Ky continued getting beaten down by 0111. No matter how many times he tried to counterattack, nothing was working. She either would dodge his attack after he reversed time or she'd simply counterattack before he had the chance to do anything.

Once again, Ky found himself with his back to the ground. He was growing exhausted and the girl seemed to still be completely full of energy. "You are exhausted 1226. Perhaps you should give up. I am sure Mr. Waller would accept your request of being eliminated early. You are weak."

Ky rose to his feet, staring at the emotionless girl with determination in his eyes. What she was telling him was true, he was far inferior to her. However, he wouldn't let that stop him. He still had plenty of unfinished business to take care of.

Ken was possibly still out there somewhere. If that was the case, he needed to find him and save him from whatever facility he was placed in. His journey could not end here.

Ky took a deep breath before attempting to completely clear his mind of all thoughts. "That isn't going to work. Even if you clear your 'thoughts', your brain still gives instructions to the rest of your body. I know your every move."

Ky didn't care what she had to say. He ignored her words and once again attacked her with a formless punch. Using her palm, 0111 pushed his arm to the side and threw out a palm strike toward his chest.

Ky reversed time, once again to the point in time where she avoided his attack. Knowing he had already reversed time and knew her next move, 0111 changed it up and dropped low to the ground, and attempted to sweep-kick him. However, Ky simply reversed time once again to the point where his punch initially was blocked.

"It doesn't matter-" 0111 tried to speak as she attacked him once more, throwing a palm attack that was aimed directly at his throat, however, Ky turned back time once more. 0111 of course was not experiencing these time reversals, however, reading his mind once time reset for Ky told her that he had already reversed time three times.

0111 took a step back. "So this is your strategy? Turning back time over and over?" she seemed annoyed, despite the fact that time reversal had no effect on her technically. For the first time, he could sense the smallest fraction of some sort of emotion within the girl, perhaps frustration. 'What's wrong, you scared? My strategy is close, huh?' Ky thought to himself, but he knew she could hear him.

"I am not capable of feeling such emotions." the girl reverted back to her emotionless, machine-like self before running at Ky with everything she had. No matter what she told him, Ky knew that he was right. Even if it wasn't fear that she felt, she still knew that whatever Ky was doing might lead to him figuring out a way to beat her.

Once 0111 was in striking distance, she aimed an attack with her knee toward Ky's chest, however, he was able to backstep it fairly easily without using his time-warping ability. She then turned her body around before moving her arms in the same motion as the arms of a clock, aiming two palms toward his face.

Ky reversed time to the point where he dodged her knee attack. This time, instead of doing the same attack afterward, 0111 aimed a palm strike at his chest. Ky reversed time once more and repeated this process over and over, forcing her to change her strategy every time they ended up back to the point where she threw the original knee attack.

After about ten-time reversals, Ky once again reversed time to the point where he dodged her knee attack and punched her in the face, landing his strike right on her chin and sending her straight to the floor. 'Oh shit.' he thought to himself. He didn't mean to punch her that hard, but he didn't know his own strength due to his enhancements.

Regardless, Ky was pleased to see that his strategy seemed to work. He knew that 0111 was reading his mind at the exact moment he dodged her knee attack. Due to time being reset for him, all of his thoughts were being collected and reset at that time, overwhelming her mind-reading ability.

Once there were so many thoughts going through Ky's mind in just that one second, she was unable to read what he would do next fast enough, allowing him to land one single attack.

Despite Ky finally having a viable strategy, he could feel himself beginning to get a migraine. He had already reversed time over sixty times since their training started, but due to them being spaced out over the last few minutes, he hadn't hit his limit yet. From his understanding, he could only reverse time sixty times if the time reversals are all in quick succession. If he spaces them out, he could do far more.

He pictured a sort of gauge in his head, one similar to a gauge one would find in a video game. Every time he used his time reversal ability, that gauge would fill up 1/60th of the way. However, over time, the gauge would slowly go down to zero, meaning he could use his ability more than sixty times if this hypothetical gauge became less full over time.

However, doing all of those time reversals so quickly to outsmart 0111 was taking a toll on him and that imaginary gauge was almost filled.

0111 could sense this and immediately got back up on her feet. "As I said. You are capable of exhaustion and I am not!" 0111 dashed forward aiming a palm attack at Ky who was still wincing from his head throbbing.

Ky dodged to the side, using his own speed and strength to dodge her attack. He tried counterstriking with a punch of his own, only to get it to read and slapped away by the back of her hand. "I hear your thoughts. You think you can just hold out until you can use your abilities without worry!" 0111 continued a barrage of palm strikes aimed at Ky's chest, but he continued to dodge them with efficiency. He couldn't take her in a fight, but his speed allowed him to avoid her attacks regardless.

"I don't just think I can do that, I know I can. You might be stronger, more experienced, and a better fighter, but as long as I don't engage until I am ready, I'm good." Ky continued backstepping as he spoke, seeing the frustration continuing to build up on her face.

As a palm strike whiffed past his face, Ky stopped time, going back to the moment just before she began throwing the attack out. Once time resumed, Ky threw a punch, only for her to read it and step backward after reading his mind at the moment. "Do you believe Mr. Waller will be impressed by this display? You heard him, yes? One of us will die. Why would he enlist you with your coward's strategies." with her arms trailing behind her, 0111 dashed at Ky before once again throwing a barrage of punches.

"Maybe he'll be impressed with my flexibility, my ability to quickly come out on top despite being disadvantaged." Ky continued to dodge, however, one of his evasion attempts was too sloppy, allowing 0111 to barely land a strike on his chest with her palm. However, Ky started to reverse time, despite already having gotten hit.

As time reversed in slow motion in front of him, he could feel the pain in his body begin to soothe as 0111's palm continued to stray further away from him. Due to her attacks hitting him so hard before, he was too distracted by the pain and missed his one-second window to reverse time. 'I see... so any damage I take can be simply reversed? My body no longer feels the pain.'

Once time resumed, Ky was able to dodge the attack thanks to having a second chance. 0111 stopped in her tracks, reading Ky's mind as he thought about how he just reversed taking any damage from her. "Do you believe Mr. Waller will be impressed by this display?" Ky mocked the girl by repeating what she said to him previously verbatim. "Why would he enlist someone who can't land a single attack? You see, when I was getting my ass beat, I was too distracted by the pain to even think about reversing time. As long as I keep my focus, I'll simply erase all of your attacks from existence."

Ky, for the first time, felt confident. As long as he kept reversing time after getting hit, it would look like he was never touched by her to those observing them. Despite this fact, 0111 did not give up. She knew that he couldn't just constantly reverse time. She knew she had a limit. She could read that gauge in his mind that was constantly being filled.

With no other ideas, 0111 attacked Ky with everything she had. Ky stayed on the defensive, occasionally getting hit only to reverse the damage from ever happening.

The only issue with Ky's strategy was that he would not be able to land an attack on 0111, as she would read his mind and dodge his counterattack. They were in a stalemate, and for the next hour, neither one of them landed a single attack on the other.

0111 was clearly starting to become exhausted as she was breathing heavily. She had never been pushed to her limits like this before. Even when she trained in her martial art, she'd never tried this hard to win a fight. She was, in fact, fighting for her life this time, doing her best to prove her worth living.

Ky was also exhausted, breathing heavily a few feet from her, however, his exhaustion was tenfold hers. After an hour straight of fighting, even with his body's enhancements, he felt as if he were about to collapse.

However, before it could come to that, both his and 0111's power dampeners activated and multiple officers wearing battle armor stormed into the room. Just behind them was Dr. Waller himself, walking in with a plate that had two glasses with some strange milky liquid inside them. "Hello, my two favorite pupils!" he spoke to them as if they were close friends as he always did before handing Ky one of the glasses of the liquid.

Ky held it in his hands and looked at it with skepticism as Waller gave 0111 the other glass. 0111 downed it in an instant, whereas Ky hesitated. "What the hell is this?" Ky asked, wanting to know the details before putting anything into his body. Waller laughed at Ky's puzzled expression before giving a half-assed explanation. "It's like a protein shake but for mutants. You'll feel much better after drinking it. Try it."

Waller watched with a smile as Ky looked at the milky liquid with his eyebrows furrowed. 'I guess I don't have a choice.' Ky thought to himself before downing the shake in one go. It tasted almost like a vanilla shake with peanut butter, and almost instantly, Ky could feel his body start to recover.

Waller could tell by Ky's expression that the shake was working. "Feels good, right? You two have five minutes and it's back to training. See you in another hour!" Waller and his guards walked out of the room, shutting the door behind them and leaving the two warriors, along with the three guards who oversaw them, in the room.

Ky looked over at 0111, seeing her sitting on the floor with her knees to her chest, just like she was when he first entered the room an hour prior. He didn't really get the chance to take a really good look at her without her warrior's gaze before, but he couldn't help but admire her beauty.

Her skin was perfectly clear like a doll's and her amber eyes seemed kind when they weren't staring at him blankly or with anger. When she wasn't fighting, Ky might even have described her as cute, especially with her long, twin pigtails hairstyle. 'I guess it's good that these power dampeners are on...' he thought to himself.

"They've been off ever since Waller left." 0111 didn't look up at Ky as she said this, still staring at the ground as she spoke.

Immediately, Ky began to feel embarrassed. 0111's next few words, however, would confuse him rather than increase that embarrassment. "I do not understand the concept of attraction. Therefore, there is no need for you to feel ashamed. Please stop, it's making me feel nauseous."

"Sorry... Right, you're an empath on top of being a mind reader. So you can also feel other people's emotions?" Ky figured that because of this, her body was probably emulating his embarrassment.

"That is in fact what an empath is." she told him frankly.

Without moving from his position, Ky sat on the ground and faced her, pondering as he looked at her face. "No. I will not tell you my name." she told him. "I will not tell you anything about me."

It was obvious by now that she was callous and closed off, but Ky wondered why. There was something about her that made him want to learn more, but it seemed that it would be impossible.

"Why not?" he asked her.

"Because one of us will die in two months' time, therefore, having you as a confidant would prove pointless to me." she was right. There was no point in the two of them conversing any further. They weren't friends or partners. They were enemies trying to prove why they should live over the other. Despite it all, however, Ky didn't care.

"Just because we're going to die in two months doesn't mean we should make those two months miserable. I just wanted to know more about you..." Ky spoke with sincerity, and for the first time, 0111 looked at him before frowning and asking him one question. "Why?"

"I don't know. I figured since I'd be seeing you every day for eight hours a day for the next sixty days, I should get to know you. I'd assume it'd be lonely to just keep to yourself the whole time." once again, Ky's sincerity confused her. She didn't understand what he was saying, despite being an empath.

"Loneliness... that is a concept I do not fully grasp. How could one be alone if there are five of us in the room as we speak?" she asked him.

"Loneliness isn't just a physical concept. It's also a psychological one too. Just because someone is in the same room as you, that doesn't mean you can't be lonely at the same time." Ky's explanation still did not help her understand the concept.

"Why would one seek out to fix this psychological loneliness if it has no form, therefore is not real." she once again asked a heavy question, though Ky had an answer for her rather quickly.

"Because it is real." he told her, giving her a simple but real answer.

Before she could respond, a buzzer sounded and the guards inside the room with them barked orders at them. "Continue sparring!"

As ordered, the two of them continued sparring and for the next seven hours, they repeated the process of training relentlessly before speaking to each other for what little time they had, or at least, Ky tried to speak. After that brief conversation, 0111 didn't come close to opening up to that level again, continuing to act like a cold machine.