Alex stirs as he slowly begins to regain his senses. He had an awful night due to not sleeping properly as the pain in his chest aggravated him. Each time he woke he was dazzled by the bright light that never seemed to be switched off and he had to squint until his eyes adjusted. He had also noticed that his prana concentrated around his core and the denser it was the more it hurt. He found that the only way to alleviate the pain was to push the prana away from his core and around his body. He could only push the prana full force as his control was still not great and this gave him a few minutes of relief. However, the prana would soon rush back to his core, which made his wound flare in pain usually causing him to blackout.

Due to the lights being permanently on Alex is unsure of the time, but estimates that it’s near dawn. He refrains from trying to push the prana away from his core and tries to tolerate the pain. When he is fully awake he focuses on his core and then begins to tentatively examine his chest wound with his fingers, but still feels sharp pains. He takes a deep breath and tries to slowly circulate his prana once more and sighs in relief when the pain reduces. Then he braces, as he feels the prana speed around his body before heading back to his core, as the intense stabbing pain hits again.

After trying and failing to control the speed of his prana flow, for what felt like hours, he begins to hear movement in the distance. Sighing in frustration, he slowly gets up from the floor and then straightening his posture winces in pain. He starts to tentatively perform stretching exercises and after ten minutes he positions himself in the start position for performing a kata. He remains motionless as he focuses on the prana around his core and then he slowly commences the pattern of a simple kata. As his body moves through the familiar patterns, using pure muscle memory and requiring little thought, as he begins to push the prana towards his skin. The prana flies to his extremities and then tries to return to his core, so he battles to push it back to his skin.

Every time he fails to keep the prana from returning and collecting at his core he experiences an intense piercing pain that disrupts the smooth flow of his kata. He then grits his teeth and inhales fully for maximum lung capacity, calming his breathing. He again pushes his prana to flow around his body as he tries to get it to match his movements. He continues moving and shifts back into the familiar pattern, letting his body transition through the positions. He closes his eyes to keep the sweat running down his face out. He once more concentrates on his prana as it moves around his body and he realizes that it seems to flow in a pattern.

It looks as if it flows to his stomach and then to his intestines where part of the prana is absorbed into his other organs such as his liver and kidneys. Then the prana splits and flows into his arms and legs before cycling back to his spine and up to his head. The prana then flows down his neck and into his lungs before going to his heart and finally returning to his core. He watches as he starts to increase the speed of the moves that are the familiar kata pattern while forcing the flowing prana to match. He deliberates on how the prana seems to reinforce his position, stability and power. Stepping forward quickly he explosively punches with his short shouted Kiai. He then returns to his starting position whilst taking deep breaths.

“What did Mistress Lyrei about being able to see the prana?” He mutters as he paces around the perimeter of his small cell. He couldn't imagine how he could see prana but remembers the bright blue flash as stabbed Kracc in the chest. Was that flash prana and did that flash damage his core? Then he remembers the look in Kracc’s eyes and he spirals into self-disgust and began to mutter "I have killed; I am no longer innocent. Why did I need to kill both Drosz and Kracc? I could have just knocked them out.” While he is distracted the prana blazes back to his core and he collapses to the ground with a grunt of pain. He gasps, then mumbles, “Ah, that hurts.”

He clenches his fist in frustration, then contemplates that the movement of the prana is simple enough, just think of where you want it to go and it’s there. As soon as you stop thinking about moving it around, it shoots back to the core and that’s painful. He recognizes that he needs to gain control of the rate of flow to at least manage the level of pain. So, what was it Candy said about visualizing a tap controlling the speed of the flow? He tries to see how he can restrict the flow back to the core.

Alex settles back into the position he uses for meditation and begins to push his prana around his body. He focuses on what’s happening under the surface of his skin while trying not to delve too far inside. He perceives that there seems to be a faint blue glow all around the blood vessels, muscle, and bone; he deduces these are channels with rivulets of prana snaking through everything. It feels like constantly flowing water, entirely different from the pulses as his heart pumps blood. He focuses on the rivulets and follows the prana in the channels back towards his core noticing that as more merge the flow thickens. As he continues to follow the flow it eventually returns to his core and he determines that this is the point he needs to control it.

He begins to visualize the channel that feeds prana into his core squashing down. After a few minutes, he determines that the flow into his core is reducing and that the prana is filling up his channels. He notices his muscles begin to twitch and his heart rate rapidly increases. This continues as it becomes more and more uncomfortable. He tries to push the prana out towards his skin and this seems to work briefly alleviating the discomfort, but then his skin begins to prickle. He perceives the hairs on his arms stand on end, then what feels like electricity flow up towards his head.

He snaps his eyes open and spots, small specks, dots, and squiggles floating in the air, and he tries to focus on them only to have them flit away. He looks down at his arms and noticed flickering blue lights or lightning streaks that he knew weren't really there. Then a tingling starts behind his eyes and he feels that everything is spinning. He momentarily forgets what he was trying to do and suddenly he is very afraid, which then transitions into confusion as the prana moves through his head. He tries to lift his hands to his head, but they’re paralyzed.

He begins to panic as he feels he is losing control of the prana within his head. The pain in his head increases and he grits his teeth as it feels as if the top of his heads going to explode. He suddenly remembers a preacher declaring the commandment ‘thou shalt not kill’ was wrong. The scripture actually said, ‘Thou shalt not murder.’ The preacher then declared if you're in a moral, just war, and if you look at the Old Testament, God supported a lot of wars and warriors, and that it’s not murder to kill your enemy.

He begins to mumble, “I don't understand; he can’t possibly be here…… Everything that I thought was true must be false…… I don’t want to die…… I can’t give up; I won’t give up…… Nobody is coming to save me, so I need to save myself.”

As he begins to lose concentration the prana flows down to his chest and then he feels a stabbing pain and he reacts by trying to drive the prana away from his core. However, it only jumps a short distance and goes directly to the chest wound. He keeps pushing the prana away from his core and into the wound and it begins to itch before it flares with heat. As he stares down in surprise, he perceives a small arc of blue lightning and then he slumps to the floor and blacks out.

Alex suddenly jerks back into lucidity and exclaims, “What the hell’s going on?”

He swiftly focuses on his chest wound and he places his hand over it and gently rubs. He feels that the pain is not as sharp anymore. He takes a deep breath and moves his hand away and considers whether the wound looks different. He thinks back and he’s sure it looks less inflamed as he sighs in relief as he perceives the lessening pain.

All of a sudden he laughs, as he realizes he can use prana to heal by forcing it into a wound. If you simply direct it, it fails. He concludes that prana must also constantly improve and repair your body. He frowns, but does it really do that on its own without direction? Or is he subconsciously telling it what to do? Does he really care either way? Prana has no physical form, it just seems to be a type of energy and it can be found in every part of his body. He seems to be able to generate unlimited amounts and all he now needs to do is force prana to obey his will. He doesn’t need to fight it just commend it and it will naturally know the path it needs to take to make him stronger.

He is excited at the revelation. Then he sits on the floor spending a while to calm his mind, and then he begins to push the prana out of his core and towards his skin to alleviate the pain. He again tries to imagine the channel that connects back to his core being squashed, but this time it does not seem to be as effective. He tries to force the channel to close and the flow to stop. Then he suddenly succeeds, but quickly feels his channels fill to the point where they feel like they are bursting. He nearly blacks out, but manages to release the channel he has blocked and realizes that the cycle of his prana flow has reversed.

Before he can contemplate what this means he hears guards approach his cell and he tenderly slides forward and kneels. Just as he does the cell door opens and a guard steps in and briskly hands him another orange bottle of basic with a black ring around the top.

“Drink it.” The guard commands and Alex complies.

As Alex begins to drink, as he gazes at the guard's feet, he unexpectedly perceives that there is prana in the air. The prana is not very dense and it doesn’t feel right. It has an aspect that seems alien and it puts him on edge while it floats around the guard.

“Come on, drink faster. I have better things to do.” Snaps the guard.

Alex drinks the rest of the basic as fast as he can without retching. He hands the bottle back to the guard who snatches it from his grip before saying. “Get cleaned up you stink of blood.” Then briskly turning and storming out of the cell.

Alex looks at the dried blood stains on his tunic, they have gone a dark blue. He then gets distracted as he can still feel some of the alien prana in the cell with him and he watches it drift around the cell cautiously. After a while, he begins to relax as the alien prana does not move too near him.

He resumes his meditation and goes over all of the steps he needs to take to heal. He slows his breath and imagines the process of forcing his prana into his chest wound. He draws the energy from his core and cycles around his body, then forces it into his chest. He deepens his breathing as he struggles to ensure the prana does what he wants it to. Abruptly his lungs are on fire and he wraps his arms around his chest as he tries to alleviate the agony. He pushes his prana to his lungs and hopes it will make the pain go away. He perceives his prana coating the inside of his lungs and this stops the burning.

He tries to sense what happened and he feels some of the alien prana in his lungs. His body tried to eject the prana, but couldn’t due to it being deep in his lungs. He had initially stopped breathing when the pain hit and he was now trying to take shallow breaths to minimize the risk of it returning. He pushes his own prana to surround the alien prana so that he can move it out of his lungs.

Then the unforeseen happens, when the alien prana is surrounded, it changes to mirror his own. He is astonished but then smiles as he goes back to surrounding the rest of the alien prana and each time he does it’s converted. He envisions what is happening with a furrowed brow and realizes that he just needs to draw the prana from the air and surround it with his own to change it. He can then absorb it into his body and move it to his core. He stands and moves to where the rest of the alien prana is floating. With each breath, Alex imagines the alien prana he is collecting through his breathing, flowing into his lungs and being converted.

Alex laughs, then mutters, “It can't be that simple. There has to be a catch, you don’t get something for nothing.”

He removes his tunic and rinses it through the water from the nozzle and then inspects it. The dried blood has been mostly washed away but the bloodstains are still visible. After he wrings the tunic out as best he can before giving it a tentative sniff and decides it decidedly smells less. He puts the wet tunic back on then settles back into performing kata’s while pushing prana to his skin and restricting the flow back to the core. After doing this for ages he is sweating heavily and feels drained. His channels also feel strained, but thankfully his core is less painful. He slumps back into the corner and then checks his chest wound, it’s definitely healing and he smiles in satisfaction.

Unexpectedly, he hears someone screaming ‘Let Me Out of Here’ over and over with so much anguish there was no doubt he was screaming from his very soul. But he was just screaming what all those who are in the pit are thinking. Alex contemplates that every day is a challenge here. A challenge to survive. A challenge against insanity. He then, as it quiets down, falls into a fitful sleep.

When he wakes Alex falls into a routine as he practices healing as much as possible. Especially since on this world, it's survival of the strongest and he will likely get injured often. He considers that as long as he can survive a fight, he would now be able to heal himself, and he knew he must survive to be able to find his way home. He begins to again force the prana from his core and flow into the chest wound and he’s sure that he has increased both his strength and his stamina.

He decides to intensify his training and begins to punch and kick the walls, until he feels his muscles begin to rip, his bones start to fracture, and his ligaments tear, then he stops and heals. After a while, he notices that it’s harder and harder to fracture his fists, arms, legs and feet. The bones have become heavier, stronger, denser. He then starts headbutting, elbowing and kneeing the wall to make them stronger as well.

After he has received his fifth bottle of basic he touches his chest and mumbles, “Can't feel a thing."