Sylas

SYLAS

T he sword flashes, and I parry with a sliding scrape of mine. I've been in this place for nova-hours, fighting, defending, fighting some more against the practice bots.

My torso is black with my blood, streaked over my arms with sweat. My wings are flecked with it. The pommel of the sword is slick in my hand. I scrub my face and move into an attacking position, ready for the next wave of bots.

But they don't come. And I don't move. I'm not done yet.

"You're in good shape, just as my healer predicted." Medius's voice echoes around me as the lights dim. "Do you long to be back here?"

A holo projection of the dome fires up around me, complete with the roar of the crowd. It spins and swirls around me.

But without the scent of death, I am not there.

"I never wanted to be in the dome in the first place. I was sent there…"

I was going to say after the uprising, like I always do, but the screams in my head are different somehow. Not of battle and not of my making.

"You sent me there. You did," I snarl, lifting my sword and flinging it up above me to where the projector is situated.

With a phut and a spark, it hits the projector, and I'm left in almost darkness, which I take complete advantage of, flattening myself against the wall and moving swiftly through to where the bots exit and enter. My claws make swift work of the mechanism, and I'm out of the practice arena into a service conduit before the alarm sounds.

I need to get to Alex, and I need to remember, but she and our young come first. Medius will not have them. Alex is mine, she will always be mine. Once I have her in my arms, I will destroy him and any other Zavaro who attempt to take me on.

Whatever I once was, I am a gladiator of the Gryn now.

The alarm stops as quickly as it starts.

"I will find you, , wherever you go." Medius mocks me over the comm. "You need to fulfill your destiny or risk the life of your mate."

"You're the one risking your life," I growl under my breath. "Because when I find you, I will kill you."

"Your rage will be your undoing," Medius says, almost as if he's in my head. "Like it was before."

Is he deliberately taunting me about my past, the one I still can't quite grasp? The one which hovers at the edges of my mind, pushing in occasionally, then is snatched away before I can take hold of it.

I rage now, I raged in the dome. I raged, and it got me into trouble. The time I did not rage was when I found my eregri , when I was with her, held by her.

I take in a long, deep breath, filling my tumbling mind with thoughts of her. Of Alex. Her face upturned to mine, light reflected in her beautiful eyes. The way her cheeks have two red spots on them after I kiss her and how she bites her bottom lip just before I do.

She is my entire world, and no one, no species, no enemy is taking her from me.

A buzzing alerts me to the bot behind me, the one with a pulsar weapon. Medius isn't taking any chances, and given I want to get to Alex, I can't risk injury. I let it shove me out of the conduit and into the waiting clutches of a Bognarok.

"You do know their poison doesn't work on me, don't you?" I say to Medius. "I've been up against Bognarok many times in the dome, and I defeated them all."

I glare at the leader, one with a red hexagon on his head. He clacks his pincers with annoyance.

"One Gryn cannot defeat all Bognarok," he says, voice metallic through the translator.

"Want to try?" I extend my claws.

He takes a pace forward.

"Enough," Medius snaps. "You are going in the dome for one last fight, and this is one which you will lose."

"I don't lose," I growl, the image of victory pressing into my mind.

"This one you will. I'm not risking the full return of your memory, given everything appears to have stalled," he says with a sneer. "And given there's credits to be made in the dome, I'm going to use you to my advantage."

"I will not lose," I respond.

"You will if you value the life of your mate," he spits.

"Then I want to see her first. Show me proof she is unharmed, and I will fight for you." I pull myself up to my full height and fold my wings back.

"No," Medius says. "You'll be fighting regardless, it's just she won't be dying on your behalf."

Why won't he show me Alex?

"What makes you think I'll fight without incentive?"

"Same reason you always fight, . You can't help yourself. And this time you're going to be fighting the best Zavaro has to offer, our shadow soldiers."

A memory pricks its way through the fog. Shadow soldiers.

I don't feel rage, though, I feel like a weapon. One which has to destroy all sent by the enemies of the Gryn, even if I didn't know I had any other than those…faceless creatures…who held me at the farm.

But the farm wasn't real, none of what I thought was my past is my past.

"Shadow soldiers," I snarl.

"You want to fight now, don't you, ?" Medius laughs. "Take him to the dome."

And in that instant, I know I will never see Alex again.