14. Kren

Ihad been reborn. Making love with Ivy was the most thrilling and exciting thing I'd ever done. Every inch of her spiked my arousal and I couldn't wait to be with her again.

But there was risk.

What if she was taken again by another fighter? Used and tossed aside like garbage?

I couldn't stand it. I wouldn't stand for it.

Ivy was right. There was no way I could protect her forever. There was no way I could remain strong enough to ensure she was always safe.

One loss and I might lose her.

Surviving in this place was fine for me. Not for her.

I was excited that for the first time in my life I had someone worth living for, someone besides me and my own survival.

I needed to protect her, make sure she would be safe.

Shortly after Ivy left my cell, I washed and dressed and knew exactly what I had to do.

I wasn't sure if the Supervisor would speak with me but I had to try.

I stepped out of my cell. The other prisoners were already heading to the pits to either fight or make their bets on those who would. I would have to go down there later to take my position in the lineup.

First, I had something else I needed to do.

I drifted down the long hallways in a direction I hadn't walked in a very long time. I passed a gang of fighters who eyed me with jealous eyes. I so rarely looked up from fighting that I never really noticed the atmosphere of the place I found myself in.

Had it always been this dismal and depressing? Or did it only look that way because Ivy made the world seem so much brighter?

I crossed the gangway and climbed two flights of stairs before reaching the guards standing outside the Supervisor's research facility.

There were no other fighters in this part of the prison. They knew better than to look or act menacing anywhere near the Supervisor.

I stopped half a dozen yards from the guards. They stiffened, aware of my approach, but did not open fire.

It was a good sign.

"I'm here to see the Supervisor," I said. "I need to speak with him."

"The Supervisor is busy," the guard on the left with the dented visor said.

Dented visor? From when I kicked him in the head?

Great. This was sure to make things much easier to get what I wanted.

"I don't want any trouble," I said. "I have something I need to speak with him about. Just let him know I'm here. I'll accept whatever decision he makes."

The guards were silent and didn't move a muscle for a good thirty seconds. It's a long time when you're just staring at someone.

Finally, the one with the dented visor spoke but it wasn't to me, it was to the communicator in his visor. He spoke in a much softer, more respectful tone than the one he barked at me.

"Prisoner 43567 here to see you," the guard said.

He was quiet a moment as he listened to the response.

"Yes, sir," the guard said.

The guards moved to one side, turned sideways, and let me approach.

I eyed them warily as I shoved the door open and entered the research facility. The guards followed hot on my heels.

What did I think? That they weren't going to follow and keep a close eye on me?

I entered the facility. It was busy with scientists rushing to and fro, busy with their experiments.

The way I remembered it.

It wasn't easy for me to return to this place. It'd always seemed so futuristic compared to the prison outside which was basic by necessity. Any advanced computers or wiring could too easily be used as weapons against their captors.

Already, the first fight in the pit was underway. I could hear the roaring voices of the crowd. The monitors balanced on metal tabletops blinked and whirred as they recorded the fight in intricate detail. It was hard to tell what they were measuring.

The Supervisor stepped from the terminal where he was discussing something with one of his scientists and glanced in my direction. He nodded his head thoughtfully.

He was nothing if not thoughtful.

He approached me with his long strides. I was reminded of the hope and expectation he harbored toward me when I first came here.

He tested me hard, harder than any other prisoner. The Supervisor would tell me about the stories he heard concerning my species, tales of their abilities. He wanted to see if they were real.

"To get at those abilities, you must learn to embrace anger, fear, and the most powerful emotion of all: hate," he would tell me. "Embrace those and you will become what you were always meant to be."

I met each of his challenges head-on. I took a beating but always managed to come out on top—barely. And each time when my ability failed to materialize, he was not happy.

No matter how many opponents he set against me, no matter how many I defeated, it was never enough. He would peer down at me from the observation deck beside his blinking computers and whirring monitors that scanned and recorded everything I did in the pit. His lips were always pursed. He would tuck his hands behind his back and turn away.

No matter what I did, it was never enough.

"You're capable of so much more," he would say. "You have a power inside you that's waiting to be unleashed. All you need to do is unlock it and show it to the world."

I fought harder and harder, one opponent after another, and eventually, the Supervisor grew bored of me.

He stopped inviting me to his residence to show me books on my species, no longer discussed interesting topics like history or science, no longer gave me chocolate or toys.

Then one day in the pits, I did it.

I unlocked my ability when I faced an ishu. He was much bigger and stronger than me. He cornered me and I couldn't escape…

And that's when I felt my first palpitations of golden light. I laid my hands on the ishu and felt an unspeakable strength. His strength. I used it to defeat him.

Finally certain the Supervisor would be proud of me, I looked up at the observation deck with a grin on my face.

The Supervisor wasn't even watching. He knelt before another boy around the same age as me, his hand on his shoulder. He brought a chocolate bar out from behind his back and handed it to him.

He'd moved on and found another favorite.

And I kept my secret to myself.

I kept everything to myself after that. I fought the fights and endured hardships because it was what I was supposed to do. I perfected my ability and used it when necessary in my fights, which wasn't often these days.

I trained with other aliens and learned their mystical and powerful fighting styles. Some were impossible for me to master as my body simply wasn't designed for it. I had too many bones, they said, and one day broke my back when they tried to bend me into the right position.

Sometimes, there were things you simply couldn't do, no matter how hard you tried.

At the back of the room was a familiar sight, one I hadn't thought about for years.

A suit of armor sat protected by its glass case, standing guard in its infinite watch. It'd always mesmerized me as a child.

It looked different from how I remembered. It didn't have a red tint to it before, and the chest was an odd shape. One half had the appearance of a frozen magma blast, the other of a perfectly flat but shimmering and slippery surface. Each section floated a couple of inches from the others.

I used to spend hours just staring at it.

"Wow," I said as a kid. "What is it?"

The Supervisor removed my hand and wiped my greasy handprint off the glass with the sleeve of his white jacket.

"It's a suit of armor," he said.

"Armor? What's it for?"

"It's to protect the wearer from harm. If you hit it with weapons, it won't hurt the man inside."

"Wow. Is it magic?

The Supervisor chuckled.

"No, it's not magic. But science can seem that way sometimes. Come on. Let me show you the pit where the prisoners fight."

He led me away but I turned back to peer at it over my shoulder. A suit of armor where no one and nothing could ever hurt you.

It sure sounded like magic to me.

But the armor didn't work that way. It might spare the wearer from physical harm but there were far worse things that could get you.

Afflictions of the mind. Emotional damage. Loneliness. These were things the armor couldn't protect you from.

I was no longer that small child, and I no longer looked to the Supervisor like a father.

"Kren," the Supervisor said. "What's the problem?"

I eyed the other scientists and felt a little exposed. I had personal things I wanted to discuss with him. A room full of strangers wasn't exactly the kind of place I felt comfortable opening up.

"Can we go somewhere a little more… private?"

"I'm very busy right now. I'm afraid I don't have time to discuss anything in great detail. How about we organize another time for us to talk? When I have a little more free time?"

Free time? The Supervisor didn't believe in free time. He never took a holiday or a break or even a day off. If I waited for that moment to come, I would never get to speak with him.

"Here's fine. I've been thinking about my position here."

"Your position?"

"I've been here my whole life. I'm not a criminal. I never broke the law or did anything wrong. The way I see it, I'm a free man. All I have to do is leave."

The Supervisor nodded and scratched his chin.

"I see. Well, you're right. You came here with your parents. You're free to go at any time."

I blinked. I never thought it would be that simple to leave. At least that was the easy part over with.

The Supervisor turned away.

"Are we done here? Pack up your things and I'll give you the use of my shuttlecraft. It will take you wherever you wish to go."

"Wait. There's something else I need to mention."

Now, how did I say this? I wasn't a good tactician. I was more of a direct-action kind of person. So, direct it would have to be.

"I want to take Ivy with me," I said.

"Ivy?"

"She's one of the Prize Pool girls. I've met with her many times and I think… I think we could be happy together."

The Supervisor fixed me with his eyes, made beady behind his thick lenses.

"And does this Ivy feel the same way about you?"

"Yes. I think so."

I smiled when I thought of her. It was impossible not to smile these days.

"I'm afraid I can't do that," the Supervisor said.

My smile vanished.

"But she's being held here against her will. She doesn't belong here any more than I do."

"It's not that easy. She belongs to the prison. That means only the warden has the authority to release her. She's not under my control or supervision."

"But you're in charge of this part of the prison. Surely you can arrange for her to be released to me?"

"I can't."

He sighed and placed a hand on my shoulder.

"I can speak with the warden if you like. I can see she means a great deal to you. But I can't guarantee she'll be released. It's bureaucracy, I'm afraid. There are just too many rules we have to follow. I'm sorry."

He was sorry? He was sorry?

I ground my teeth, clenched my fists, and stared at the floor. Out the corner of my eye, I noticed the guards turn stiff and angle their shock rifles in my direction. One false move and they would zap me.

I couldn't afford to lose my temper.

Not here. Not now.

I let my fingers unfurl and my back straighten, forcing myself out of fighting mode.

I was looking directly at the computers and monitors and all the data they were collecting.

"What are you looking for?"

"Excuse me?"

"What are you looking for?" I repeated. "You're a scientist. You watch our fights every day. We see you watching us. There are rumors why you do it but no one knows and no one much cares. But what do you work on here day after day?"

The Supervisor looked at me thoughtfully and cocked his head to one side.

"It's not a secret. We try to learn how you're capable of the abilities you have."

I didn't have an ability, at least not to his knowledge. I ran a finger over one of the monitors. It was alien to me. I had no idea what its purpose was but the scientists were clearly using it for something.

"You used to run experiments on me," I said. "When I was a boy."

"We ran tests on many inmates."

"I wasn't an inmate."

"No. I expected to find a latent ability buried deep inside you like the stories I told you about once. But it wasn't to be. They only turned out to be stories."

I wet my lips and considered my next few words carefully. Did I want to do this? I could jump on the shuttlecraft right now, leave, and never have to see this place again. But what was the use when I didn't have Ivy on my arm?

"What if I told you the stories weren't wrong?" I said.

"What do you mean?"

"What if I told you there was a reason I've never been defeated in the pit? That I do have an ability that allows me to win?"

The Supervisor looked me over, unsure whether or not to believe me.

"What ability?"

Oh, no. I wasn't about to give that away for nothing.

"I could show you. But only if you let me have Ivy."

"How do I know you're not only saying this to get what you want?"

"I'm not a liar."

"You fraternize with liars and rule breakers. You might have learned a thing or two."

"I'm telling the truth."

The Supervisor thought for a moment, running his eyes over me.

"We've watched your fights many times. And we've never seen any evidence of your ability."

"Perhaps you weren't looking closely enough. But you won't have to. If you let me have Ivy and give us the use of your shuttlecraft so we can leave this place, I'll show you everything."

The Supervisor pursed his lips.

"Very well. I'll speak with the warden. In the meantime, I'll discuss the idea with Ivy. If she agrees, she may leave with you. If she doesn't then you will still show me this ability of yours. Agreed?"

Without Ivy, I was as good as useless in this place now. I needed her. I would either leave with or without her. This place would never feel the same for me.

"Deal," I said.

"You need to head downstairs. I believe it's your turn to fight soon."

A shiver ran up my spine. I was on track to getting what I wanted. The only thing I ever wanted.

Then why did it feel like I'd just made a deal with the devil?