(A/N: Here we are, unlucky number thirteen. I've been a little bit stressed lately (with my sickness and school and all), but that's not going to stop me from giving you a decent chapter to spend part of your day reading.

For those who say that I forgot about Layla's malnourishment, I didn't, for the record. I also didn't forget about her biological family. Have you ever heard of foreshadowing? That's what I've been doing! Sometimes I think I need a vacation.

Sorry, I just really need to vent a little… and I'm not mad at anyone. If anything, I'm upset with myself and the mistake I made by putting this off for over a year (now, I'm paying for it). Enjoy the chapter.)

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Layla was restless as she waited for Ceto to contact Patelliday with the day their training could begin again. He said it could take as long as a couple of weeks, but she couldn't wait for one day.

Even though it was nothing compared to what actual Plumber cadets had to do in their training, she was closer to her goal with every exercise she did, no matter how basic it was in reality. She felt closer after only her first day of training, despite only walking for two hours.

Choosing not to be lazy while waiting, she started to practice her push-ups and sit-ups. He showed her how to properly do them during their lengthy conversation, he did them himself while she watched. He jokingly told her that they would be doing harsher exercises eventually and that practicing the basics would help her improve faster.

He gave her a couple of suggestions as well, such as eating after exercising in order to improve her performance during exercises and helping her body to recover. When she told him that she ate before exercising, he advised her not to do it again unless it was something easy to digest because it could give her stomach aches otherwise. She laughed when he told her that he learned the hard way about eating a meal before exercising.

Patelliday caught her practicing her sit-ups when he checked on her and helped her perfect them by holding down her feet. He told her not to use her elbows to help her get her back off the ground because it hindered the resistance to her body. It was harder with him holding her feet to the floor and after a long time on her back, she had finally managed a full sit-up.

Push-ups were slightly harder to do because it required arm strength to lift herself before her chest touched the floor, which she did not have much of. Her adoptive father suggested not to them yet, but instead to practice the position first, using her arms to suspend herself above the floor while her body was in a straight, sloped pose. He called it a "plank" and it turned out to be a little more difficult than she thought it would be, but she figured that it was good practice until she could perfect her push-ups.

Just as Ceto advised, after a while of exercising, she ate her food, which was personally given to her by Patelliday. She usually shared some of it with him, especially the food she didn't particularly like to eat. He was not a picky eater and rarely had the time to take a lunch break, he always took it with a smile.

Almost a week had passed since the training session and Patelliday was bringing his adoptive daughter her food. He had to reorganize his schedule in order to do it, but it was no problem for him, his rank was high enough that he could do it without issues. He opened her door and saw her practicing her sit-ups on the floor again.

He chuckled, "Remember, don't use your elbows. Resistance is everything."

She got up from the floor and sat at her table, just as he set the tray down. As she prepared her food, she asked him, "Do you think I've made any progress yet?"

"Well, do you think you made any?" he asked her.

"I mean, I know it takes longer than a week to show any improvement, I just think I've been making a little bit of progress," she responded.

"If you think you have, then you have," he told her.

"But how do I know that?" she questioned. "How do I know that I've improved at all?"

"Well, if you feel different than you did a week ago in a good way, you know you're doing something right," he replied. "How do you feel?"

"Um, fine, I guess. I- I guess I feel a little bit heavier," she admitted.

"See? That's a sign of muscle growth. You're doing fine," he smiled. "Who knows? You might end up being stronger than some of our recruits when your time comes to be a Plumber."

She smiled, her voice filled with laughs, "Really? A little human like me?"

"Max never thought he could do it when he started and no one believed in him, not even me, but he sure did prove all of us wrong, including himself," he chuckled lightly at the memories of his days as a young trainee. He got up from her table, "Well, it's time for me to go before I'll have to work overtime."

She gave him two packages of the foods she didn't particularly enjoy eating, "Here you go."

He smiled and gave her a side-hug, "Lookin' after your old fish."

She smiled back, "Why shouldn't I?"

He remembered something he had almost forgotten about before he left the room, "Oh, I have something for you. Took me a while to get this. I think there was a shipping problem."

He took out a flat, round container, similar in shape to a can of tuna, and removed the top. It was filled with tablet-shaped gelatin pieces, all colored red and the size of a dime.

"Gummies?" she asked, curious and confused.

"These 'gummies' are actually full of nutrients," he explained. "They'll help you improve your health. Just eat one after every meal until they're gone."

"Just one?" she repeated. "Why? Is it not safe for humans?"

He patted her head reassuringly, "Don't you worry, it's perfectly safe. I had them specially ordered to be made with nutrients especially for you."

She gave him a hug, "Thank you so much."

He scratched her head, playfully messing up with her hair, causing her to laugh. "No thank you needed. Just wanted to help you out."

She was grateful for how much he was helping her, more than any way she could show it. They had only met for the first time a month or so earlier, and yet he was treating her like she was his real daughter.

He noticed a notification on his gauntlet, "Oh! I have to go. I'll see you later, sweetie."

She gave him a small wave as he left her room and the door closed behind him, "Bye."

Since he told her to take the gelatin tablets after a meal, she started to eat. The first to go into her stomach were the purple sauce-covered beans, it was too good not to eat.

As she ate, she wondered if Max ever had to eat the same food she did. She didn't know if food was the same at every Plumber base or if it was diverse depending on the location. The things he ate were strange by human standards, even to her, but so were hers. If he did, she was curious to know if he liked the same meals she did.

She also wondered about what he went through when he started his basic training. She knew that he was a recruit at the same time as Patelliday, but she didn't know what kind of training they had to do at the time. As time went by things would change, she knew and understood that, which was why she thought about the type of practices they might have done and if they were still being carried out decades later.

These were questions she wished she could ask him in person. She knew that she could ask Patelliday whenever she wanted, but there were always different perspectives to something. He wasn't a picky eater, but maybe Max was back then? She wouldn't know the full story unless she asked him about it.

She mused the scenario of visiting with the Tennysons and her possibly asking Max her questions while helping him with something, with Ben and Gwen bickering in the background and her adoptive father eating a bowl of squirming worms. She could almost imagine them having a full conversation with him giving her advice for a human clawing her way through a mirror of the basic training he did from start to end.

She covered her mouth as laughed to herself when she thought of the rather amusing sequence of Ben and Gwen eavesdropping on her and Max, only to give themselves away with yet another argument. It was beguiling because the events of her imagination were accurate to exactly what might happen in real life.

She missed her brief time with the Tennyson family, it was a period filled with laughs and adventure. It was the first time in her life she had ever felt anything other than fear and loneliness. She had those feelings again the last time she saw them, and it was amplified when they were taken to the future to help their adult selves.

While her mind was occupied with questions and scenarios, she continued to eat her meal. She ate until she felt full before considering herself to be finished with it, she didn't want to overeat.

Now that she was done eating, she decided it was time to take one of the nutritional supplements. Took out one of them, hesitating for a couple of moments before finally putting it in her mouth.

As she started to chew it, the taste of berries flooded into her mouth, particularly what she thought were raspberries and cherries. It didn't taste like the fruit flavored snacks she had eaten before, which were usually more than fifty percent artificial. Instead, it gave her an odd freshness, like recently plucked drupelets in a forest.

When she swallowed it, it was like real fruit was sliding down her throat. If she didn't know it was actually a flavored supplement, she could have been fooled into believing she was swallowing berries.

It was no wonder Patelliday was having a hard time getting them, they were high quality, much better than anything on Earth. She also had to figure that whoever made them probably didn't have a lot of human clientele.

She wondered how long it would take until the nutrients started to affect her body. For a moment, she became concerned that her body would not take the nutrients very well. She either never ate well or never had enough, suddenly introducing something her immune system had rare experiences with could be trouble.

The supplements could only be taken after already eating something, did it help to disperse the nutrition? And why could she only have one of them at a time? Was it harmful to take more than one?

She lightly slapped her own cheek to get the constant questions and thoughts out of her mind. She knew Patelliday would never purposefully give her something that could hurt her.

However, a scary thought did briefly develop; not everyone was open-minded about the presence of humans - a species that possessed far inferior technology than any other - anywhere else besides their own planet. Not to mention that she had to figure not many companies in the galaxy made products suited for humans.

Once again, she slapped her cheek, slightly harder than before, 'Get those thoughts out of your head, Layla! You're going to be fine!'

Sometimes, she had to work hard to get terrible thoughts and ideas out of her head. It was a habit from her Enigma days, they kept her awake at night. There were times where she was too afraid to sleep and she would continuously think about them to stay awake.

She started to clean up the food still left on her table and put them inside of a small refrigerator she had in her room to preserve it. She went to her bed and laid down, staring up at the ceiling.

Patelliday watched from behind as the recruits he was monitoring practiced with the functions of the security system without help from him or any other commanding officer. As long as they were paying close attention, there should have been few mishaps.

Suddenly, he got a notification from the communication system in his gauntlet. "I gotta answer this, I'll be back," he told a slightly lower ranked officer. They nodded, understanding.

He stepped out of the room into the corridor to look at it. He was slightly surprised to see that it was from Max, they hadn't talked since they last saw each other.

He answered the message, "Yeah, Max?"

"Patelliday, is this a bad time?" he asked.

"No, nothin' but the usual," he replied. "What's up? Do you need something?"

"No, no. Just wanted to see how Layla's been doing," he responded.

"She's doing good," he told him, "she recently started training."

"Training?" he repeated. "For what?"

"She's taken an interest in becoming a Plumber," he answered.

"Really? She wants to be a Plumber?" Patelliday could almost hear the smile on his face.

"Yep, and she's trying really hard," he smiled, lightly chuckling. "I'm helping her where I can, but she's doing a lot on her own. Mostly just exercising by herself."

"Well, hey, it's a start," he uttered good-naturedly. "I remember when I was in basic training, and the boot camp I went through when I was in the Air Force."

"Yeah, we were both a couple of skinny kids back then," he joked.

"That, we were," he chuckled.

As they continued talking, there was an incoming call on Patelliday's gauntlet. "Max, I'll have to call back later, someone is trying to talk to me."

"Alright, take care," he replied.

He disconnected their call and answered the new one. This time, it was Ceto, he was waiting for when he would eventually reach him.

"Hello, Magister," he greeted him politely.

"Hello. Do you have a date for my daughter yet?" he inquired.

"Yes, I have a period of unscheduled time in the next three days," he responded. "I apologize for the delay."

"It's fine," he assured. "I'll be sure to tell her when I get the chance. I'm sure she'll be thrilled, she's been a little impatient."

"I am glad to hear that." He could hear a muffled chuckle in the background, but he couldn't tell if it was from him. "I look forward to seeing her progress."

"And she's eager to tell you all about it," mentioned flippantly.

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Name: Layla

Species: Human/Ectonurite/Anodite (genetically 75% human and 25% Ectonurite)

Home World: Unknown

Residence: Plumber Satellite Beta

Age: 13

Affiliation(s): Plumbers, Ceto, Zs'Skayr (formerly)

Occupation(s): Aspiring Plumber

Alias: Enigma, Sweetheart/My dear (by Zs'Skayr), Little Lady, Sweetie (by Patelliday), Ms. Layla (by Ceto)

Relatives: Patelliday (adoptive father)

Abilities: Matter Manipulation, Telekinesis, Quick Thinking, Stealth

Equipment: Communicator

Appearance: She has pale skin, jet black hair, and purple eyes. She has a thin frame and has begun to work on improving her health.

She used to wear a black sweater with black and white sleeves. She's since become fond of wearing a periwinkle shirt and a red, black, and white plaid jacket.

Personality: She used to be very timid and quiet, but has become more open to others and developed a curiosity; she can be shy when meeting new people. She can't keep secrets to herself for a long time. She is very compassionate and helpful, always willing to save or assist someone. Due to her past, she has occasional episodes of anxiety and paranoia, it can take her time to trust people she is uncertain about. Although she scares easily, she is one of the few who is not afraid of Ghostfreak/Zs'Skayr.

Powers and Abilities:

She can manipulate multiple states of matter and change them into another (ex. turning solids into liquid and gases into solid).

She possesses telekinetic powers that allow her to levitate different objects and materials. She can also shape objects to make them more lethal.

She's shown to be quite skilled with stealth and has a quick reaction response.

Weaknesses:

If she's too weak or strains herself too much, it will cause fatigue, poor vision, body weakness, etc. It often leads to the point of her not being able to stand on her own power and ends with her collapsing.

She's afraid of the Circus Freaks and Zombozo.

As demonstrated with Wildmutt, any solids she creates are shown to not be very durable.

There's a limit to how much she can lift with her telekinesis and it will drain her of her strength if pressured too much.

She is incapable of keeping a secret.

Her perception of how she interprets something could involuntarily lead to self-destruction.

Due to her thin body, it is difficult for her to do certain exercises.

Interesting Facts:

The name Layla is of Egyptian/Arabic origins, meaning "wine", "intoxication", "night", or "dark beauty".

She doesn't need to use her hands when using her powers, but prefers to because it decreases the chances of a headache.

She has more experience with her telekinesis and matter manipulation than Hex and Charmcaster because hers are natural and theirs are not.

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(A/N: Didn't take me as long as I thought it was going to, I was starting to think I'd be stuck on this for a month! Anyway, whew! I worked hard to give you guys a slightly longer chapter than what I've been giving you.

I can already hear the people telling that Patelliday should not have given Layla the supplements for a thousand reasons. Guess what? Not even my idea, not originally. Someone just suggested it in a review and I needed a quick way to improve her health. Also, remember, they really are to help her with her health, nothing else. (Sorry, I had a story that I had to delete a long time ago because I handled the main character's medications improperly, so I occasionally get a little hostile whenever drugs or medicine is involved in a chapter or story.) All good? I hope so.

I know, I'm kind of ranting a lot lately, like I said, I'm just a bit stressed. It's not because I'm overworked story-wise (although there are a couple of chapters that are taking a hell of a lot longer than I thought), but I just started the next semester of college. So… yeah, a little busy, but that's not going to stop me from writing chapters and new stories.)