Erica opened her eyes to sunlight filtering into the room through the window. It was so peaceful that she momentarily forgot the previous day's tribulations and started to sit up. When she attempted to put weight on her right arm, she fell over in the bed. Cursing, memories flooded back, souring her mood. Adjusting herself, she managed to sit up, noting that the IV was gone. It was then she remembered cussing out the gods. She couldn't believe she'd actually threatened them, but she was furious at the time, and possibly not in her right mind. Not that that excused her actions, but they were talking about stripping her of her new shaper powers. She could still feel the excess energy flowing faintly through her body, so it seemed that Aanstrom kept his word that she'd keep her powers. For now, anyways.

Her thoughts turned to what else she said during her tirade. She said she'd agree to Damon's tutelage, and join him within the Altean Army. He wasn't in the room presently, which Erica was thankful for since it was off-putting enough when he'd been watching her before, she didn't want for him to just be there the whole time she slept. However, she felt the need to talk to him now, so she figured she'd at least need to talk to the nurse to figure out where he was. The hand bell was in the same place she'd left it last night, so she rang it a few times and waited. No one came. Deciding she wasn't about to raise Mortemhiem with ringing the bell until someone came, Erica decided to go looking for Damon. She was missing an arm, not a leg, so she should be okay to move around, she thought.

Swinging her legs over the edge of the bed, she stepped onto the cold floor. She steadied herself against the bedside table, a little shaky on her feet. Satisfied that she wasn't about to topple over, Erica made her way toward the door, feeling off balance without her right arm. Trying not to think about the greater implications of the missing limb, she was almost at the door when it swung open. Damon had his hand on the doorknob, looking half as surprised as Erica felt.

"What are you doing?" He asked.

"I was looking for you," Erica responded, "I wanted to talk to you about your offer."

"Hm. Food first, then we can talk about that. Here," As Damon stepped into the room, he held a tray with assorted foodstuffs and a wooden mug on it, "sit back in bed and eat as much as you can."

Erica did as she was told, getting back into the bed and sitting cross-legged on it. She accepted the tray from Damon and looked closer at what was on it as he went back to his chair. She wasn't sure what to expect from a hospital as far as food went, having never been to anything more advanced than the apothecary's in Copperwood, but she suspected the wrapped packages labeled "Ration" weren't what they typically served patients. The mug contained a steaming volume of tea, with the bag still sitting within.

"What's with these?" Erica asked, holding up a ration claiming to be a fruit and nut bar.

"That's the kind of food we have in the Army," Damon explained, slighty confused, "What else would we have? Perishables are a bad idea when we have so few mouths to feed."

"Wait, doesn't the Altean Army span the globe?" Erica's brows furled.

"It does, but we are almost entirely composed of mechans. Were you to join, you'd be the third living member."

"So it's just you and general Joshua who are flesh and blood? Every other body is animated steel?"

"More or less. There's more to mechan construction than 'animated steel', but I digress."

Astounded, Erica made to rip open the paper wrapper of the fruit and nut bar, only to realize she only had the hand holding the bar to open it with. Sheepishly, she asked, "Could you open this for me?"

Erica could see the gears turn in Damon's head for the moment it took for him to realize why she was asking. "Oh, of course. One moment," he said as he stood and walked over. He unfolded the wrapper with practiced precision and handed the bar back to Erica.

"Thanks," She said as she took a bite. How it could be this flavourless was beyond her. She remembered having rations in her guard training, and distinctly that she hated them. She set the bar down and pulled the teabag from the mug, setting the wet bag onto the tray after getting as much liquid off of it as she could. Taking a drink, the tea was pleasant enough, if a little plain. Setting the mug down, she continued to munch on the bar unenthusiastically. There were two other bars on the tray, but after managing to finish the first, she resolved that she would seek out other food if she got hungry later. Downing the rest of the tea, she turned to Damon, who had sat back down and was flipping through some papers. Reports, if she had to guess.

He looked up, noticing that she seemed to have finished eating, "How are you feeling?"

"Better. Not great, but better. I'm sorry about yesterday..."

"It's okay, you were dealing with a lot. You said you wanted to talk about my 'offer'?"

"... Why do you say 'offer' like that?"

"Because I'm not leaving you to figure shaping out on your own. You'd be a danger to yourself and others."

"... Right. That aside, I'd like for you to train me and take me in to the Altean Army."

"Good! Then your training starts now."

"What."

"Hold out your palm, like this," He instructed, standing up and putting his arm forward in a relaxed position with his palm aimed skyward.

After realizing he was dead serious about starting right this second, Erica mimicked the action. "Now what?"

"Now, make a ball of maiga. Pull from the environment, but don't pull too hard. Just the ambient maiga in the air will do for now."

Erica looked at her hand. Remembering what the maiga told her to do on the night of the raid, she modified the instinctual build-up of power so that she was pooling maiga into a rough sphere floating an inch above her palm. It was small to start, a ball of light that she could wrap her fingers around, but it quickly grew into the size of a melon, and then some.

"Stop!" Damon commanded, and Erica had to focus to bring the growth to heel. The ball crackled with power, looking for an outlet. Damon took a step forward, "Now, let it disperse back into the-"

On his second step, and as Erica was trying to disseminate the energy back into the environment, the ball turned into a bolt of lightning that blasted into his chest. Erica screamed and recoiled, flinging the tray and its contents from her lap. However, Damon still stood.

Erica stared at the burnt edges of the hole she had just put into his coat. The exposed skin she could now see was untouched, with no sign of any damage. "How... how are you-"

"Again." Damon ordered, his voice strained with a hint of pain.

"But-!"

"You won't learn unless you do. Do and do again, until you've got the hang of it. Conjure a sphere of maiga, then release it, gently. Don't let it out in one point, it will be another violent discharge if you do."

Erica looked back at her hand, uncertain. "If I fail, I'll hurt you."

"Then try not to fail. Don't worry though, I can take a hit."

"Apparently," Erica muttered to herself as she began to channel maiga once more. The ball formed in her palm, and as it reached the same size as before, she tried to release it back into the room. It bolted at Damon again, but this time he caught it, the bolt balling in his hand before he clenched his grip, crushing the ball and dissipating the maiga into fading motes of light.

"Again."

Erica took a deep breath before making another ball of maiga. Once more it bolted out, and once more Damon caught and dispersed it.

"I know, I know. Again," When she repeated the exercise, she was able to release some of the orb's energy safely before it attacked Damon, this time with less force. After two more tries of lessening failure, it ended up zapping her on the third. "Ow!"

Damon didn't laugh, nor did he ask her if she was alright. He merely stood where he had been, waiting to see if Erica would start on her own. When she didn't, he intoned once more, "Again."

She tried a few more times, seeming to finally have control of it after two more attempts and confirming it with another three. There was a buzz of energy within Erica, and she tried to suppress it as Damon nodded in approval.

"It seems you have learned some control. I was worried it might have taken a few hours to get somewhere, but it seems I didn't need to be. Now, wait here, I need to get something for the next exercise."

Erica nodded as he left the room. She felt for the matrix maigum in her pocket, confirming the crystal was still there. Satisfied that it was, she turned her thoughts to the fact she was shaping at all. It was exhilarating, and frightening, and felt vastly different from the charging she had attempted in the past. There was just more flow to it, like someone had undammed a river, turning a trickle into a raging font of power. It was entirely too much, but she felt like she had more control now, if only a little.

Damon returned, wheeling in a cart laden with shiny copper tubes. Upon closer inspection, these were charges. Lengths of wood or stone encased in a thin metal sheath to store maiga, with a hinged cap at the top to allow for recharging and to power whatever device it was attached to. Damon tosses one her way, and her instinct was to catch it by clapping her hands around the charge. But, though the signal was sent, there was no receiver for the right side, so Erica accidentally batted the charge away, sending it clattering to the floor.

"Sorry," Damon offered as he decided to just hand her a charge instead, either ignoring or ignorant to the shade of red Erica had turned, "Your next lesson will be flow control. Fill the charge."

"Really? Something this simple?" Erica asked, incredulously eyeing the mountain of charges on the cart.

"Just fill it," Damon's response brokered no argument.

Erica sighed, and flipped open the charge's cap with her thumb. A narrow aperture underneath the cap revealed that this charge was made of stone, the material generally regarded as the best conductor of maiga. Looking at the tiny stone surface, she directed the maiga in the room to flow through the hole and into the stone. There was a sudden crack, then a bang as the bottom of the charge exploded, spraying stone dust out of a warped and torn copper sheath. Erica jumped, dropping the broken charge onto the bed. Maiga rushed out of the blown-out end, rejoining the ambient energy of the room.

Damon shook his head, "As I suspected. While you can somewhat control an amassed volume of maiga, you have no handle on how much you channel at a time."

"Okay, so I suck. How do I fix it?" Erica asked, a little shaken from the small blast.

"Picture how much maiga you're moving at a time. Imagine that you're throttling how much is going out, then actualize it. The charge is small, you're not amassing maiga to attack or defend. All you need is a small amount, adjust the flow to get that small amount in a manner that lets you shut it off when you've filled the charge before overloading it."

"Right, picture the flow, throttle it..." Erica said to herself as Damon handed her another charge. She opened this one just like the last, and tried to picture restricting the flow of maiga through a pinhole. She could feel it working as it funneled into the charge. However, the maiga behind the pinhole demanded to move, and burst through the barrier, crashing into and out the back of the charge, resulting in another burst bottom.

"Exert your will over it," Damon instructed as another charge exchanged hands, "the maiga has natural inclinations on what to do and where to go, and those inclinations may not line up with your needs. It seems you have too much to work with at a time. You don't need to channel that much maiga to charge."

"I'm not trying to have this much maiga flowing around me!" Erica complained, "It has a mind of its own; how much of it comes to me, where it wants to go. I can't wrangle that much! It's like I'm a magnet for the stuff..."

Damon mulls this over. He looks her over intently, intense slate grey eyes scanning for something Erica could only guess at. He summoned a tiny dot of light and flicked it in Erica's direction, but aimed at the wall behind her. She leaned away to try and avoid it as it lazily floated forth, but it seemed to latch onto her, altering its flight path to bump into her left shoulder and fizzle out.

"What was that for?" Erica asked, attempting to brush off her shoulder only to remember she still didn't have that arm anymore.

"A little experiment. It seems like you behave similarly to a maiga harness..." Damon muttered.

"A maiga what?"

"Maiga harness. It's the power source for my mechans, and unfortunately the Diezens' mechans, too. It sucks in the ambient maiga in the air to recharge its starter charge, and after that minor task is done fuel the rest of the mechan or device it's in. You, just sitting there, seem to be doing the same."

"Wait, I was right about being a magnet for it? Where does it go when I'm not shaping?"

"It seems to sheathe your body as a reserve, and that's probably what you pull from when you shape, which would explain why there's so much maiga flow when you try to do anything with it. And eventually, that can't be contained, so it looks for a way to disperse, to be let out again after you hit capacity. This would explain the involuntary attack on your-"

"Enough!" Erica threw the fresh charge at Damon. It bounced off his chest and clattered to the floor. "I don't want to hear it. Not now..."

Damon nodded, but didn't apologize. He stooped down and collected the charge that had been thrown at him and offered it back to Erica wordlessly. She took it after a moment. Flicking open the cap, she tried to fill the charge again. She was able to control the flow for all of a second before the bottom blew out again. Dropping the charge, she extended her hand to Damon. "Again, right?"

Damon gave a single chuckle, "You're getting it."

Erica attempted to fill the small charges, blowing out every one, but taking a little more time to do so each time. All the while, the flow of maiga within her was gradually rising, exerting ever increasing demands to be unleashed with wild abandon. But Erica willed it into submission, keeping it in check as she tried to direct it into a charge without breaking it. The pile on her bed had to be a few dozen charges, all shattered and useless at her hand. Frustration reared its ugly head a few times, but Erica followed her guard training for stressful situations and kept from blowing her own fuse. As she discarded another charge, Damon gave her a funny look.

"Let me see that one," He requested.

"What for?" She asked, picking it up from the pile.

Damon took the charge and produced a tall and thin rectangular block of stone that could fit in one's hand from his coat pocket. He plugged the charge into it, and glowing blue lights lit up along the length of the stone device.

"What is that?" Erica asked, leaning in slightly.

"A standard charge tester, seeing how full you've made this one."

"Why check? Isn't it broken?"

Damon showed her the charge she had just finished with. The bottom was still round and encased in copper. "You seem to have succeeded at filling your first charge, congratulations."

Erica felt like she should have been happier about it, but figured that being bored would have to do. The monotonous task of charging was not something she was used to. However, unlike a week ago, charging didn't drain her physically and mentally. Now she was energized and a little hyper. She had the urge to run, to move, to do something besides sit in this dull hospital room filling charges.

"Now," Damon said, gesturing to the pile of charges on the cart, "finish those. There's another cartful of them, and I want those charges filled too."

"What?! That'll take forever!"

"By the time you get through this cart, it should take you more time to get a charge and ready it than to fill it. Unit 0538!" Damon called into the hallway through the open door.

A figure strode in with a mechanical precision to its movements. Erica's heart jumped as she saw a mechan walk in. It looked so much like the Diezens that she had dealt with earlier, though there were a few key differences. First, it was painted a sandy beige everywhere except its joints, hands, feet, and the screen that took up most of its face. Two upright ovals were displayed on the screen, mimicking eyes. They blinked, turning into a thin line in a fraction of a second before returning to ovals that swept the room side to side before settling on Damon. The metal person had joints made of stone, though they made no sound as they moved. It was nearly imperceptibly shorter than Damon, though Erica was still wary of it. It had a weak vortex of maiga flowing toward it like the Diezens from before, which must have been from the maiga harness Damon mentioned before.

"Sir?" The mechan asked in a modulated, but still lifelike voice.

"Please help Erica with her training. Bring in the other cart. Give her charges, put filled ones on one cart, and broken ones on another. Inform me when she has completed this task, I have other matters to attend to."

The mechan gave a quick salute, raising its hand to its temple smartly.

"Hold on," Erica interrupted, "aren't you worried I'm going to break the mechan? What happens if I lose control?"

Damon looked her over, a woman in a hospital gown, missing an arm with a huge wad of gauze on her cheek, radiating maiga. "You don't want to lose control, not again. Nothing I say will give you more motivation than you already have for that. Treat Unit 0538 like you would a person, I dare say he can surprise you with how close to one he is. Focus on your training, let him worry about any mess."

"He? Him?"

"You'll find it's much easier to refer to them as such. 'It' is such an impersonal term, and it feels somewhat wrong to address my mechans in that way."

"Alright... just know that if he does anything funny, I will blast him."

"No need for that, he's your subordinate now. My orders take precedent, but you will be able to order Altean Army mechans around in time."

"I- what?"

"Now," Damon said, stopping Erica from continuing her inquiry, "I must be off. I shall return before too long. Do your best with the charges."

And like that he was gone. Erica looked at the mechan standing before her, the resemblance to the Diezen variety throwing her off. It looked back at her, its faceless screen giving the impression of innocence.

Unit 0538 tilted his head slightly to the side, "You are Erica, yes? It is a pleasure to meet you. I will be helping you with your task."

"The pleasure is all yours," Erica said cautiously, "I'm sorry, but given what I just went through, I'm not ready to trust something that looks this much like a Diezen."

Unit 0538's eyes slanted off at the top, creating an expression of sadness or disappointment. "I am sorry to hear that. Regardless, I will do what I can to help. I am no Diezen. For now, is it alright if I just hand you charges and clean up the pile on your bed?"

"... Fine." Erica answered begrudgingly. 

The mechan's eyes returned to normal as it nodded. "Just allow me to get the cart Master Damon instructed me to retrieve, I shall return momentarily."

Unit 0538 did as he said he would, wheeling in the second cart loaded with charges. It then rapidly began to pull the pile of broken charges off the bed, one by one, and putting them on the lower level of the first cart after handing Erica a fresh charge. She watched him go with a little fascination at his speed before deciding there was no point in delaying the task ahead of her. 

As the two of them wordlessly established a system to quickly move through the charges, Erica's thoughts turned to her family. Where had Rico gone? Was he even still alive? She didn't know, and didn't know how she could find out. Maybe he'd come looking for her, since she was in Zellas, the planned evacuation point for Copperwood. Then she remembered her father, how he had fallen. Rico had shouted her down then. If he lived, he may not forgive her for that. She wasn't sure she would ever be able to forgive herself, so how could she expect him to forgive her? There was also her mother. Cut down as they ran. Looking back, Erica kicked herself for not standing and fighting. But her training and the evacuation plan for such an attack specified to only fight as a last resort. She didn't know Diezens could move so quickly, if she did she would have taken the shotgun from her father and fought the thing herself. She could feel tears coming again, but she couldn't be bothered to fight them. While she was still full of energy, her spirit was tired, just wanting some stability in this nightmare. She silently cried, trying to shut off her wandering mind and focus on charging.

"Master Erica, are you in pain?" Unit 0538 cut through her thoughts, "Shall I fetch the nurse?"

"Master...? ... No, don't. They can't help with this kind of pain..."

"I understand, I-"

"Do you?!" Erica shouted, causing the mechan to halt in the middle of transferring a filled charge to the second cart. "You can't feel the way I do, you're a machine. In one night, I lost everything I've ever known. I've lost my family, my home! I have nothing and no one to return to! I'm not even all of myself anymore!" She gestured to her wounded shoulder. "How can you know how any of that feels?!"

"While I may not have ever felt the way you do now," he said, choosing his words carefully, "I have witnessed too many having lost the same things you have to the Diezens. While I cannot truly feel what you do, I do understand. You have suffered great loss, and with that comes great pain. But, you are with the Altean Army now. We cannot replace what you've lost, but hopefully you will find purpose and solace with us."

Erica released a shaky breath. "I don't want to hear platitudes, not from a mechan or anyone else. I want my life back."

"Is everything okay in here?" When Erica looked up, she saw the kroll nurse from before nervously poking her head through the doorway.

"Yeah, just... venting." Erica's shoulders slumped. She could feel the energy built up from shaping starting to sap away.

"It's just that the shouting gave us a scare, what with you shaping and mister Arbiter being away..."

Erica sighed. "I'll keep it down. Don't worry, I'm not going to blow up the hospital or anything."

"Reassuring." The nurse said dryly, "If you do have need of anything, let us know. Your painkillers are due to be taken in about an hour from now, so I'll check in with you then."

Erica nodded, and then had a thought. "Actually, can I ask you to remove the gauze from my face? This one's gotten wet, and it's a bit uncomfortable..."

The nurse nodded and waddled over, stepping around the carts of charges and eyeing the broken ones. When she reached Erica, she reached up with stubby arms and, using the tips of her long but blunted claws, pulled off the gauze carefully. When it came off, Erica could see some dried blood on the gauze.

The nurse looked at Erica's cheek with a degree of confusion crossing her reptilian features, before reporting, "I don't know how, but your facial laceration seems to have healed enough to not need another application of gauze. While it was quick, it doesn't look like it healed all too well."

"What do you mean?" Erica subconsciously started to raise her hand to her face.

"You shouldn't touch it. It hasn't healed fully, but it is no longer bleeding and there looks to be scar tissue forming. It's a fairly long gash, likely made with an ill kept blade, so the sides are a little ragged..." The nurse trailed off.

"Let me see."

The nurse nodded again and left the room, thick tail trailing behind her. After a few moments of Erica looking anywhere but at Unit 0538, the nurse returned with a simple wooden hand mirror. Taking it from the nurse, Erica held it up and regarded her face for the first time since before the night of the raid. Her face was gaunt, with dark circles under her eyes. Then there was her cheek. An angry red line remained where the Diezen's blade parted her flesh, starting shy of her chin and nearly reaching her ear, stopping a bit higher than the earlobe.

Erica grimaced, the expression not helping the look of the scar. "Well, I look... awful."

"No one could blame you given what you've been through," the nurse offered, "It's a miracle you're alive right now. Mister Arbiter should be credited for that."

Erica nearly handed the mirror back to the nurse, then stopped herself. "Can I keep this on the bedside table here? So I can keep an eye on my cheek?"

"Sure, just be careful with it."

"Thank you, I will."

"Well, if that is all, I have to check in with another patient. Just let the front desk know if you need anything else." With that the nurse disappeared into the hallway once more.

"Are you ready to continue, Master Erica?" Unit 0538 asked, offering her an empty charge.

She grabbed the charge, flicking open the cap with renewed determination. "Yeah. Time to get started."