“What are you doing here!” I scream at her letting the rage rise in my throat hoping it is enough to throw her off her game.

  “What? Can’t handle the competition, Chanel?” She looks at me gloating with all the pride of the world. “You might want to put your hands up because I believe the match has already started.” The crowd screams for carnage egging each of us to take a swing at each other. I stand for a while pondering the situation and deciding the best course of action. If I leave the ring right now, I will never be allowed to come back. If I tapout, I lose my title and my respect in the ring. I also lose money which I desperately need. The only option seems to be to fight and knock her out quickly so I can get out of here. “Well, Chanel, you going to throw a punch or what? Afraid to get beaten by a girl?” She is trying to get me angry so I will attack recklessly and lose the match. I take a second to calm my breath and do the last thing she expects me to do. I summon a golden knife and throw it aiming for her shoulder. It connects slicing into her bone causing a slight fracture. She cries out grabbing the knife and pulling it out of her shoulder and throwing it to the ground. She is overcome with rage then concentrates and her demeanor changes. I return the knife back to my armbands and summon two axes.

  “You wanna fight Frost, bring it Remnant.” I say as the adrenaline pumps through my veins speeding up my body and enhancing my perception. She runs towards me and her arms start to turn blue. She sends her hands in a throwing motion and two ice spikes shoot forward coming towards me at roughly 70 miles an hour. I start running towards her slicing the spikes out of the air and the more that come behind them. I strike aiming for her stomach but she jumps over the blade spinning in the air and coming down behind me. My back facing towards her I lean down missing the ice spike she tries to thrust into my back kicking my foot up nailing her in the face. She steps back a bit and wipes the blood off of her mouth. She balls her fist and ice starts to form around them manipulating itself into crude daggers curving in a sickly way at the end. She advances towards me with her hands in attack position swerving to throw off her predictability. I follow her with my eyes and evade her first few attacks before she catches me off guard slicing my cheek with the ice. The pain comes like burning frost, causing me to feel frostbite across the wound. She lands another hit to my face forcing me up against the cage and slamming her fist into my stomach. I let her get a few hits in hoping she will tire herself out and get into a routine with her fist before I make my move. When the punches get lighter and fewer seconds apart, I grab the next incoming fist and turn elbowing her in the jaw before taking out her legs knocking her to the ground. She seems dazed and I don’t give her the chance to recover as I push my thumb into the open knife wound and smash her in the face. I only get two punches of her screaming in pain before I feel a sharp pain between my legs. I look down and see her knee there and understand where the pain came from. I fall back letting the parasitic horror move towards my stomach and freezes their making me feel like I have been flexing my abs for hours. The pain is interrupted by the frostbite piercing through my shoulder as I look over to see the ice dagger has gone straight through my shoulder. She lays over me, fist cocked pack, and stares directly into my eyes.

  “Concede Chanel.” She sounds exactly like Tonga standing over me, making me feel helpless, beating me again, not again. The adrenaline reaches full max in my bloodstream making me feel like my veins are filled with the chemical. I summon a knife to my hand and stab her in the arm causing her to be distracted for a moment. I bring my head up driving the icy dagger farther into my shoulder and headbutt her off of me breaking the ice dagger into my shoulder. She stands up, mind trying to grasp what has happened as I can tell from the squinting of her eyes and the contortion of the face. I go in for the finish sliding across the mat knocking her feet out from underneath her affecting her motion causing a greatly effective downward incline as she breaks her nose upon the mat. She rolls over letting out an exhausted sigh and laughs a little. “Finish it, Ordinance.” I look at her deeply going over what I have just done. She has cuts and bruises across most of her body and blood coming from her nose, a few hours on the plane should give her time to heal before we get to Mozambique. I think over the fight in my head going over every move from both of us over the course of our battle, and I find a respect in her fighting style. Seeing her powers she could have easily frozen the mat and take advantage, but instead she only used her powers as melee weapons. I smile at the realization and extend a hand towards her. She takes it and I start to pull her up before throwing a punch at her face knocking her out. I pick her up and carry her out of the cage and the crowd spreads like the red sea letting us through. I pick up my money and each of our clothes from the bar and head back into the dark hallway letting the Chanel that exist in the light come back. The doors open and I step back onto the alley behind the main building. The sun is higher in the sky and I check my wristlet to see that it is 11:03. I have a little less than 2 hours to do what I need to do and get back to my room to grab my gear before heading to the plane. I go a few blocks to a house near the outskirts of town. A tiny house made of old wood that has chipping blue paint and a cracked concrete foundation. I lay Becca down against a tree that provides shade for the house against the blazing heat of the sun in this country. I go to knock on the door when I hear a grunt of pain from behind me. Becca’s emerald eyes slowly open and look at me. I smile widely at her.

  “Goodmorning sunshine how do you feel?” I give her a fake concerned look while maintaining my wide grin.

  “Douchebag,” she replies back, “I thought you were going to help me get up but instead you sucker punched me.” She moves her jaw around to make the point that I hurt her but it doesn’t stop my smile.

  “No mercy Becca, we have been taught that since we were kids why would I hold back in a match with my partner?” I say.

  “I don’t know I thought you would be like, ‘hey she fought well I am...,” she looks befuddled for a moment then pulls herself to her feet pointing at me like the big birthday present her parents just brought out, “You called me, Becca.”

  “Did I?” I say turning around nonchalantly. I knock on the door to the house and hear slow footsteps heading towards the door. Becca slowly comes up next to me and and I turn to look at her. The cuts and bruises do nothing to stamp out her beauty, her skin skill glistens under the sun rays heating up the area. I turn quickly changing my focus to the reason I came here in the first place.

  “What is this place?” She says looking around confused, “Is this where your dealer lives, is that why you fight in the ring? Are you running from the cartel?” I turn around squinting my eyes at her to make her see that what she said was stupid. The door opens and a man with a long beard and a long scar across one of his eyes making that eye completely white. He has light brown skin like mine and is very skinny, he has one arm that is tight against his chest his unable to move it. He has a cane in the other hand and a prosthetic leg.

  “Goodmorning, Chappa,” I say to the man, “How are you feeling today?’

  “I am having a better morning than normal I guess you could say,” he says in a slower tone but in almost perfect english, “what are you doing here Chanel you just came by a few days ago?”

  “I know Chappa I just thought I would come by again and drop off some money for you,” I hand him the bag of pesos, “and I wanted to let you know I am going on my first mission in a couple of hours, I’m a little nervous about it to be honest.” I turn and look at Becca. “This is my partner, Rebecca Nutter.”

  “Hi it is nice to meet you, sir,” She says to him.

  “Nice to meet you too. You better take care of Chanel here, I need this guy to help make sure I’m alive when he comes by each week.” Chappa said with a smile across his face

  “I’ll be sure to keep him safe I promise, sir.” Becca’s cheek get rosy and she begins to stare at me with admiration. My heart does a bit of a flutter and I caught myself blushing a little for no reason at all.

  “Well honestly I would love to stay and chat but I really need to get back...” I start to say before Chappa interrupts me.

  “Hang on one second I have a little present for you.” He disappears back into the house and I hear him clattering around the house before he screams out “FOUND IT!” He comes hustling back to the door with an old wooden box in hand. “This was given to me by my father many years ago when I started working to provide for my family like he did. My family is gone now and you are closest thing I have ever had to a son so I thought you should have it.” I open the box to find a small machete with a wooden handle carved to look like a fish. “It kept me safe for years of working in the fields, and I hope it can protect you the same way.” I take the machete and examine it intensely. It is old, but still has shiny stainless steel and the wood seems to be in good condition. Chappa hands me a decorated sheath to go along with it and I sheath the machete and hold it with pride in my hands.

  “Thank you Chappa,” I say with content, “you have no idea how much this means to me.” I give him a hug being mindful of his arm and injuries before telling him that Becca and I need to go. Becca shakes his hand and we begin to walk back towards the entrance of Eyre. Getting out of Eyre is hard, but getting back in doesn’t take much effort at all. Becca and I arrive at the entrance at the bottom of the hill where clansmen with Wuxing standard issue armor stand. They ask to see our wristlets and when they see our marks of Garroters and get flustered, letting us in quickly apologizing for the inconvenience. From the entrance at the bottom of the hill to the actual entrance, Eyre is about a mile up hill walk. We are silent for a little while, just kind of enjoying the early noon before Becca breaks the silence occupying the space between us.

  “I’m sorry.” She says so plainly and sincerely it catches me off guard.

  “For what, exactly?” I ask. My mind starts to go over all the things she could be sorry for over the past few hours that we have known each other. I come up with a couple of things, but by her tone I don’t think it is anything I am thinking of.

  “I have seen you around Eyre a lot actually and always kinda hated you,” her words come like dagger ripping through my clothes leaving me in this state of astonishment at the boldness of her truth.

  “Uhh...” I say seeming like an idiot who can’t form words to save his life.

  “I know it was wrong of me, and seeing you be a total douche this morning didn’t help much. I always saw you just training all day everyday and struggling to be the best and not really giving a crap about anyone but Battleborn. I don’t know why I took it to heart but I did for some reason and it made me hate you,” She stops for a second changing her tone. “When I yelled at you in front of headquarters asking why you had a problem with me it was I who had a problem with you and you didn’t seem like you cared that I was angry with you at all. I was going to come to your room to give a piece of my mind when I saw your little flight out of the compound. I decided to follow you...”

  “Wait,” I interject, “How did you get out of Eyre?”

  “I just showed them my wristlet and told them I need supplies for my mission, not all of us have rocket boots.” I look at her dumbfounded that Davis and I could be so stupid as to never think that our wristlets could get us out as well as in. “Anyways, I followed you to that weird fighting arena and saw your three matches. I saw it as a chance to get back at you and get out some of my frustration so I entered the fight under the name Athena just simply to spite you.” She drops her gaze ashamed to look me in the eye. “I was so mad, but seeing you fight and the respect you held in battle while continuing to fight like a monster impressed me.”

  “You didn’t do to bad yourself honestly. Thank you for not using your powers to freeze me although it does feel like I was stabbed in the shoulder with an ice pack.” She laughs a little then punches me on the arm before going back to what she was saying.

  You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

  “But whenever you called me Becca, and I saw the love and respect you had for that man, enough to actually take care of him on your own. I saw that you did care and it made me understand that you don’t just care about yourself. You’re just training to protect the ones you love.” She smiles at me a little and I can’t help but smile back at her. Could she be right? Do I fight for the ones I love? We walk through the fortress and watch as people stare at us with all the cuts and bruises on each of us. We walk back to the Latin District and she heads into her room. I walk into my room and find Davis lying on his bed sleeping. I decide it is best not to wake him so I silently grab my things, put on my armor and start to head out of the room. When I open the door, I find a man with a red robe on and orange folded robes underneath standing in the doorway.

  “Councilor Jao,” I say recognizing the asian man in front of me, he was one of the members of the council in my match to join the Garroters.

  “We have much to discuss,” he looks at me with the eyes of a lion stalking a gazelle as it tries to run across the plains.

  “Ok Councilor, um... honestly, I would love to but I kinda have a plane to catch. I have to save the president of Mozambique in a few hours and it would mean a lot if you would let me...” He holds up a hand in front of him and I abruptly finish what I was saying.

  “I promise you, Ordinance, the plane will wait for you to finish your conversation with an important official like myself,” he gave me a wide grin bordering on the line of being sinister.

  “Alright sir what does this pertain to?” I say trying the most respectful I can to this guy. I see Becca’s room door open and she comes out wearing a black leather jacket and black legging with a icy blue t shirt underneath, man she really embraces the whole frost thing. She stares at me and puts up her hands wondering whats going on. I shrug my shoulders and she kinda laughs and starts walking towards the exit. I watch her walk away just letting time pass and remembering the nice morning I got to have of beating her in the ring.

  “Excuse me, Ordinance, did you hear a single word I just said?” Jao looks at me with a confused look. I apologize quickly and he says something under his breath I can’t quite make out. “Anyway,” he says restoring his composure, “this is about Becca, recently we encountered a new remnant who took out an entire squad of some of the clans best men. It was revealed that he was an old member of the clan who, like many others, when he gained his ‘abilities’ started experiencing crazy hallucinations and developing a whole new personality.” He continued, seeming to get more and more nervous as he told me of the men's deaths. “This is the fourth remnant that has turned after receiving their abilities in the past three months. I’m just telling you this to be aware and be careful. Becca has had a few night terrors and we have done some treatment with her, but we are unsure if she is holding it together really well or if she is just faking it to get by us.”

  “So what do you want from me?” My eyes trying to penetrate his mind to uncover his intent like the way Becca’s eyes pierce the soul, but I had no luck with my plain brown eyes.

  “We just need you to keep an eye on her, make sure she doesn’t do anything stupid. If she starts to resist or to turn away from the mission we are going to need you to...take her out,” he says to me his words of malice penetrating my soul. I have taken down people who have gone rogue before, even some people I considered friends. But him asking me to take out Becca if needed, it hurt, made me feel wrong something I had never really felt before. “Ordinance?” He looked at me again noticing I wasn’t paying attention. I slightly nodded my head to let him know I understood. “Good,” he replies, “have a great flight, no mercy.” He walked away swiftly as if he just remembered he had another meeting to attend to. I walked out of Eyre heading down the hill towards the village. The armor was tight against my skin and made my body feel cold as air was freely moving, but I had never sweat so much in my entire life. I spent the walk just thinking through the morning and all that had happened today. I barely noticed what was going on around me or where I was in the village. It felt like an eternity walking to the airstrip but it had only taken me a few minutes. I walk up to the white private jet with the emblem of our clan on the side and Becca comes out to greet me any wave me into the plane. I check my body making sure I have everything before entering. Wristlet, armor, and metal mask (check). Arm bands and Chappa’s machete (check). When it seems I have everything, I wipe the sweat from my forehead and enter the jet.

  Becca is sitting in one of the chairs and I come and sit down in front of her where only a mahogany table separates us. Her armor is laying out across the seat next to her. It looks like my Garroter armor, a black armored bodysuit with a gold outline from the citadel just separated into different parts like the arms, waist, legs and boots, but hers has sections like on her shoulders and going down from her armpits to her waist on both sides is solid icy blue, same goes for her pants. Becca notices me staring at her armor and speaks up.

  “Yeah I got mine custom done. When they found out I was a remnant and how my powers worked, I decided I didn’t want to be afraid and instead embrace it so most of the clothes I wear have some form of that color on it somewhere,” she says smiling with pride.

  “Nice,” I reply back to her trying not to make direct eye contact so she can’t tell what I am thinking.

  “What's wrong with you?” She says looking at me. I turn and see the concern in her eyes and can’t seem a way to deflect my thoughts. Everything inside me tells me to obey the clan and do whatever is necessary but looking at her now I don’t know how I could ever hurt her again. I decide to try my best and lie to her but my mind is still weighing all the options of if she turns do I betray the clan or betray her, a girl I barely even know who I feel more loyalty to than my own father at the moment, almost as if she brings a sense of familiarity inside me, this couldn’t be something as petty as a stupid crush it seem more...real. She affects me in a deep way that I want to grasp but have no idea what this feeling is. I realize I am getting lost in my thoughts and try and come back to reality.

  “First mission nerves I guess,” I say trying to deflect.

  “You? Nervous? I don’t know, Chanel, it seems like more,” she says trying hard to thrust her penetrating gaze into my mind.

  “It’s Ordina...,” I stop myself and see the hurt in her eyes as I was about to correct her for calling me Chanel, “Sorry. I just have a lot of pressure and don’t want to screw things up.” We sit in silence for a bit just kinda minding our own business before Becca obviously not being able to stand the silence speaks up. I have only known her for a short time but I can already tell from observing her she is not the sit in silence type of girl.

  “So how do you know Chappa?” At this question I am delighted to get my mind off of killing her and happy to try and make the conversation light again.

  “Chappa is my friend and like a second father to me,” I say letting the good memories flood over me drowning out my troubles. “When I was a little kid I use to get into a lot of trouble. I didn’t have much discipline and Davis didn’t help much with that since he was just as bad as I was. We use to sneak down to the village and practice our freerunning and our skills of pranking the locals, harassing chickens, stealing pieces of fruit from vendors, it was all in good fun just because we didn’t know any better as kids. One day we decided to go after what seemed like the ultimate challenge in the village, stealing apples from Old man Rico’s orchard. Davis and I thought of plans for weeks trying to come up with the perfect strategy to get in and out with the highest payload and not get caught by the eagle, that’s what the locals call Rico.” I felt my worries melting away as I talked just letting things I had never told anyone flow freely and letting myself trust in someone other than Davis. Her emerald eyes twinkled with pride as I could see that she was loving every sentence I confided in her, I continued. “We made it down to the orchard and waited around the perimeter and watched as the eagle was getting done with his gardening for the day and was heading inside. We had accounted for this, of course, and decided this was the opportune moment to take the most amount of apples before he came back outside to drink his tea and rest like he did everyday. Everything was going perfectly, initially. We got inside and were able to make it to the back of his land towards what seemed like at the time towering rows of trees with bright red gems on them. Davis and I went down row after row putting the beautiful fruits into our backpacks and moving on to the next tree. By the time we had filled each of our backpacks we had cleared out a row of trees each. It was the perfect heist, a big enough prank to make us remembered as the best pranksters in Comendador’s history. We started to head out of his garden but as we were leaving out of the corner of my eyes I saw a bright yellow fruit hanging from the branch of a tree tempting me and perverting my mind to come closer.” With each word I felt I was being drawn closer into my past, as if I was in that moment again, feeling the weight of the apples and being drawn to the yellow fruit. “I forgot about Davis and he got out safely but I stayed behind to grab it. I didn’t hear the door open to the left of me as I reached to grab the fruit. My hand couldn’t have been but a few inches from the fruit when I felt a hand grab my wrist keeping me from grabbing it. I turned and saw the eagle staring down at me. He started screaming something at me but I couldn’t make it out. At around that time, Chappa had been passing by and saw me inside getting hammered by the eagle as he screamed about me taking his apples. In that moment, Chappa, being a great man, decided to take it upon himself to save me. I still remember exactly what he said walking into that garden.” I laugh a little at the memory. “He looked at Old Man Rico and said ‘ ?Qué derecho tiene un viejo hombre rechoncho como tú que agarra la mu?eca de mi hijo así?’,” Becca looked at me with a confused look as I laughed the hardest I had in a while at the memory of Chappa.

  “Yeah um I know I’m like half cuban and all, but I don’t know Spanish at all,” she said kinda giving me a fake smile. I looked at her with a blank stare, surprised at this revelation.

  “How do you not know Spanish?” I say a little too harshly, “we are literally professional killers who have to pull off espionage around the world and you don’t know Spanish?”

  “I know a lot of other languages,” she says trying to make up for defying her heritage, “like Russian, German, English obviously, Mandarin, Japanese, Swahili.” While I find her vastness of the languages she knows impressive compared to my knowledge of just Spanish, English, and French I am still shocked at the revelation she doesn’t know her ingrained language.

  “Fine,” I reply with malice, “I’ll translate. He told Rico ‘what right do you think you have to grab my son’s wrist like that you pudgy man’. Rico looked at him confused and released my wrist before arguing with Chappa about property rights and such. Chappa stood his ground and got the eagle to back down as long as I left the backpack behind. He put an arm around me and took me out of the garden taking me into the village. We stopped at a little shop and got some ice cream before either of us actually said another word. He asked me why I was in the garden and for no reason other than fear I told him everything. The plan, the apples, Davis, everything that I could remember. When I was finally done I panted a bit from getting the information out to fast, Chappa looked at me for a minute and then laughed so loud everyone in the shop looked at him. He told me I reminded him of himself when he was a kid and loved that I was carrying on the legacy of pranking the older folk of the village. He told me from then on that if I ever got into trouble he would be my father taking responsibility and making sure I was ok.” As I transitioned into the next part of my story, my attitude changed and I got a little sad as the memories washed over me with a strange sense of anguish. “He took care of me and Davis for many years after that, making sure if we got caught he was there to protect us, until about 2 years ago. My father and I went on a trip to Italy to see the ancient ruins and the colosseum like in the ancient times of combat. While I was gone, four guys broke into his house, stole most of his money and precious items, and left him in the state he is in today. When I got home and went to see him I found him lying cold and alone on the floor with blood running from his eye and his severed leg and his arm bent the opposite direction, I tried to find ways to help him and get him back on his feet but...” I felt myself getting teary eyed, and let a single tear drop before I pushed the pain down and continued. “The men were never found and Chappa has been confined to moving only a little bit a day to make sure he doesn’t cause more damage. I entered the ring then to make some money for him, he took care of me for many years and made sure I had a great childhood in between the endless training, but when the time came I couldn’t protect him. From that day on, every couple of weeks I have made just enough money to make sure he is ok and keep him safe. After a couple of fights, I had never had to kill anybody before, but a military trained dude was talking trash and said to me ‘after I kill you, I am going after that old man you take care of too.’ That ignited something inside me and I sprung up taking a life for the first time in the ring. Then I turned to the crowd and told them that Chappa was under my protection, anyone who touched him, had to deal with Ares, the god of the ring. No one disturbs him, no one goes near him because I have made it clear that he has Ares protecting him.” Becca looked at me in contemplation trying to get inside my head and figure out what I was thinking, but I wouldn’t let her in. Out of nowhere she grabs my hand and held it for a while. She didn’t say anything, no words were exchanged, we just sat there for a long while enjoying the sense of getting to be real with someone and not just a remnant or a soldier for someone else. Her soft hand felt warm against my skin as waves of comfort came over me and made me forget the pain and sorrow for one moment, not just suppressing it all, but letting it go. We sat holding hands across the table until a voice came over the loudspeaker above us.

  “10 minutes to drop zone. Get your gear and get ready to jump.” Our hands released from each other and we stared at each other for a minute before she smiled and spoke.

  “Here we go, Ordinance,” she said.

  “It’s Chanel,” I reply back.