Beep.

Beep.

Beep.

Seth's eyes flew open to the sound of his alarm clock going off. He slapped a hand over the snooze button, shutting up the sound. Then he climbed out of bed and was halfway to the bathroom before he stopped dead in his tracks, reeling.

Something was off.

He tilted his head, taking stock of things. To start with, he felt pretty good for once. Awake. Alert. No aches. No pains. Rested. How long had it been since he'd had a good night's sleep? His stomach growled, and he grimaced, pressing a hand into his belly.

Wow, and he was starving.

How long did he even sleep? He turned and stumbled back to his bed. His phone lay on the dresser. There was the usual missed call, as he'd been ignoring any number he didn't recognize, and there'd been a few more than usual lately. Crazy scammers.

His alarm going off meant it was 10am. And the date was Wednesday. Everything was as it should be.

Wait.

He'd fallen asleep in Eliona. Right on his bed, next to Vast. He didn't recall logging out.

Did the game boot him out automatically?

Seth stared at his phone. Then he turned his head and looked at his bed. The headset lay there, and at the foot of the bed was the little black box that somehow powered the connection. Had he taken it off in his sleep?

That must have been it. He probably disconnected somehow and didn't even remember.

Putting that out of his mind, he began to get ready for the day. He was in a rare good mood because he hadn't felt this good in weeks. His clumsiness had faded and he was able to move normally now. Well, what was now considered normal for him, since he had to try to make any amount of noise as he walked.

After dressing, he wandered into the kitchen. A quick peek in the fridge showed several food containers that he'd brought home from work over the past week. His belly growled hopefully. The first one he pulled out was growing green fuzz, so that went straight into the trash. The second was a soup container that smelled a bit off, so he set that on the counter to throw away later. Choice number three was a soggy burger, but it looked and smelled okay, so he ate it cold right there in the kitchen. The fries were dry and hard, but he was hungry enough to not care.

He went into the fridge again, and found a plastic container of chocolate pudding and another of pasta. Perfect. It took five spoonfuls to deal with the pudding, and about two minutes to finish off the pasta. Both were absolutely delicious. Even as three-or-more-day-old leftovers, Jake's cooking was awesome. To finish off his breakfast, he grabbed an apple and munched on it while he tossed everything in the sink, except for the off-tasting soup.

He was supposed to stop by Chad's Pad this morning before work, so he set off as soon as he was finished.

When he pulled up to the gym on his bicycle, Chadley was the only one there. In fact, Seth had never seen anyone else come to the gym other than Tripp and Mrs Beakor. It made him curious. Surely Chadley had other clients, right?

He set his backpack on the floor beneath the coat rack. Chadley sat at a small table, going over some books. The table was absolutely dwarfed by his size, making it seem like it was child-sized.

"Hi," Seth said, just in case Chadley hadn't noticed his arrival.

The large man paused his work and lifted his head. He regarded Seth somberly, then pointed at the treadmill against the wall. "Fifteen."

Seth held back a grimace. He hated the treadmill. It was boring. But he didn't say anything and went to the water cooler. After a quick cup of water, he dutifully got started at a slow, steady jog.

Fifteen minutes, Chadley had said. It didn't sound so bad at first, but seven minutes in, all Seth wanted to do was stop. He was already winded from his bike ride, and found his energy draining far too quickly. Maybe it wasn't so much a warm-up as a test of his endurance.

Seth kept going right to the end. The second it hit the 15-minute mark, he stopped the machine. He was out of breath, but not wheezing like he'd done last week. When he turned around, Chadley was watching him from a short distance away.

"Done," he said, and immediately felt rather awkward. Wasn't it obvious he was done? Why else would he get off the treadmill? He mentally gave himself a good shake. Don't be stupid, Seth. "What's next?"

Stepping back, Chadley revealed a row of seven orange pylons arranged in a row. They were roughly two feet apart. "Forward," Chadley said, and he walked through the pylons, weaving in and out of them. At the end, he paused. "Back." He returned, except he walked backwards, repeating the same zig-zag motion. He moved away from the row, his oddly pale eyes finding Seth's. "Okay?"

That seemed like a strange task, but Seth knew Chadley had a reason for it. The man had done nothing but help him recover, and he was always switching up the exercises to keep challenging Seth. Surely this was no exception.

Seth mimicked Chadley's movement through the cones, finding it ridiculously easy. Even going backwards was hardly difficult. He hoped there was more to it than this.

"Good," Chadley said. "Faster."

Seth did, jogging his way through. It still was easy, though he accidentally bumped one of the cones on his return.

"Faster," Chadley said again. And then he repeated it each time, until Seth did short sprints through the cones. Suddenly he had to focus really hard on where he placed his feet, because zig-zagging got a lot harder when you had so much momentum and physics pulling you in the opposite directions.

When he knocked over four cones in one go, Chadley finally held up a hand. "Okay."

Gratefully, Seth stopped. He panted, feeling the burn in his legs. Okay, that was actually more of a challenge than he expected. "What was that for?"

Chadley didn't answer. Instead, he had a thoughtful look on his face. He seemed to consider something, then went to the table and grabbed a roll of masking tape. He pulled off a long strip and stuck it on the floor. A second strip went across it, creating a large + with four even sections. Each square got a small piece of tape, and Chadley numbered them 1 to 4 with a felt marker.

"Stand," he said, and pointed at the square numbered 1.

Curious, and a little apprehensive, Seth did. After the last exercise, he knew better than to think this was going to be easy.

"Three," Chadley stated. "Jump."

"Jump?" Brows raising, Seth made a little hop into the 3rd square. Well, that seemed a little anticlimactic.

"Together." Chadley gestured at his own feet. He shifted, pulling his heels and toes together in a rigid stance.

"Oh." Seth jumped back into square one, feet close together. Doing so made him use different muscles, and it required a little more effort. "Like this?"

Chadley nodded once. "Four."

Seth jumped into the fourth square, feet and legs held close together. He wondered what this whole exercise was for.

Chadley didn't give him much time to wonder, however. The man started firing off numbers one after another, forcing Seth to jump faster. He'd barely land in a new square before Chadley had him leaping to another, and soon it was nothing but number after number and jump after jump, to the point where Seth felt like a giant bouncy ball going haywire in a room full of rubber.

Then there were no more numbers.

Seth sagged, hands resting on his knees. His legs felt like jelly. His back hurt. And he wanted to sit down. Actually, lying down on the floor seemed like a better plan.

"Water," Chadley suggested. He was back at the table, scribbling something down in one of his books. A very slight frown tugged at his lips as did so. It made Seth glance over more than once as he drank another cup of water.

"Did I do okay?" Seth tried not to look too worried. He thought he was doing great, mostly because he hadn't fallen over on his face once today. That was a win in his books. So why was Chadley frowning?

As if sensing his concern, Chadley gave a curt nod. Then he wrote some more, before snapping the notebook shut and setting the pen down.

"Tired?" he asked.

Seth shrugged. "Maybe a little. What were those exercises for?"

"Reaction," Chadley answered. He paused, carefully considering, then added, "Agility."

"Ah, makes sense." Severance nodded slowly. He might have gotten his mobility back, but now Chadley was taking it a step further. This guy was turning out to be quite thorough, and Seth could appreciate that.

He placed his hands on his hips and stretched to one side, then the other. "Now what?"

Chadley tossed over a small rubber ball. Seth hadn't been paying attention, and it bounced off his arm before dropping to the wall. Chadley's face didn't even twitch as he stated, "Coordination."

Oh awesome. Seth retrieved the ball, a dry smile tugging at his mouth. I'm already off to a great start.

By the time he made it to the Grubbery for his shift, his surge of energy from the morning had faded. He was hungry and tired and ready for a nap. Unfortunately, he had to run around and look after the customers, while watching them devour Jake's finest cooking. It made his stomach rumble even more.

He comforted it by snitching a few fries from the fryer, but after the fifth time, Jake wordlessly shoved a plateful of chicken nuggets at him. Seth flushed at being caught, but happily snacked on them every time he went into the kitchen for an order or brought dirty dishes back.

Jake was good people.

Near the end of the day, when the flow of customers stopped and the clean-up began, Tripp popped into the kitchen and leaned against the counter. He watched as Seth put away the last batch of clean plates.

"How's it going?"

"Hm?" Seth glanced at him briefly, before bending to slide a stack of plates onto their designated shelves. "Good."

"That's good. Did you see Chadley today?"

"Yep." Finished with the plates, Seth grabbed a rag from the sink and rinsed it out.

"It looks like that's going pretty well."

"It is. He's pretty good at the whole physiotherapy thing." Seth began to wipe down the counters. "I didn't even break any dishes today."

Tripp chuckled. "I noticed. I'd say you recovered really well. More than, even."

That made Seth pause. He wasn't sure what the last bit was supposed to mean, but Jake chose that moment to come over and set a fresh plate of chicken nuggets on the counter. It came with a full side of fries, as well as a healthy serving of his specialty coleslaw.

Seth's eyes lit up at the sight. "Thanks Jake."

The big man merely grunted, and left the kitchen. His work was done for the day.

Finishing up the counter, Seth hung the rag up to dry and quickly settled in for his late meal. He nearly forgot Tripp was even there, until his boss snorted.

"Don't worry about closing up tonight, Seth. I've got some work to finish up in the office, so I'll be late. You can leave when you're finished."

"Got it." Seth watched him leave the kitchen, before he returned his attention to his meal. His gaze went to the clock on the wall.

It was just after 9pm, which meant that in an hour, he'd be in Eliona. Nervous anticipation trilled through him. He was going to be attempting a new raid, and while he was looking forward to the new challenge, he was also dreading it.

He only hoped Batin's training would pull him through and that none of his teammates would notice anything.