Wednesday came swiftly. Lenna arrived at the front desk of Spiritual Balance, greeted the secretary, and went up to where she was to meet Mr. Antonescu, on-time. She wore a similar outfit as last time, though this time around, the colors were more peaches and mango to go with the black leggings.

She knocked on the door. "Mr. Antonescu?"

Hopefully, she'd learn something new today. She didn't want to waste her time.

Hunter was sitting once again in the middle of the meditation room legs crossed and ands palm up on his knees with his eyes closed. He had spent the last fifteen minutes just clearing his mind. Opening his eyes as he finished his little session he saw Molly through the door. the soundproofing meant he hadn’t heard her knock but it didn’t look like she’d been standing there long.

With a smile he waved her through and motioned for her to sit in front of him. Once she’d opened the door he said, “Afternoon Molly, do come in. And please call me Hunter.” Lip reading was another skill Hunter had picked up over the years.

She couldn't have entered if he hadn't invited her in. Those were the rules.

He waved her in.

Lenna plopped down across from the immortal, and offered Hunter a small smile.

"Alright, Mr. Hunter," She said. "What's on the agenda today?"

“Just Hunter will suffice,” he said with a smile, “No need for formalities here. Today as was thinking I could teach you a few simple techniques. We’ll find which ones work best and build on them. Later we can try seeing what we can do about controlling your ability.” He’d not met a nullifier before, not even heard of one. While he didn’t know if he could help he had met mutants whose powers were active by default. With effort some worked out how to subdue them.

“We’ll start with a breathing, or pranayama, technique. This one is nice and simple. Just sit comfortably and observe how you breath at rest,” he instructed, giving her a moment to become aware of her shallow breathing, “Weak inhales and exhales. By taking deeper breaths we get larger, more therapeutic doses of oxygen and expel more of the carbon dioxide that builds up in our lungs. This has a physiological as well as psychological effect. Now the breathing pattern is four, four, eight. Inhale for four, hold for four and then exhale for four. It might turn out you don’t breath in for four seconds exactly but you’ll soon find your body’s natural rhythm. Try a dozen cycles now.”

No need for the 'Mr.' Okay, she got it. Lenna nodded sheepishly in understanding. Mr. Hunter wanted to be informal. She could do that. His lesson plan sounded good.

"Alright," Lenna replied.

She adopted a serious attitude as the lesson began. She sat, eyes closed, and she breathed. Slow and steady, low and calm. Four, four, eight. Four, four, eight. She relaxed, and let her mind focus on what he was teaching. She repeated the process until she found some sort of natural rhythm. Inhale, wait... exhale.

It was very calming...

Molly listened diligently as Hunter explained the technique and then began. She soon found her body’s natural rhythm and just went through the cycles. He took a moment to synchronise his breathing with hers until they had finished the dozen cycles.

“Good,” he praised, “Now we’ll add a little more of the mental aspect to this. With every inhale I want you to imagine drawing in healthy qualities like gentleness, health, tranquillity, vitality, understanding and so on. With every exhale imagine negative qualities leaving you such as pain, anger, illness, ignorance, impatience and so on. Let’s try another dozen cycles.”

Gentleness, health, tranquility, understanding... he was really selling the self-help swami show. Maybe he wasn't trying anything underhanded with this reappearance of his? Lenna followed his suggestions silently, concentrating on those thoughts, rather than her own. She breathed, and meditated on all of the aforementioned.

In, out, In, out. This was getting repititive. She tried to imagine her restlessness leaving her, tried to imagine calmness replacing it. Patience, understanding... all that jazz. She gave him a dozen cycles, focusing on the process and meditative efforts, just like Hunter wanted, silently hoping for something more to come from her efforts.

Having now done the exercise with all the aspects involved Hunter was ready to move on. Where to however would be up to you. “Where we progress from here is really your call,” he told her with a smile, “I can show you more meditation techniques or we can start working on controlling your ability”

Honestly he wasn’t sure how he could do that. There were various control exercises he could try and they could use him as a test to see whether or not she had reigned in her powers. While he wasn’t sure if this could be turned off there were few mutant abilities that were permanently on and there was no reason to believe that hers was.

"I'd like to try and practice controlling my ability," Lenna replied seriously. "If it's even possible."

It wouldn't be. She knew her aura's limits. A five foot radius was her maximum. As far as she knew, that wouldn't change.

But why she had come to his training dojo hadn't been to learn ability control. It hadn't even been meditation. She wished to know more about Hunter. According to Noin Mortman's reports, he seemed a far different man than the one who currently sat before her. Maybe she'd glean something of what caused this transformation in his teachings on mutation control.

"What's first?" Lenna asked.

Ability control it is then. “For starters how does it feel to have your power active?” he asked. Even passive abilities generally had unique feel to them that let you know that they were there. He didn’t know if it would be the case for Molly but Hunter felt it best to start there

If there was a unique feeling to it then they would have something to focus on to begin with. Something that Molly could try and manipulate to affect her power dampening field. If not then he would have to think of something else.

How did her powers feel... A tough question, right off the bat. "They don't," She replied, a bit downcast. "They're always active... like some kind of 'aura', extending around me. I can't sense when others enter or exit it. I can't feel it at all... is that a problem?"

She hoped not. It'd be awkward if the training ended right then, and there.

This wasn’t going to be easy if Molly couldn’t feel her aura but Hunter wasn’t a quiter. “Well it’ll certainly be more complicated if you can’t feel your power,” he admitted, “But I’m not willing to give up just yet.”

“There is a meditation technique called ‘witnessing impermanence’ that might help. The technique is intended to gain full control of your senses, your body and your emotions,” he explained, “It might help you get a feel for your power. What I want you to do it relax, sit comfortably, eyes open or shut, your choice, and follow my instructions.” Hunter began to slowly and calmly guide Molly into opening her inner eye and witnessing her true self. It might reveal more about her power.

“Relax your mind, body, and emotions. Inhale slowly, deeply. Hold as long as is comfortable and exhale slowly and deeply. Breathing naturally, witness what your sense of smell is receiving now. Appreciate its impermanence and the permanence of the ability to Witness.”
“Inhale slowly, deeply. Hold as long as is comfortable and exhale slowly and deeply. Breathing naturally, witness what your sense of taste is receiving now. Appreciate its impermanence and the permanence of the ability to Witness.”
“Inhale slowly, deeply. Hold as long as is comfortable and exhale slowly and deeply. Breathing naturally, witness what your sense of physical feeling is receiving now. Appreciate its impermanence and the permanence of the ability to Witness.”
“Inhale slowly, deeply. Hold as long as is comfortable and exhale slowly and deeply. Breathing naturally, witness what your sense of hearing is receiving now. Appreciate its impermanence and the permanence of the ability to Witness.”
“Inhale slowly, deeply. Hold as long as is comfortable and exhale slowly and deeply. Breathing naturally, witness what your sense of sight is receiving now. Appreciate its impermanence and the permanence of the ability to Witness.”
“Inhale slowly, deeply. Hold as long as is comfortable and exhale slowly and deeply. Breathing naturally, witness what your sense of emotional feeling is experiencing now. Appreciate its impermanence and the permanence of the ability to Witness.”
“Inhale slowly, deeply. Hold as long as is comfortable and exhale slowly and deeply. Breathing naturally, witness what your mind is experiencing now. Appreciate its impermanence and the permanence of the ability to Witness.”
“Inhale slowly, deeply. Hold as long as is comfortable and exhale slowly and deeply. Breathing naturally, Witness. “

Hunter wasn't a quitter. Very good.

Lenna nodded, adopting a smile of determination. "That's good. Then, neither will I."

Lenna got in position, focusing on the desired actions and Hunter's words. Witnessing impermanence sounded like an interesting technique. What it entailed, Lenna wasn't certain yet. Hunter quickly made it clear what she needed to do.

She needed to relax. Lenna let her shoulders slump, tension receding. She changed her breathing to a slow and steady calm.

With each breath, she was told to focus on a sense. A sense of smell, a sense of taste, a sense of hearing... and a sense of emotional existence.

Scent. She smelled her mango shampoo. The faint scent of lemon came from somewhere. Someone must have cleaned the training room recently. She moved on.

Taste. She didn't taste anything. No. That wasn't quite true. She tasted the interior of her mouth, and the backs of her teeth. That was a taste unique to her.

On, to physical sensations. Shoulders. The feeling of her legs against the mat. Her own weight. The strength that came with it. Fingers, touching the palms of her hands as she focused on breathing. They rested on her crossed legs. Her toes, housed within her shoes, curled. Skin against sock against shoe interior. The tongue was pressing up against the top of her foot. There was so much to feel.

And it all changed constantly.

Like sound. Hunter's voice. Her own breathing. The silence of the soundproofed room.

And sight. Darkness. But it wasn't darkness, truly. It was the back of her eyelids. It was skin. And through skin, sometimes light managed to seep. Light, making the blank darkness a strange reddish-orange. And if one stared at the light, the faint impression of the light's shape, a roundness, sometimes lingered in the back of the mind. Even with eyes closed, one could detect a shift in the visible spectrum of light.

Emotions?

Calm. She wasn't rushing this. Even if Lenna wanted the quick way to the solution, she knew there wouldn't be shortcuts, and that she couldn't force enlightenment. She knew she valued the idea of knowledge of one's self. It was paramount. It wouldn't come easily. Sometimes, she forgot how much she wanted that. To know herself. To not be ruled by emotions. Not to feel obligations, not to be weighed down by anything.

Those were her thoughts, now. She focused on that desire. To know. What could she know? What could she learn? And was it true, that knowledge was fleeting. One never truly could 'know'? They could only have a 'good idea'.

She focused on that, and she witnessed.

Molly seemed more than willing to keep trying. She listened intently and followed his instructions as he guided her into a state of heightened awareness that let her truly experience herself in a way she hadn’t before.

Hunter was impressed that she managed to calm herself and allow it to happen. His final instruction had left her at one with herself. Rather than do anything to break her focus he simply synchronised his breathing with hers so it wouldn’t be a distraction and let her witness herself properly, possibly for the first time.

This was the technique that he himself had used to work out how to limit his abilities that he had previously assumed were simply always active. By taking the time to truly witness himself he saw things that he hadn’t noticed in over four centuries of life. With the new found understanding of himself he had progressively worked on limiting his own abilities. It had taken him two years as well as the guidance of a true master who had remoulded his innate psychic abilities to help him. While he didn’t know if the same could be done for Molly he was willing to try.

In her previous life, she'd been like a fire, burning. Whatever she touched usually went up in flames. Her relationships, her business arrangements... her life. She had gambled, and she had killed. She'd held her own perfection and moral status above everyone elses.

She had talked big talk, speaking as if she knew the world. She'd spoken of enlightenment, of mythic cowboys. Of how people earned the death she brought. It was justified, she'd reasoned.

She'd thought she was free from it. Her acts didn't reflect back on her. She'd thought that... but as she sat there, focusing on herself, she slowly reazlized something... that was a lie.

She was a hypocrite.

No.

She'd been a hypocrite. Fighting for her own values, but with her morality for hire, she'd gunned, and she'd run. She'd punished killers for killing, but maybe... she'd enjoyed the act of punishing them a bit, herself.

Was there some sort of blood lust she had? Some sort of compulsion to kill? To bring about violence? Was she still that person?

Lenna's lips drew thin as she focused on that. Images of Romania came to mind. Gunfire... grinning... watching her own good work come undone by Slate's hand. She hadn't needed to kill, yet she'd done just that.

They had deserved it, the guards. That much was true.

She hadn't needed to bring it to them. She wasn't perfect.

She didn't always have to be right. Morally speaking, was there a true right or wrong? Was she the same person that did that, now? After all she'd been through working for him? Working for Slate?

Was she a product of her own making... or could she put that behind her? Was she that same person?

No.

She took another breath. She wasn't. She didn't have to be ruled by her emotions. Simple as that.

The realization might have been freeing to some. To others, it might have been limiting. Lenna didn't know where she fell. This wasn't a major catharsis. All she knew was that people changed. People changed... and people relapsed. Working for the Kabal while working for the Order, she walked a fine line between the two. Did it matter if she was a hypocrite? No. And did it matter if she was imperfect? She could make mistakes. Sure. All she had to do was control herself, and do the best she could do.

She'd learn. Okay. That was a start.