CHAPTER 25: GRAVITY

The Sector 9 facility was in one of Windhoek’s industrial districts, a converted warehouse that looked abandoned from the outside but the security scanner at the door suggested otherwise.

Rin arrived at 0555, early enough to scope the place out, the building had reinforced walls, soundproofing, the kind of setup that screamed "private training ground for people who break things."

Fiona was already inside when he entered, she stood in the center of an empty combat arena, wearing simple workout clothes, her expression neutral.

"You’re early," she said. "Good, I hate waiting."

The arena was maybe a hundred feet across, padded floors, walls lined with impact-resistant material, no windows, just overhead lights that cast everything in harsh white.

"So what’s this about?" Rin asked. "You said training but didn’t specify what kind."

"The kind where we stop pretending." Fiona walked in a slow circle around him. "You’ve been holding back since the exam, showing just enough to pass, to advance, to avoid suspicion, but I watched your fights, analyzed your energy output, you’re using maybe sixty percent of your actual capability."

"That’s a bold assumption."

"It’s an accurate observation." She stopped in front of him. "That purple energy you use, it’s not normal mana manipulation, it’s something else, something the Association doesn’t understand, they put a tracker in you because they’re scared, made you agree to treatments to keep you controllable."

Rin’s jaw clenched. "How do you know about the tracker?"

"Because I have one too." She pulled her shirt aside, showed a similar scar on her shoulder. "They implant anyone they consider anomalous, I got mine after I demonstrated gravitational singularity creation, told me it was for safety monitoring, we both know it’s a leash."

She let her shirt fall back. "But here’s the thing about leashes, they only work if you let them, the tracker monitors energy spikes, flags anything outside normal parameters, so you learn to operate within those parameters while still accessing your real power."

"You’re saying you’ve figured out how to bypass it."

"I’m saying I’ve figured out how to work with it, there’s a difference." She gestured to the arena. "Show me your energy manipulation, full output, no holding back."

"The tracker will alert them."

"Not if you do it right, the tracker measures sustained output over time, short bursts don’t register as threats, think of it like sprinting versus marathon running, a quick sprint won’t trigger alarms but maintaining that speed for minutes will."

That actually made sense, the Association was monitoring for prolonged power use that might indicate loss of control, brief demonstrations wouldn’t flag the same way.

[Analysis: Fiona’s assessment is partially correct]

[Tracker monitors cumulative energy expenditure over 5-minute intervals]

[Brief high-output bursts within that window remain below alert threshold]

[However repeated bursts will eventually accumulate]

’So I’ve got a budget.’

[Essentially]

[Recommend testing this theory carefully]

"Fine," Rin channeled fracture energy, brought it up to about seventy-five percent, purple light spreading across his hands.

"More," Fiona said.

He pushed to eighty-five, the light intensifying, his skin tingling from the power.

"That’s better, but you’re still holding the core in reserve." She walked closer, unafraid of the energy crackling around him. "Whatever you used against me during the exam, that moment when you broke through my gravitational field, that’s what I want to see."

"That was desperation."

"Desperation reveals truth, when you thought you might die, you stopped limiting yourself, accessed something deeper." She tilted her head. "What is it really, that energy, it’s not mana, I’ve seen enough mana to know the difference."

Rin considered how much to tell her, Joy knew about the system, knew the basics of fracture energy, but Fiona was different, dangerous in ways Joy wasn’t.

But she’d also shown him her tracker, admitted the Association controlled her too, maybe that created some common ground.

"It’s fracture energy," he said finally. "The same energy that creates dungeons, that tore holes in reality, during the fracture event I was at ground zero, exposed to it for hours, it integrated with my body."

"So you’re a living fracture point."

"Pretty much."

Fiona’s expression actually showed interest, genuine curiosity rather than her usual boredom. "That explains why your energy can absorb other types, why it disrupts mana-based abilities, fracture energy is fundamental, it’s what everything else derives from."

She stepped back, raised her hand, gravity around her intensified. "Hit me with it, full strength, I want to test something."

"You sure?"

"I can handle it."

Rin compressed fracture energy into his palm, released it as a bolt.

Fiona created a gravitational lens, the attack bent around it, redirected harmlessly into the wall.

"Again, faster this time."

He fired three bolts in rapid succession, she deflected all of them, her control over gravity was precise, surgical.

"Your projectiles are powerful but predictable," she said. "You’re thinking of fracture energy like a weapon when it’s more like a tool, it can cut, sure, but it can also manipulate space, absorb matter, reconstruct physics."

"I don’t know how to do most of that."

"Then learn." She released her gravitational manipulation. "That’s why you’re here, I’ll teach you advanced energy application, you’ll teach me how fracture energy interacts with gravitational fields, mutually beneficial."

"And what do you get out of understanding fracture energy?"

"Knowledge, power, the ability to counter it if we ever actually fight for real." She smiled slightly. "Plus you’re interesting, most people bore me, you don’t."

Coming from someone who’d crushed a person into a ball, "interesting" probably wasn’t a compliment.

But Rin needed to get stronger, needed techniques beyond just hitting things with purple energy.

"Alright, what’s first?"

"First, we work on your energy efficiency, you’re using fracture power like a hammer when sometimes you need a scalpel." She walked to the center of the arena. "Create a platform, like you did during our fight, but this time make it thin, minimal energy expenditure."

He focused, shaped fracture energy beneath his feet, created a small disc.

"Thinner."

He compressed it further, the platform became almost transparent.

"Good, now move it, shift your weight, walk on air."

He took a step, the platform moved with him, created another one for his other foot, started actually walking through empty space.

"That’s the concept, energy as structure rather than force, you can build, create, reshape." Fiona demonstrated with gravity, formed spheres and cubes and complex geometric shapes. "The more precise your control, the less energy you waste."

They worked for an hour, Rin creating constructs, Fiona critiquing his form, pointing out inefficiencies.

His tracker stayed quiet, the brief bursts of energy apparently not crossing whatever threshold triggered alerts.

"Break time," Fiona said finally. "You’re getting sloppy, fatigue makes you revert to brute force."

They sat against the wall, Rin grabbed water from his bag.

"Can I ask you something?" he said.

"You just did, but continue."

"During the exam, that girl you fought in your last match, did you mean to kill her?"

Fiona was quiet for a moment. "Yes."

"Why?"

"Because she was weak, tried to fight me despite being completely outmatched, I gave her a chance to surrender, she refused." She looked at him with those unsettling eyes. "The weak who refuse to acknowledge their weakness don’t survive this world, I taught her that lesson."

"You murdered her."

"I eliminated a competitor who wouldn’t have lasted a month in the field, she would’ve died in some dungeon, screaming and alone, I gave her a quick death." No remorse, no guilt, just cold logic. "You think I’m a monster."

"I think you’re dangerous."

"Good, you should, but I’m also honest about what I am, which is more than most people." She stood up. "The Association fears us because we operate outside their control, they try to leash us with trackers and treatments and threats, but power doesn’t care about their rules."

She created a small gravitational singularity in her palm, the air distorted around it. "Eventually you’ll have to choose, stay leashed and limited, or break free and deal with the consequences."

"Breaking free means they send S-ranks after me."

"Only if they catch you, the world is bigger than the Association, Namibia is just one country, there are places where fracture-touched like us can operate without restraint."

"You’re talking about going rogue."

"I’m talking about options, right now you’re choosing to comply, that’s fine, strategic even, but don’t mistake compliance for permanence." She dismissed the singularity. "Your friend Leo was strong but he played by their rules, submitted to their authority, and it got him killed."

Rin’s hands clenched. "Leo died fighting a monster."

"Leo died because the Association sent him into a dungeon that was mislabeled, an A-rank that should’ve been SS-rank minimum, they fucked up and he paid for it." She met his eyes. "You think that was an accident? They knew Kazriketh was in that dungeon, they sent Jin’s team anyway."

"You don’t know that."

"I read the declassified portions of the incident report, the energy signatures they detected before the raid matched anomaly classifications, they knew something was wrong and proceeded anyway." She walked back to the center of the arena. "The Association treats Hunters as expendable assets, you’re only valuable until you become inconvenient."

The words hit harder than Rin wanted to admit because she might be right, Ashford had admitted they’d considered killing him, Dr. Yumiko had explained how they’d kept him in a coma for two years deciding what to do.

He was alive because they found him more useful alive than dead, that calculation could change.

"So what’s your play?" he asked. "You’re still here, still taking their missions, wearing their tracker."

"For now, I’m building resources, connections, strength, when the time comes to leave, I’ll be ready." She created another gravitational field, this one swirling with complex patterns. "You should do the same, get strong enough that they need you more than you need them, then the leash becomes negotiable."

They trained for another hour, Fiona teaching him how to layer fracture energy, create defensive structures that absorbed impact rather than just blocking it.

By the time they finished, Rin’s control had noticeably improved, his constructs were cleaner, more efficient.

"Same time next week?" Fiona asked as they left the facility.

"Yeah."

"Good, bring questions next time, I’m not going to spoon-feed you everything, figure out what you need to learn." She walked toward a black car waiting at the curb. "And Rin, don’t trust the Association’s version of events, they lie through omission, whatever they’ve told you about the fracture event, about Leo’s death, about your condition, assume half of it is incomplete at best."

The car drove away, left him standing in the industrial district thinking about everything she’d said.

[Analysis: Fiona Treacher’s information should be verified independently]

[However her assessment of Association motivations aligns with observed behavior]

[Recommend investigating Leo’s mission parameters]

’Can you access those files?’

[Negative]

[But you have legitimate reason to request them]

[Leo named you as beneficiary]

[You have legal right to review incident reports]

That was true, he could file a request, claim he needed closure or whatever, they might deny it but it was worth trying.

His phone buzzed, message from Joy.

Joy: hey where are you? thought we were doing mission selection together

Right, he’d forgotten they’d planned to meet.

Rin: sorry, got caught up training. heading back now

Joy: with who?

He hesitated before responding.

Rin: fiona

Joy: WHAT

Joy: you’re training with the murder girl?

Joy: rin that’s insane

Rin: she’s teaching me energy manipulation techniques

Joy: she’s DANGEROUS

Rin: so am I apparently

Joy: that’s not the same and you know it

He didn’t respond, caught a taxi back to Association headquarters.

Joy was waiting in the lobby, her expression somewhere between worried and angry.

"We need to talk," she said, pulling him toward a private corner. "Fiona is not someone you should be getting close to, she’s unstable."

"She’s knowledgeable."

"She’s a killer, Rin, she murdered someone during the exam, showed zero remorse, and now you’re training with her alone?"

"I can handle myself."

"Can you? Because from where I’m standing it looks like you’re making questionable decisions." She lowered her voice. "What did she teach you that was so important you’re willing to overlook the fact that she’s a psychopath?"

"How to use my abilities more efficiently, how the tracker works, how to operate within Association monitoring without triggering alerts." He met her eyes. "She told me things about Leo’s death, about the raid, said the Association knew the dungeon was mislabeled."

Joy’s expression shifted. "You believe her?"

"I don’t know, but I’m going to find out, Leo named me as beneficiary which means I can request the incident report."

"And if she’s right? If the Association did send Leo into a death trap knowingly, what then?"

Good question, what would he do if it turned out Leo’s death wasn’t just bad luck but negligence or worse?

"I’ll deal with that when I know for sure."

Joy sighed. "Just, be careful okay, Fiona might be useful but she’s also using you for something, people like her don’t help without expecting something in return."

"I know."

They headed to the mission board, selected another assignment, something straightforward this time, no anomalies, just standard E-rank work.

But Rin’s mind was elsewhere, thinking about what Fiona said, about the leash around his neck, about how long he’d let it stay there.

Eventually he’d need to break free.

The question was when, and what it would cost.