiyan had even stopped talking, Yang put all her weight on her right foot and launched a furious left hook straight at that smug face. Her hand was within another a split second later. Vegeta had caught the punch effortlessly and threw it away with lazy disinterest. He did the same with the knee that came within inches of his right cheek, and pushing this away caused Yang to stumble, but not fall.

"Well done, you managed to stand on your own two feet" mocked Vegeta, and Yang started feeling those familiar prickles in her neck that told her that her semblance was starting to kick in. But that was impossible, she was out of aura, she couldn't use her semblance. Looking back at Vegeta, she noticed that he had taken a step backwards after the attempted kick. This meant that the impact had not been fruitless. If she could wrong foot him...knock him off balance...

Without pausing to think any further, yang charged forward with a series of hard punches, each aiming for a different part of Vegeta's body. Like clockwork, he deflected them all. Yang felt a pang of rage when a particularly hard knock from the Saiyan's knee collided with her fist, but she did not stop. When she could manage it, Yang would glance up at Vegeta's face. he was starting to look excited, far more enthusiastic than he had been the last time he had tried this on Yang.

His blocks were becoming showier and elaborate, he was getting cocky. One particularly vibrant deflection left his stomach completely exposed. With a sudden spark of inspiration, Yang thrust her arm out to attack that area. Noticing his mistake, Vegeta moved both of his hands down to that area, intending to catch Yang's fist and writs at the same time. But now when contact should have been made, Yang stopped her punch in mid thrust, allowed her semblance to boil over, and threw her head with all the force she could muster right into Vegeta's widening eyes.

As she felt the skull cracking contact with that unusually hard head, what should have been elation was replaced with disappointing, sickening pain, followed by a horrible twisting weightless feeling before hitting the ground. Opening her streaming eyes, Yang saw that she was on her back once again. Looking up at Vegeta, she could see through the film of watery pain that his fist as raised once again at the stomach level, his eyes looking straight ahead, his face contorted with rage. A red depression in his cheek provided evidence that Yang's trump card had worked.

"W-why...why did you...?" Yang coughed and spluttered on her own words, she felt like she had just been in a car accident, her mind was hazy and starting to go blank. The last thing she saw before she faded into half sleep was Vegeta, looking slightly disappointed.

"So, your power does have a limit. Alright fine. Have your stupid break!"

100

The next few months were excruciating for Yang. Her training had been kicked up a notch when Vegeta had learned how her semblance worked. He now insisted that they trained more often, from early in the morning to late at night. Eager as she was for these sessions to end, Yang was grateful for the large clock that sat in the shrine, which was the only indication of day and night inside the chamber. She was really beginning to feel the sting of being an amputee, and Vegeta did not relent to account for this at all. It was difficult to fight when one side of her was completely unguarded. Vegeta noticed this too, as he often went for that side of Yang, forcing her to find some new instinctive way of defending herself presumably. Yang was also being subject to Vegeta's curiosity with her semblance, and that involved additional punishment of both her body and mind. Finding out that Yang had to be damaged and angry to Vegeta, seemed to be a gift beyond his wildest dreams, and he clearly had fun jeering at Yang while he fought her.

Yang wasn't disappointed either, as if by flicking a switch in her mind, she was beginning to bring out her semblance after fewer hits. This was not a direct improvement of it, so Yang didn't see why it was being trained, surely it was her physical body that needed training? She thought this while her forearm was locked with Vegeta's on the thirteenth day, just before he pushed her back. He then dashed forward with another strike aimed at Yang's unprotected side. But by now, she had a method of turning such a weakness to her advantage, a s the punch aimed at a side with mostly nothing put the Saiyan off balance and left him vulnerable on the opposite side if his torso. Like some martial arts prophecy, Yang's fist found its mark in Vegeta's stomach, and now that she was prepared for it, Yang managed to weather the subsequent hay-maker that had knocked her out the last few attempts. She still got the breath knocked out of her and fell hard to the floor but staying conscious was certainly a step. Even Vegeta seemed to be impressed, if allowing Yang, a moment to get up was any indication.

She got up quickly and got back on guard, expecting more, but found Vegeta staring into space again. When he said and did nothing for almost a minute, Yang started to fear that he was going senile. she cleared her throat, and this drew the Saiyan's attention.

"Hey, are we fighting or what?" Yang said, surprised at her own impatience. Vegeta looked hard at her for a moment, and then his face broke into the first genuine smile that Yang had seen since they had entered the time chamber together. Yang felt taken aback at the sudden warm expression. "Uh...or are we done?"

"Yes...I think so."

"Uh...what?"

Vegeta folded his arms and continued to smile at the huntress' perplexed expression. With slight hesitation, Yang lowered her arm and straightened up slightly.

"I decided some time ago that your training would be lesser due to your human limitations. But the chamber has strengthened that weak body, and your energy has increased as well."

Yang thought back to the many times that Vegeta had hit her and how the shock wrecked her body. "I guess it has...but I don't think I'm ready to deal with what's difficult for you?" Vegeta laughed at this, and some of the spite from the training session slipped back into his mannerisms.

"Of course not!" he said. "Not as you are. But if you had Saiyan biology..."A short silence followed these words and the two warriors looked at each other, one face wrapped and committed, the other creased and uncertain.

The silence stretched on for a bit too long as Yang looked at Vegeta's arms and almost child-like sense of enthusiasm, in a state of utter incomprehension. She looked from the wide smile to her own single hand and could not begin to see what the old fart was on about.

"But I'm not a Saiyan! I can't take the kind of punishment you can. I have human biology!"

Yang had expected this statement to wipe the grin from Vegeta's face, but it only broadened in the face of such a problem.

"That little magic you do when you get hurt is Saiyan biology. Saiyan's take pain and convert it into strength, as you do."

Suddenly it clicked, and Yang knew what Vegeta was talking about. If her semblance multiplied her strength by the amount of damage she took, then remaining in that state longer would make her stronger. But she could still see flaws in this plan.

"But my time with the power wasn't the problem last time. I lost my arm because my aura wasn't strong enough."

Yang thought this was a good point, but Vegeta brushed the thought aside impatiently. Whatever he had planned, he was clearly eager to get started. Without warning he was behind Yang, and a brick hard knee struck her lower back. By now her muscles could take punishment, but that only helped Yang remain on her feet, she still slid forward a few inches and felt a horrid stab of pain. At the same time, Yang felt that familiar warmth in her neck, and that tingling in her head that set her teeth on edge. In an instant she was turned around and swinging at Vegeta, and her fist was caught effortlessly. She was not however, thrown away to await a counter attack. Vegeta was holding her fist tight and looking intently at the huntress.

"Hold it."

"What?!"

"Hold it!"

The Saiyan's meaning was taken by Yang just as the power of her semblance left her, with an audible snap due to the lack of physical punishment. Seeing that Yang had regressed, Vegeta pushed her away and allowed her to fall to the chamber floor. That look of analysis was still stretching the wrinkled features.

"As I thought. You can't hold that form for long, and using it now wastes too much energy. What we need to do is work out your semblance so that it feels natural for you to remain in your powered-up state."

The red still fading from her eyes, Yang began to get back to her feet. Through the wave of rage, she had heard him, and she was having a moment of clarity. This was the answer, to become one with her semblance. By staying in that state all the time, her body would become accustomed to the heightened sense of power and speed. It would also pretty much make the amount of strength that she could receive from her semblance infinite. That kind of power would make her a force to be reckoned with, but it would take serious work, a lot of pressure on her muscles and semblance, the kind of training that would require...a lot of...physical damage...

Yang's eyes widened with fear as they rose to meet the black ones glittering with malicious excitement. Vegeta was on guard again, and the smile was now wide and predatory with anticipation.

"I think we're finally done with the human stuff...welcome to Vegeta's Saiyan boot camp!"

150

"Focus, here it comes!"

Yang had only a second to react to the beam of light that shot from Vegeta's hand, not golden this time, but bright red. It travelled in a great circle around the pair of them, before it shot directly at Yang.

She stretched out her hand, exactly the way she had been shown, and braced herself. She remembered to clear her mind, and to make peace with the pain that was about to come. She opened her eyes with a moment so spare before impact. The red orb was upon her when Yang swung her arm diagonally upwards, connecting with the energy and smacking it.

It was not as clean as Yang had intended. The energy was not so easy to manipulate, it hung in the air for a few ling moments, pushing hard to get at Yang, but she held fact and mustered enough strength to force the energy to fly past her, although grazing her cheek with its departure. There was a small noise behind Yang in the distance and a shock wave that told her that the energy had hit the ground some way off in the distance. The huntress gave a great exhale and looked at her hand. She flinched at what she saw. The skin was burned and shiny, partially protected by her aura, but not to any significant avail.

"That was…not awful." Vegeta had appeared as if out of thin air in front of Yang. It made her jump, she had asked him to stop doing that, so naturally he had started doing it every time they trained at least once. "You channelled your energy to your hand to rival the energy wave that I sent. The problem arose from the fact that you couldn't divert everything because if you didn't, you would have been blown away by the attack. Correct?"

Yang nodded, still wincing as her hand began to heal itself. IT was happening a lot faster than she could remember it being able to and within a few short seconds, she was flexing a set of revived fingers. Yang placed her healed hand in the same position and anticipated Vegeta's next attack. He smiled sadistically.

"You're starting to understand. Very well, again!"

199

Yang Xiao Long was bleeding. crouched behind the lookout, the huntress was clutching her shoulder, covering a spurting open wound. She gritted her teeth as she pressed her fingers harder to the red dyed patch of skin. Her aura would kick in after a few seconds of concentration, but Yang wondered if she even had that long. Her training had taken a turn for the worst over the last few months, and she now had the scars to prove it. The mark over her eye had been deepened several times, but Yang thought that wound was possessively adorable compared to what she was dealing with now. Vegeta's attitude seemed to have become less about training Yang and more about killing her. There were times when Yang started to doubt the old man's sanity when he was putting what looked like everything he had into trying to end Yang's life, only to invite her in for dinner about seven hours later. Their training had become semi non-stop. Vegeta would attack Yang for what seemed to be midnight to midnight.

Because of this, Yang had taken, not entirely voluntarily, to living like Vegeta, because this allowed her to take advantage of all the times that he took breaks. Granted the old Saiyan loved to work out, and rarely stopped to eat or sleep, Yang was always revealed to see the old man in rags or increasing shabbiness, walking slowly up those stone steps to eat or sleep.

Yang hated this training, but understood it, as Vegeta explained how Saiyan strength is linked to survival instinct and reacting to life or death situations. to this end, Vegeta had been treating their training sessions together as actual fights, and regarding Yang as a deadly threat. He was usually very convincing, knocking her down, throwing her across the plain, making very choice comments about Yang's mother (He of course being unaware that Yang thought her 'real' mother was a dead beat and a grade A bitch). The moments however, when he could have inflicted deadly damage on yang, she found that he was always a bit too slow or missed by a fraction of an inch to 'make a point'. He was clearly holding back some of his power to avoid killing Yang, which she found confusing since she was using a serious wound made by Vegeta.

She had been practising evasive action, something that she thought she needed to get the hang of along with the rest of her team, but Vegeta jumped the gun and tried to activate Yang's semblance again, even though she had made very little progress in making her powered up state feel natural. At best, she had extended the duration that she could remain in that form. But this was just an extension of the time she could use her current level of strength, as a furious Vegeta had explained over dinner one night. She had been avoiding Vegeta's strikes well enough, leading to her throwing herself over the top of the lookout and stopping in mid-air. Vegeta had taught Yang how to fly a few days after starting their real training, and she was finding the unidirectional travel extremely useful for out manoeuvring Vegeta. But as she had been surveying the Saiyan from above, a bright light flared up from the old man's right hand and a second later, Yang felt a fierce burning pain on the top of her right shoulder. The shock of the pain had knocked the blonde out of the air and onto the other side of the castle. She was hoping that she would have enough time to heal herself before Vegeta came swinging again and breathed a little easier when she heard no sound of foot falls from the other side of the house, and as the stinging pain beneath her hand began to weaken, she knew her aura was healing her.

Yang's shoulder was back to normal after a few moments' concentration, and she managed to shuffle into a crouching position, listening for any noises that would give away Vegeta's position. She listened for what felt like several minutes but heard nothing. She felt sceptical about the idea that Vegeta was gone or not fighting anymore, even though she badly wanted this session to end. Slowly, tentatively so as not to draw attention to herself, Yang moved around the side of the castle and edged along to the corner of the opposite side, then peered around it. She almost ducked back immediately, a s she spotted the Saiyan at once. She was standing in the same place that he had been when Yang had been hit by that weird light fire thing. He was doing that thing again, standing hunch backed and breathing heavily. What was different this time was that Vegeta stood facing Yang, and she could see what he was holding in his hand. The old Saiyan was standing with his hand clutching his chest, which was rising and falling as if powered by a piston.

Deflated, but no less suspicious, Yang moved slowly out from her hiding place and began to approach the old man. While the huntress moved with a purpose towards her target, she kept her guard half up, in case Vegeta abandoned his facade and charged her. She felt slightly bad for this though, because Vegeta fell to his knees once Yang was close enough to see the beads of sweat on his forehead.

"Hey!" Yang shouted as she ran over to the injured Saiyan and knelt beside him. He looked semi-conscious, his eyelids were drooping and the hand Vegeta had pressed to his heart was beginning to relax. He was having a heart attack. Yang began to Panic, she had never taken any classes about first aid and didn't know the first thing about stopping a heart attack. The only medical care she had ever seen was in movies and on TV, Yang had no experience doing it herself. She fumbled, one-handed at the Saiyan's wrist, attempting to check his pulse, but couldn't distinguish between the pale Saiyan's pulse and her own pounding heart.

Thinking's fast, Yang pushed Vegeta's hand out of the way, and began pressing down hard on the old man's chest, trying to get the heart going again. She didn't know if this was right, but she couldn't think of anything else. She could go and get Buu, but Vegeta might die before he could get here. But he looked half dead anyway, if there was any chance...

Just as Yang was considering making a dash for the time chamber door, she felt a sudden warmth in her fingers. Her hand, that had been as white as Vegeta's face mere moments before, had begun to emanate a golden light. exactly the shape of the hand that Yang knew so well by now, the strange light shuddered when looked upon, and began to writhe like fire. Yang felt something strange as she watched the strange fire, a sense of comfort, a sense... of self. It was as if her own aura was concentrated so intensely on that one spot that it was beginning to shine through her own skin. As Yang focused even harder on maintaining the concentrated aura, she felt its influence extend, as if the fire from her hand was seeping into the Saiyan's chest, reaching where Yang's hand alone could not. The huntress could feel her recovered aura, which had so easily healed her own wound, begin to wend its way into the now still chambers of Vegeta's heart.

Yang didn't know how she could feel it, but when her own Aura touched Vegeta's heart, it began to vanish inside him. The energy that was escaping her was being absorbed by Vegeta's system. Yang didn't know why she was doing it, or what it would achieve, but she also knew that if anything was going to heal her mentor, it was aura. But as this thought skipped through her mind like a battle instinct, keeping the aura alight on her hand started to become difficult. Yang had not been brimming with power even before now and she was running on empty. The light that had been so steady at first was beginning to sputter and fade.

Yang stared at it, as if to intimidate her own weakness and focused more intensely than she had ever done in her life on maintaining that light. The light flickered to a slightly larger size but began to shrink inn earnest after a mere moment. Yang started to panic again. She was going to fail, Vegeta was going to die and it would be her fault for being too weak to save him...just like she had been too weak to save Blake from-

"LIVE!"

yang had not willed the words to come, she had not meant to say anything. She was not thinking anymore, she had no other machination other than the still heart growing cold in that old man's chest. At her words, she had felt her soul flare, and the fire in her hand began to burn her hand.

"LIVE! YOU! UGLY! OLD! BASTARD!"

Yang screamed with all the voice she could muster, as she began to force her hand back down again, in a final attempt at CPR. With each press, Vegeta's entire body jolted as if being shocked with electricity, yet he did not move independently. Yang screwed her face up tight, tears in her eyes and fire in her chest, the huntress forced that fire right down into Vegeta's body, and this time, it did not fade. The flame became steady and circular upon Vegeta's chest and turned from yellow to blinding gold. With one final ground trembling jolt, the golden energy spread to every inch of the prone Saiyan's body, and finally, vanished from sight.

Yang crumpled, her aura expert, and her breath coming in slow gasps, she collapsed onto the body of her mentor. She knew it had not worked, that she had failed at a time where she had not had a choice to fail. Her mind and body were so full of despair and disappointment, her breathing so heavy and punctuated with sobs, that the huntress was unable to distinguish the pounding of her own heavy heart...with the steady pumping of arterial blood from within the old man's chest.

A gentle but firm hand pressed against Yang side, forcing her off the Saiyan. She was so exhausted that she thought this was just her own body failing again. It was only when she heard the clock strike twelve, and that gruff, intense, and oh so familiar voice, that Yang stopped breathing.

"...Who...Whose face...did you say was ugly?"

200

"I feel fine!"

"I don't care."

"It was nothing, I can handle-"

"Not. Interested."

The loud voices reverberated throughout the white void, as sound does in the time chamber, like many people were speaking at once. The sight and sound of a young woman half carrying, half dragging a protesting old man was odd enough that, if the chamber had eyes, the dimension itself might frown in confusion. The cries of anger and indignation were not unheard by the woman, but they fell on ears deaf to all but what she had decided upon.

Vegeta was walking slowly, still hunched, with one arm trapped by another, the other bawled into a defiant foist. The arm dragging him was taught from resistance, by no less firm in its mission to not release the Saiyan's arm. Yang was walking ahead of Vegeta, her strides long and fast, her own back arched a little, not from pain or fatigue, but a kind of silent furious curiosity. A determination to without fail, achieve a certain goal.

"I don't need your help girl!" Vegeta raged. They had both reached the temple, and the Saiyan had finally gotten his hand free. Yang scoffed and sat down on the stone top step. The look in her eyes could not be mistaken. Vegeta knew what that piercing, needle eyed look meant. It was a look he had so often enjoyed from his late wife Bulma. She had been a human, but had exhibited Saiyan womanly traits much like Yang, it was partly the reason that he had…

"Sit." Yang commanded, with such finality that Vegeta's face went red. He did not take orders from children!

"Mind your tone girl, I had you on the ropes before I-"

"SIT DOWN!"

…

Vegeta blinked and looked down in disbelief. He had sat down at a human's request. A fiery dragon had forced him down onto the step below Yang. In the briefest of moments, Vegeta had felt the girl's energy spike, and something of the power he had once sensed from another sparked around her. That wall of golden energy that Nappa had used when they had conquered planets together. The girl had not moved, but the sudden force if the energy had been so immense, Vegeta had been shocked into a sitting position. Perhaps he was weakened by his heart, but still…for a human to humble a Saiyan…

"Tell me how long this has been a thing." Said Yang, her voice now significantly calmer and gentler, pointing at the old man's chest. Vegeta averted his eyes and did not reply. Some of the red still lingered in Yang's eyes as she spoke again.

"I'm not going to hit a guy with a heart condition." She said bluntly, and she got up and began to walk towards the door that led to the normal world.

"…Wait."

The voice was so small and inflected with such contempt that in any other space, it would have gone unheard. But in the chamber, all noises were amplified, and so Yang herd Vegeta's words and stopped walking. She turned to see him looking up, a defeated and slacken expression on his face. In the pits of Yang's anger with Vegeta, she felt a pang of guilt for threatening to leave, after promising to stay. She also wondered what he would do if his heart went again a and she was not there to prevent it. She wanted to smack him about a little for hurting her earlier, slap him for not telling her about this…but kill him? Or allow him to die through omission? No huntress could allow that. Instead, she walked back towards Vegeta, and sat cross-legged in front of him, waiting for him to continue.

"You remember…when we first met?" Vegeta muttered, still not looking into Yang's eyes. He saw her nod in his peripheral vision though. He sighed. "Well I was in that position…because of…" He pointed to his chest. "It happened as I was watching that army approaching my home. I had been…short with Kakarot and didn't feel that I could really face him by going back to help…" Vegeta paused for a second and slowly raised his gaze to the huntresses. Her eyes had now become normal again, and they were inflected with a sense of pity that made Vegeta's temper rise.

"And the shouts and the smoke just…set it off, I couldn't stop it! I felt a tingling in my arm and a pain through my heart, as though I had been run through with a spear. It was all I could do to stay airborne. Until that…woman…" Vegeta's voice quivered at the word and it was inflected with all the venom of a king saying the name of a peasant. "She came up behind me, stabbed me with something and took all my energy. I would have sensed her, I could have prevented it if not for! -"

"-SO." Said Yang, interrupting again. "You fell after that flying bitch stole your energy, and then me and Weiss found you. Why didn't you just tell us what happened then? I wouldn't have agreed to come in here with you if I had known you'd be at risk of dying in your sleep!"

Vegeta looked away again. He could not help himself, it was so humiliating getting scolded by a human that he could crush so easily. It would be so very easy to crush her, kill her and leave her to die in here. She would put up a small struggle, but nothing too bad, and her energy would be refreshing, a nice youthful- Vegeta came back to reality with a jolt and shook his head violently.

"We're done for today." Said Vegeta, standing up and walking towards the bedroom. "Eat, bathe, sleep, continue training, I don't really care."

Yang would have called out for him to stay, but she had gotten the information that she needed, and she had intended to tell Vegeta to rest after they were done talking anyway. Knowing him, she was grateful for how cooperative he had been about this whole thing. She laid her head back on the stone and gazed up into the void of the chamber. She felt exhausted, but more mentally than physically. Her tempo-master had turned out to be a man with a heart condition. Such a normal thing for an extraordinary old man to have to worry he hadn't been worrying, he had been exerting himself for her benefit. Well it would have to stop now. Yang knew that she would have to fight him on it, but her training would have to be solo from bow on. She had grown considerably stronger under Vegeta's guidance, so much so that she might be able to brave the chamber by herself from now to the end of their stay.

Yang forced her legs up over her head and pushed off the ground into a one-armed hand stand. She then began to slowly mover her own body up and down, training her arm. Doing this without flying had been hard before, especially with the increased gravity, but now it was getting almost too easy.

300

Formless shapes, black movement on black, as if the very echoes of sight behind the closed eyes had minds of their own. But while the eyes could not see unless given means by the brain, the ears had quite an independent reign of their own. Vegeta could not prevent his own perception of life above him, though his eyes were shut. He knew he must have been unconscious for a time, because he was lying inside. Not in a patch of ice, but on a warm, soft compress. Vegeta did not know how this could be so, last thing he could remember he had been freezing to death. Vegeta wondered for a moment if he was dead, because if that was so, why was he so comfortable in hell?

"Come on, wake up already!" Came a severe voice from above the Saiyan's prone form. He felt his eyes twitch, blinking while they were still closed. He recognised the voice, but not the tone. Opening his eyes, a crack was painful, as the light beyond his eyelids was blinding and hot. He kept trying, and through the bright light, he could make out a vague human form. No facial features could be made out, but the wide shape of the hair was unmistakable. The golden light swept off Vegeta's eyes, and he could see the girls face. She did not look happy.

"You shouldn't be alive. You had hypothermia. I used my energy to burn it out of you, but it was a close one this time. How many times do I have to pull your ass out of there?!"

Vegeta felt himself shudder at the thought of being hunched in an icy wasteland, being dragged unconscious by a woman back to safety. Even the idea of being saved by Kakarot made his blood boil, but a human was…

Vegeta looked into the red eyes and considered the girl. She looked older, fiercer in her battle-scarred skin and clothing. The old man had just now taken in that this human had survived training in the harshest conditions of the hyperbolic time chamber and had still possessed enough power to heal him.

"You used your power to thaw?" he inquired, with an intense sort of detachment. The huntress nodded. "That was cunning, girl."

Yang didn't give any obvious signs that she had registered the compliment, she did not look at all tired or cold. She looked restless, as if eager to get back to something. "If you're alright, I really wanna try a few things with that cold thing."

Vegeta looked after Yang as she turned to go back outside. He could not help it, he had to know. "How?"

Yang paused at the door and turned on her heel to face the old man. She looked slightly less irritated, but still a bit impatient. Vegeta didn't wait for a response. "How can a human survive out there? That wasn't even part of your training."

The look of impatience vanished completely when Yang saw how confused Vegeta was. She crossed the room with surprising speed and placed a hand to his high forehead. "You…you don't remember do you?"

Yang explained to Vegeta, the periods where she had seen him seemingly awake, though lacking any tells of consciousness. She also explained how he had looked at her and the chamber with contempt in that state. When she finished, the Saiyan looked shocked, but trying not to show it.

"Has this kind of thing happened to you before, sleepwalking? Blackouts?" Vegeta shook his head. He saw the look of concern on the girls face and pushed her hand off.

"No, but I doubt its anything to worry about. So, I've been sleepwalking, what of it?"

"Vegeta…is this something to do with-" Yang started to reach for Vegeta's heart, but he pushed her hand away again.

"I'm more interested in how you're surviving in the chamber by yourself." Vegeta pressed on, in his usual growl. Yang tilted her head a little in confusion.

"How long do you think we've been in here?"

…

The question was left hanging in the air for a few seconds, before Vegeta snorted at it. He knew exactly how long they had been in the chamber. The girl was worrying about nothing, paranoid from training alone in here.

"Seven months, give or take a few days. Don't change the subject, my point is I don't see how-"

But Vegeta stopped talking when Yang straightened up, an alarmed glare weighing down on the Saiyan like a search light. She spoke slowly, as if the words themselves were beginning to scare her.

"Its…it's been nine months. I've been training alone for a while. You stopped coming out after that first…collapse. You still ate, I saw you…but that was it."

…

When Vegeta did not answer, Yang drew back slightly, in case he started getting angry. But the look on the old man's face was not of rage, but of dawning comprehension. He looked at every aspect of Yang that seemed alien and knew why she looked different, why she was now able to handle the chambers harsh conditions alone.

"So…you've been training alone. Been slacking off? You can't have been out in those conditions every night."

Yang shook her head and regained some of her irritable expression at Vegeta's tone. The Saiyan had laid his head back down on his pillow and had closed his eyes once again, keeping them closed as he talked.

"Of course, a human couldn't survive out there, and especially not a woman with just one arm."

"For your information, I have been out there every day! I don't mind. I can take a little pain now, it's nothing!"

Vegeta opened one eye, and it met with a pair of fiery red ones. He smiled at what he saw. The child had her little magic activated, and he had not so much as scratched her. He sat up and cupped his left hand in his right. Vegeta couldn't fight the smile in his face, or the pride he felt towards the girl. While he was reluctant to admit it, she had surpassed all his expectations. He had very little left to teach her. Hell, the way she was talking, Vegeta wondered if this child couldn't show him a few things.

"I'm gonna get something to eat, I'm starving. You go and try that thing." Vegeta yawned as he made to walk to the kitchen, but an arm blocked his progress. He looked into the still red eyes with a challenging glint in his own eyes. "What?"

"You are going to take a shower before you do anything else. I didn't want to show discourtesy or be insensitive, but I could smell about two miles out there."

With that, Yang lowered her arm and turned away, walking back outside with a smile on her face at the look of outrage on Vegeta's face. But she collapsed into silent giggles when she heard him shuffling off to the shower, whilst muttering about various 'sensitive' places Yang could stick her 'Discourtesy'.

364

While Vegeta enjoyed the Hyperbolic time chamber, and respected it for the training it provided, he was quite anxious to leave. He would have felt differently in his youth and in his solitude, but both his heart and his student were proving an annoying obstacle to his training. Yang was flat out refusing to train with him now, and she was strong enough now that Vegeta forcing her to spar was not exactly an option. Because of this, his only option was to train at night, but he would either meet the stupid girl who would scowl at him until he just stopped out of annoyance, or the weather would make the wound throb ominously and he suddenly would feel a strange urge to back away.

All of this was cutting significantly into Vegeta's training, and he could feel his strength sipping. He satisfied his itch to train by doing push ups and sit ups in his room, but this strategy left him feeling drained and exhausted, mostly because he couldn't rely on adrenaline like he could when fighting. But Vegeta was no fool, he knew that Saiyan that lived to his age were still far more formidable tan this, under even harder conditions. He was not this weak, and there was no way he would ever be outstripped by a human in his normal state. Vegeta viewed the last day in this blasted chamber cheerfully, although some of the worry about his strength must have shown on his face, because the girl did something strange. She spoke at dinner.

"Hey, bet I can beat your old ass now."

Vegeta stopped eating. Lowering the pork from his mouth, his dark eyes flitted up to look at the girl sitting at the other end of the table. Yang was sitting forward on her chair, over an empty plate, with a cocky, mocking smile under her scarlet eyes. He returned the look.

"Big talk coming from an amputee. Not that it would even make a difference. I could pound you into a pulp even if you had four arms." Vegeta gave a small cynical laugh as he finished talking and went to continue eating, but Yang spoke again.

"You and I both know that I'm stronger now, and let's be honest, do you really think that fragile old body could even hold out against me at this point? Maybe it would just collapse the moment it stepped out in the cold?"

There was a short silent, and then, with a small sigh, Vegeta put down his fork. He looked up again, and this time there was no trace of levity on his face. He was wearing that ugly look that he usually wore when looking at Goku.

"You think that's wise, girl? Calling me weak? Challenging a pure blooded Saiyan's pride? In the past…such words have led to fights to the death."

The gruff voice was not as plosive as usual, instead it was low, menacing, and murderous. Yang smiled on, completely undeterred. Vegeta's front of anger was not scaring her at all, it was bracing her on. She looked now more like a Saiyan that she ever had, invigorated by the prospect of a fight with an impossibly strong foe. He smiled in spite of himself, and the illusion broke. Yang's own smile became kinder, but no less excited. Vegeta rose from his seat and wolfed down what remained of his food in what seemed like Nano seconds.

"Alright, you're on. You can test your power against mine. Let's just hope that I don't accidentally destroy you."

Yang smiled brightly and left the dining room with a spring in her step that Vegeta had never seen before. The Saiyan watched her go and felt something like excitement himself. He was obviously not going to kill the girl; how would he explain that to the short one? Anyway, he could not wait to see the look on Kakarot's face when he saw how strong the girl had become. Once this whole thing was over, he may even be convinced to train again. Thoughts for later though, Vegeta thought as he made to leave the room and follow Yang.

"Gh!"

Vegeta stumbled and grabbed the edge of the table to steady himself, gripping his head with the other. The Saiyan began gasping and spluttering, He felt his whole body shudder with unendurable pain. His throat closed, his muscles ceased up, he could not muster any sound loud enough to alert Yang, he couldn't even make his body breathe. His head felt like something rabid and panicking was clawing inside, trying to get out, and his heart was throbbing horribly. Vegeta lurched as his hand slipped and he fell to his knees. Being in such pain and confusion had masked it so far, but now that he wasn't supporting his own weight, Vegeta felt it, a strange tugging in the back of his mind, a yearning that called to him for a place long forgotten. The old Saiyan felt his eyes widen and an icy fear gripped his stomach…He knew that feeling…he had felt it before…

Yang stood patiently on the infinite plain, waiting for Vegeta. She had not bothered to stretch, as she had done so before challenging Vegeta. She had known that the old man would not be able to resist putting her in her place. Yang felt strange, not being afraid of a fight, but excited at the prospect of testing her mettle, and all too soon, Vegeta emerged from the temple.

Yang put her guard up immediately, in case they started right away, but her tensed muscles faltered as soon as they were tensed. The old man looked strange, he was walking haphazardly, as if unsure of his own balance. For a second, Yang wondered if he was about to have another bout of cardiac arrest, until she saw him ignite.

The shock wave hit Yang and she faltered for a second but did not fall. A silvery light had enveloped Vegeta like clear burning fire. Despite the show of power, Vegeta kept his head drooped. Yang was confused, was this just another attempt to wrong foot her? Surely the old man didn't seriously intend to use that level of power against her? But before her widening eyes, A scarlet orb of energy formed in Vegeta's limp had that tensed and fired in a lightning fast motion almost too fast to follow. Yang felt that tug of instinct, and knew it was 'move' or 'die'. She chose to move.

By taking to the air, she drew the beam of light up into the sky after her. It was then a matter of cutting the ignition and falling back to the earth faster that the beam could follow her. This did the trick as the beam hit the ground win its attempt to follow the huntress, and it exploded on impact. She didn't have time to recover though, as Vegeta's fist was colliding with her cheek almost the moment that she touched down. Yang expected her body to crumple from the force of impact, but she instead felt a small pain and found her own fist pressing into Vegeta's chest. They both stumbled away from each other.

Yang got a good look at the Saiyan and realised that he was serious. His eyes were focused, and his fists were clenched. In the depths of the black eyes, Yang thought she saw something odd, but she dismissed this. Wiping sweat from her upper lip, that competitive smile spread her features once more.

"Ready when you are, old timer."

Yang did feel slightly guilty for going for Vegeta's chest, feeling that it was unsporting to aim for the old man's heart. One the other hand, Vegeta didn't seem to be hurting from it, and looked like he wouldn't be showing a mercy anyways. The Saiyan cracked his knuckles and crouched down, preparing to charge. Yang did the same, getting ready to parry the force. But Then Vegeta vanished, and Yang heartbeat quickened, she had never learned how to counter this! Trusting her instincts, the huntress thrust her guard upwards, and knew that she had guessed right, the barrage of punches she began to block were heavy and merciless, bearing down on Yang from the air. But Yang was used to this and knew what to do. Letting Vegeta get complacent and get a few hits in allowed her to grab his arm and flip him over onto the ground. He hit the void floor with surprising force, Yang had not realised how much strength she now commanded.

But the Saiyan also recovered quickly, levitating off the ground and coming back at Yang with a round house kick aimed at her neck. She threw herself back to dodge this, and suddenly she was on the back foot, dodging a series of fast attacks from the old man's fists and feet. She would have had no chance of evading these before, but now she was able to see them coming. She could not, however, fins an opening in Vegeta's guard to make a counter attack. After a few seconds of violent offence and dexterity, Yang decided to make one. Throwing all her aura into an iron clad guard, she summoned her semblance and felt the yellow light flood her body.

Vegeta reacted strangely, he kept swinging, but his strikes became weaker, they seemed to lose all momentum at the end and bounce off. The huntress did not notice this though, as she was not subject to it for very long, using her arm to shoe Vegeta's strikes aside and land a well-aimed headbutt on his nose. She felt a sharp pain as his knee met her midriff, but the damage was done. She jumped back to a safe distance to observe her opponent better. She was confused by Vegeta's behaviour. He was not gloating or insulting her. There was just cold fury and hatred on his face.

Suddenly Yang's whole body lurched. She felt something coming, she didn't know what it was, but it was powerful. Vegeta raised his hand and that same red light as before emerged from his bare skin. But this one contained way more than before, Yang could feel that. She was also conscious that the door back to the lookout was behind her, and that it might get damaged if this went down the way she thought it was going to.

Sensing the impact, the huntress moved quickly, Hovering over the ground, she circle strafed over to a safer trajectory s Vegeta let loose not one, but a dozen balls of light. The Saiyan's hands were a blur, firing of more orbs that yang could count. She had no way to counter such force. And as the tsunami of energy rained down upon her, Yang knew her only option was to run.

"Hey! If-this-is-still part of the test, this-is kind of unfairly-one-sided!"

The huntress couldn't circle strafe again because Vegeta might hit the temple, so she was forced to weave in and out of the vicious carpet bombing flying from the Saiyan. She was half blind from the light, but her ability to sense energy and move at high speed was managing it detect any on coming collisions. But once again, Yang found no way to counter such an attack. Vegeta was behind the wall of energy, and Yang could not brute force her way through. She could use her semblance, but that would tire her out, and she had a feeling that now was not the time to break out the big guns. She had to risk it.

Yang suddenly pulled up, flying straight at Vegeta. She did her best to weave in and out of the oncoming projectiles, knowing that quantity would subtract from their individual strength, and as she felt one of them bounce off her aura, Yang knew that's he was right. Her head collided with Vegeta again, and she felt his head jerk back with force. In the same moment, Yang felt thick fingers close around her throat. The next thing she knew, she was falling, flying towards the ground, with those fingers still crushing her wind pipe. Her vision was blurry, and her heart was pounding in her ears. Yang could only think of one thing to do.

A burst of energy over her body's surface area and a sharp expulsion of that energy in all directions. The moment the fingers loosened, the huntress kicked out behind her. She pelted away from Vegeta, who similarly flew in the opposite direction, slamming into the ground due to his own momentum. Yang skidded to the ground a few feet further away. She straightened up, rubbing her neck and frowning. She watched Vegeta get up and suddenly understood something.

"You aren't kidding…are you? You really wanna kill me."

Vegeta made to move again but stopped when a powerful pain overcame him. He began shouting and violently shaking his head, which he was clutching with both hands. In the depths of his mind, he could feel something, some great nothing clouding his thoughts. But Something was different, it was like he could feel something else too, a sense of detachment, of separation. In his mind's eye, he could see himself apart from what had taken hold of his body. It looked formless for a moment, and then solidified into a human form. Vegeta knew who it was in an instant, who else could it have been? The clothes were grey, and the eyes were blank, but Vegeta would always remember the way Kakarot looked when they had first met. The Doppelganger stared sightless back at Vegeta and smiled cruelly.

"How did you get here? What are you?" Vegeta felt this was the rational first question to ask and was not disappointed. When the creature spoke, it was not in Kakarot's voice, but in a high pitched, croaky voice that he had never heard before.

"I live here, I was born here. I am every bit Vegeta as you are."

"You hardly look the part" Vegeta sneered at the untidy hair and gee. "Kakarot and I couldn't be more different. Get out of my head! "

The creature's smile widened, and it turned to a strange sort of vision. A mirror through which Vegeta could see through his own eyes, the girl beyond, with her guard half up and a concerned expression on her face. "Poor thing... she looks tired. She won't last much longer. Your power is amazing, and it will outlast any human. Once she is gone, I will take hold completely, and take your body for my mother."

'Mother?' Vegeta remembered something, that bitch that stabbed him had left a mark, a mark that had blackened and not healed! He had been poisoned! Infected by some parasite! He gritted his teeth in anger as the thing continued.

"I have scanned your mind in your dreams, when you have been at your weakest. I know all your techniques. One…'Garlic Gun' was it? And this girl will be ashes beneath my new feet." The dark Kakarot looked pleased at Vegeta's obvious indignation. But instead of the tirade that he had intended, Vegeta thought of something else he wanted to know.

"If you know all my techniques, why not just become a super Saiya…oh…" Vegeta stopped talking, and a triumphant smile spread his pale face as he started to laugh. "…I get it, that's rich! You're too afraid to use it! You know that my heart can't handle the strain! The little monster is too scared to fight!"

The faux Kakarot's smile vanished, to be replaced with a scowl. His blank gaze twisted to look at the huntress in the mirror. "It doesn't matter. I have gathered enough information on your little friend, so can kill her without touching that…particular brand of aura-"

"SO THAT'S WHAT YOU WERE TRYING TO DO!" Vegeta was screaming with laughter, pointing at the creature with amusement plastered over every inch of his old features. "You were trying to sneak outside while I was asleep to glimpse the girl's power! But you didn't account for the chamber's extreme temperatures! HA! Some master mind you turned out to be!"

"ENOUGH!"

The creature roared and that tug again, the inability to control his own could only watch as his own hands were raised in front of him, and were brought together, the back of one hand resting in the palm of the other.

Yang put her focus up again, as she saw Vegeta move, cupping his hands together awkwardly. She didn't know what he was doing until she felt the energy surge in the Saiyan's hands.

'No' She thought desperately to herself, 'He wouldn't, I can't block that much!'

But Yang watched in a horrified kind of awe as Vegeta's whole body was drenched in purple energy, and as he leaned back, Yang knew that he wasn't bluffing, he was going all out on this next attack, and there was no evading it. There was no chance of her blocking that attack either. So that left one option. She would have to challenge it. Placing her own hand in front of her body, the huntress concentrated hard to summon all the aura that she could find to that one point on her hand. She could feel it burning as the energy formed into a ball. But the one forming in Vegeta's hands was much larger and was still growing.

"How sad, she's actually going to fight." The Voice in Vegeta's ear mocked, but Vegeta did not reply. He was concentrating every fibre of his mind on Yang, trying to communicate to her telepathically. But his mind was being kept cloudy by that parasitic bastard. He knew what he had to do, but he needed Yang to challenge his Galick Gun, or it wouldn't work. But he watched in horror, as the girl began to falter, lowering her hand, a defeated look in her eye.

"WEAKLING!"

Yang looked up, alarmed to hear Vegeta's voice, she half expected him to lower his guard and call the whole thing off as a prank. But no, he was still charging his wave and looking deadlier than ever.

"V-Vegeta?" she stammered out, looking in all directions. "Where are you, what's going on?"

"There's no time! My body is contaminated by a parasite, that cinder whore must have given it to me! Listen to me, what's the matter with you?! Lowering your guard in the face of the enemy, where is your Saiyan pride?!"

"I've already told you, I'm not a Saiyan, I'm a human! I can't face that kind of energy, I'm not strong enough! Sure I've gotten tougher, but this is just out of my depth."

"NONSENSE! You are a Saiyan if I say you are, and I've felt the strength you possess! Where is that fire I saw when we first met!? Was your humanity dead weight then?! Now raise your head and fire the toughest attack you can! When I give the word…unleash your pride."

Yang swallowed, shook her head, and raised her hand. Vegeta was right, even if it looked hopeless, she was not going out like a civilian. As the huntress refocused her energy, she reflected on the Saiyan's words, and thought there was something weird about the way he had said 'pride.' She also remembered what was going through her mind when she had vaulted over that fire in the woods. She had just been thinking about Ruby, about finding her…and saving her. The orb began to swell in size, until it was twice the size it was before.

"That's good, Yang… this thing is weak to heat, so keep it up." Vegeta's voice sounded horse, as if he was panting. "Remember, when I give the word. "

"Okay." Said yang, with the passion for challenge back in her voice and heart.

"Oh…one more thing. When you see that clown...tell him…tell him I'm sorry."

…

"WHAT?!"

"Galick Gun~!"

The voice came from the real Vegeta, across from Yang, and the purple light was flashing bright silver. The huntress raised her own hand above her head and braced herself. It was time to leave her old self behind. It was time to ascend.

"MASENKO~!"

The light swelled in Yang's hand as she thought of everyone outside the time chamber, of Ruby, Weiss, Blake, Dad, Qrow…and her mother.

"FIIIIIIIIIIREEEE!"

Suddenly Yang's vision was obscured completely by white light. But she didn't falter. Instead, she cried out to the whole chamber.

"HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"

Yang's whole body shook with the force of what left her, as a golden torrent of light shot from her hand and collided with Vegeta's. They both stood, facing each other in the time chamber, their eyes as locked as their attacks.

It was the oddest sensation Yang had ever experienced. She could see both of their light, but through it all, she could still make out Vegeta. A thin silhouette could still be made out amidst the silver and purple light. She only had a second to see this though, as the struggle began a moment later. It was agony, trying to keep something that was not her own body strong against something so massive. The purple light was bearing down upon her, she was losing, and it hurt so much…it…it hurt…it…hurt. Yang felt her heart swell, as she finally understood what she had to do.

"A valiant effort, but she is outgunned. I don't know what you said to her but looks like it was wasted." The creature was only half focusing on Vegeta now. It seemed to be concentrating on controlling the attack. Vegeta's face was blank, but his heart too was swelling that the girl was causing the creature discomfort.

"You and your ilk don't like light or extreme temperatures. That's why you couldn't spy on the girl, and that's why I was able to talk to her. One big blast of super Saiyan energy, and you're history."

"You wouldn't dare, your heart would give out, and you would die!" Said the parasite, not looking up.

There was a short silence. When Vegeta spoke, it was resolute, and tough. "What makes you think I have a problem with that?"

The fake Kakarot froze, still looking at the mirror, but sweating for a different reason now. It could see a yellow glow in its peripheral vision. It understood.

"Y-You're bluffing!" the creature began to shout, starting to panic as the golden light grew. "You wouldn't die to a human, you're a Saiyan, yo-"

"I AM VEGETA! The prince of all Saiyan's! Not some puppet, on a pathetic dark spawns' string's! I have ended worlds! I have faced demons! I am the master of my own fate, ruler of this body, and unlike you…I have the guts to prove it."

The creature allowed itself a glimpse of what the Saiyan was up to, and almost dropped its guard. Vegeta was standing upright, his aura palpable around him, his fist raised in front of him. He had a curious expression on his face, a mixture of sadness, and satisfaction.

"Goodbye, Yang Xiao Long…NOW!" Vegeta's hair erupted into gold as he barked the final word to Yang, who couldn't have held on for another moment anyway. The two warriors, as if fate had determined it, shouted their attacks at the exact same time. Yang threw all her strength into her semblance and unleashed the damage she had taken from the battle. Only she had taken a page from Vegeta's book, she had named her semblance.

"FORBIDDEN SUN!" Cried the huntress, and everything was on fire.

"FINAL SHINE!" Cried the prince, and everything was violent, staggering golden light.

Yang could not see for cold burning flames, her attack her body, everything was fire. She could not see Vegeta anymore amidst the storm of hungry devouring flames, matching Vegeta's own attack. It swallowed the purple light and crashed around it, turning the chamber into a blazing hellish landscape.

Vegeta opened his eyes, felt the pain in his chest as his hands fell to his sides, as the hellfire swept over him like the wings of a phoenix. He stared into the abyss and did not blink.

"Goodbye…"

"...Kakarot..."

365

Yang stood ready at the door, waiting for the chime of the bell that would tell her when a year had elapsed. There had been no trace of Vegeta to recover, so the huntress considered waiting out the year to be her act of remembrance. She had still not absorbed fully what had happened, and she was thankful for this, because she did not know what awaited her on the other side of this door. At last the bell chimed, and the door swung open automatically. In an instant Yang could feel it all, Ruby and Blake's low aura, Goku's pain and panic, and-

'Weiss is almost gone! Shit! I'm coming Ice Queen, just hang in there!'

Yang made to sprint out the door, but realised she had forgotten something, running back to the dresser draw, she recovered the blackened remains of her Ember Celica, which had been broken on day 2 by...

She pocketed it, and found herself facing the void of the chamber. The silence was maddening, who could have really stayed in here alone for a year? Such strength, such tenacity...such stubbornness. Yang smiled, clenched her fist and made for the door, only turning to say, perhaps to the room, the chamber, or the memory of the mentor she was leaving in there, "Thank you...and goodbye..."

The door closed, and the Hyperbolic time chamber was once again, silent.