In addition to her typical responsibilities, Hanna had hefted upon herself a new task: training all the goddamn time. She had witnessed her shortcoming in so many ways -- both real and imagined -- and she had frankly had enough of it. Death had been such a fitting place for her because it was a hand-on intelligence operation, less scientific than Life but with a bite to them that she found herself hungry for. There was no mistaking the thrill she got with a well-aimed strike. It had been a thrill she had been purposely revisiting for the last week.

After an hour of drilling strikes on the training dummies outside, Hanna had taken a break. She climbed up the ledge of an uneven wall to the right of the dummies and sat down at its top, legs dangling 6 feet above the ground. She liked heights. It felt exciting.

Her hands, however, were suffering from so much training. Her palms were bloodied and cracked. Soon, it would become the calluses she so missed, but for now, it was just painful. Totally painful. Adelphe was in totem form -- a pair of bone earrings in the shape of a wing currently decorating Hanna's earlobes. This left her pained hands free to fish a salve out of her pocket to rub over the tenderness. Sure, she healed faster than before, but it wasn't a perfect science. Medicine helped too.

There was more to today than just training. She had heard a familiar face from way back had returned to the Island. Unfortunately, Hanna didn't know her number or last name -- just Scarlett and the room where she had once lived. So she left a note inviting her out for training before dinner. There was an hour left before that time, but that familiar face had not reappeared. It was a shame. Hanna was tired of all these new things; she was ready to embrace some of the old.