[b][i]Andrew Rivers[/i][/b]

[b][i]South Nui Awa - Unknown FPA HQ[/i][/b]

[i]50 push-ups, 50 sit-ups, and a set of radio calisthenics after that,[/i] Andrew Rivers thought as he spent the long days after the harrowing escape from Yuzhny Portveyn exercising, preparing his body and mind for an uncertain future. [i]We're not dead yet. We have hope. The outcome is still in the balance.[/i]

His jacket was draped over a chair; he took it with him even in his rare showers because it was proof he was a Green Knight, his link to his family. He had no doubt his father will be coming for him, that at the end of the day, Raven Rivers would find him, and they would all be one big happy family again - This was the hope that sustained him in these dark days. Hope, faith, love; Andrew had never been religious, but he appreciated those themes better now.

Not that he was a convert to anything; true, most of the books he had access to as a 'Guest' of the FPA were religious or devotional in nature, but Andrew took only bits and pieces of consolation from them. Instead, as he kept training, sharpening his body and mind, making the most of his stay in his room, consuming every bit of food and drink provided him, and occasionally trying to talk his 'minders' to give him the news, Andrew learned to wait.

Of the little family, it was his mother who was patient; his father can pretend to be such, but they all knew better. Andrew thought about what his mother must be suffering right now, how the entire civilian contingent of the Knights must be doing in Fort Tie Shan, and this time, he contained his resentments.

As he brushed the sweat from his forehead with a dirty rag, Andrew threw himself into another set of sit-ups on the floor of the room he had been locked in, no longer pretending he was above anger, above grief, above [i]hatred[/i]. He just learned a lesson his father hadn't done so, as far as he knew: [i]You can feel hatred, anger, and resentment, but you don't have to let it out. Hold it in, but do not hold it back; feel but keep it private[/i].

He was not going to explode, to grow psychotic, his anger will burn and smolder, but it will be channeled, metered out as needs must. This was what he promised himself, all alone in this dirty room, a 'Guest' of the Free People's Army, one who was trying to gain their trust but was now conscious that anything can happen to set that quest back. Anything.

[i]My life is no longer in my own hands. I don't have control of my fate. But that is not forever; I can wait now. Dad will come for me, and so will the Colonel. Another 50 sit-ups will do for the next hour, then I can rest, relax, meditate, and pray(?). Then I start again unless my minders offer me another plate of rice and a few bits of fish.[/i]

He checked his jacket to see if the FPA had allowed him to keep a few of the more 'innocent' items, such as a portable game console, a toy, or even candy. If they had, he can use that as a bribe to get some decent milk or even calcium supplements. If they hadn't, he'd offer to do manual labor for them in their base in exchange for those; carefully watched, of course, even though it'd be absurd for him to attempt to escape...