"I know you're there," Asher hissed into the darkness, glancing behind him to make sure his friends were headed in the opposite direction, traveling home for the night.

It was late, the majority of the villagers were already in bed asleep, and all that could be heard was the chirping of crickets and the crunch of rocks and dirt beneath his feet. Asher and his friends had opted to stay out late at the training ground. It had been fun, spending extra time with them and goofing off, and for the remainder of the time, Asher was able to get that shadowed figure out of his mind.

However, now that he was headed home, he found himself forced to deal with it as it walked along beside him, hidden in the darkness. The street lights occasionally flickering, failing to steadily brighten his path home.

"Just come out already, they're gone," he growled.

After a moment of silence, the sound of light footsteps reached his ears as they walked side by side.

"What do you want, and why are you such a creep?" Asher demanded.

"A creep, hm? I viewed it more as information gathering if anything," the tall, light-haired man reasoned.

Asher just groaned in response, unwilling to participate in his attempt at witty banter.

"Were those your friends?"

"Maybe."

"I assume they're all participating in the Trial, considering where you all chose to gather."

"Maybe."

"Not very informative, are we?"

"Guess not."

The Captain sighed, "well, it doesn't matter. I am well aware of your circumstances already."

Asher's eye widened in surprise, "What do you mean?" he asked.

Captain Ryker picked up his pace, catching Asher's attention when he realized the man had been casually walking backward the entire time. They were now able to make eye contact as they spoke, causing Asher's anxiety to increase now that he could see the man's intimidating gaze.

"You really think I came down here to train you, completely uneducated?" he asked, quickly stepping around a light post before colliding with it. Asher wondered how the man knew it was coming up behind him.

"W-wait, you're training me?" he sputtered, suddenly realizing that the man wasn't in his usual attire. Instead, the Captain was wearing casual clothing, a shirt, and loose pants with sneakers. Other than his well-kempt appearance, mainly his Capitol styled hair, he actually blended in well with his surroundings.

"I'm sorry, did you expect someone else?" he asked.

"I honestly never know what to expect these days, especially from you," Asher mumbled as he went to turn down a path to his right, nearing his home.

"Not so fast," the Captain said, catching the boy by the collar of his shirt to redirect him to face the main road once more. He gave Asher a small push in the back to go ahead of him.

"Walk," he said.

"What?" Asher asked in confusion, turning to face the man.

The Captain looked at him sternly. "Turn back around and walk," he demanded.

"It's almost one in the morning!" Asher said in exasperation.

"And?"

"I'm exhausted! What's the point in training when I'm tired?"

"I'm sorry, do want to train in the middle of the day when your friends will be looking for you? Or when most people are out and can see you? Maybe, even if your friends don't directly see you, word will get back to them that you're training," the man said cooly, "what would you do then?"

Asher fumed internally, clenching his fists at his sides and biting the inside of his cheek to keep foul words from spilling out of his mouth. He found a spot on the ground to glare daggers at.

"That's what I thought. Now walk," the Captain instructed once again, nodding his head in the intended direction.

Asher took a calming breath and turned around, following the Captain's order. Every fiber of his being wanted to disobey the man, tell him off and storm back home to his warm bed. He was still considering trying to snatch the official's sword and make an attempt to chop him up, but as he glanced behind him, Asher noticed that the Captain wasn't carrying his weapon this time.

"Eyes forward, Crowe," he snapped.

They walked for quite a while, the village gates now several yards behind them. Asher was beginning to feel uneasy. Was the man planning to kill him? Capture him and bring him to the Capitol? Had the Captain been lying, and he did find something at Asher's apartment that day after all? Or did the Captain think he spilled the beans about being forcefully recruited?

As they neared the treeline, Asher hesitated, slowing his pace and glancing back toward the gates, desperately wanting to return home.

"Keep going," the man instructed.

Asher stopped for a moment, analyzed the forest, and then stepped into the darkness, hoping strongly that he wasn't walking into a deadly Capitol trap.

"You've slowed your pace," the man commented from behind him. Asher couldn't see a thing; the darkness had engulfed him as soon as he stepped into the woods, arms reaching blindly to block any potential obstacles in his way.

"I can't see what do you expect me to do?" Asher snapped.

"You can see just fine," the man reasoned. "You could see me across the field before. Why not now?"

"I-I don't know!"

"How do you feel?" the man asked.

"I really don't know!" Asher said, growing incredibly frustrated.

"Come now, Crowe, this isn't the time to be difficult, I'm trying to help you here -"

"Help me?!" Asher yelled, quickly turning to face the Captain, his internalized rage finally overflowing, bursting out of his body into a thoroughly colored monologue spat directly in the Captain's face. He cursed the Captain himself, the Capitol, the Garrick, even the world, blaming the large organized systems for everything wrong with it.

He finally stopped to catch his breath, only to open his mouth again to continue ripping the man a new one, but the air in his lungs caught when he realized he was irritated by the unimpressed stare the man was giving him.

He could see.

Everything was clear to him, not just shadowy figures and rough outlines that he could piece together better than most. Things were tinted with a white haze, but he could see crisp outlines of every leaf in each bush, tree roots curling into the ground, and bugs scurrying across the forest floor. He stared at the Captain speechless.

"Sheesh," the man huffed in exasperation, "all of that ruckus just to get you to see? Are you going to make everything this difficult, Crowe?"

The man walked around and ahead of Asher, stepping over tree roots and rocks flawlessly, obviously able to see as well. Asher marveled at the sight around him until he turned and realized he'd been left behind. He quickly ran after the Captain before losing sight of him.

Eventually, the forest ended, landing them in a small field. It was empty, not seeming to be owned and used by anyone for a long time. The Captain walked out towards the center, and Asher followed behind him quietly.

The man surveyed the area, which was lit slightly by moonlight, but still dark enough that he and Asher both needed to use their abilities to see.

"I didn't even know this was here. How did you?" Asher asked.

"Apparently, aggravating you is a successful way in which to get you to use your abilities," the Captain commented, ignoring Asher's question entirely. The boy huffed.

"I'm an official of the Capitol," he stated, "in fact, I'm a Captain in the Garrick. I trained years ago, made it through the Trial, I've killed, I've helped others kill, and worse," he listed off.

Asher's eye twitched, "why are you telling me this?"

"I support the Capitol. I agree with all their beliefs and standards, and if anything I think they should be harsher," he said sternly, "they should be more aggressive with your people, the villages. They should take more advantage of them, use them for all they're good for, which isn't much, by the way."

"Shut the hell up!"

"You know what one of my first jobs was when I made it through the Garrick?" the Captain continued, "I helped with the Trial. You know what I did there?"

Asher glared at the man, not wanting to feed the conversation but knowing he was going to continue regardless.

"I took all of the losers, well, their bodies, and threw them in a truck. I drove them back down to Class Three Land, piled them up and set them on fire. Then I sent the ashes out to sea to be dropped to the bottom of the ocean," he said monotonously, hands behind his back as he stood in a casual, indifferent manner.

Asher was shaking now, a level of anger he had never felt boiling inside him. It was nothing like before, when he found out his fate and stormed around the house. He realized that he didn't care about himself nearly as much as he did others. The thought of his friend's bodies being burnt and dumped sickened him and shook him to his core.

He didn't know when he had begun to sweat, but it was rolling in tendrils down his forehead as he glared at the man in front of him, daring him to say another word, to mock his home one more time. He felt as though he was about to burst out of his skin.

"Maybe that will happen to your friends," the Captain shrugged, "maybe it will happen to that girl, what's her name?"

Asher's eyes widened.

"Maddie? No, Megan?"

"Don't," Asher warned.

"Ah! Yes, Maggie! That's her name!" he said, smirking for the first time Asher had ever seen, as he recalled her name.

"Stop!" the boy yelled, echoing through the empty field.

"This is going to sound incredibly cliche, but I really don't feel like dragging this provoking session out any longer," the Captain sighed, readying his stance and eyeing Asher carefully before he spoke.

"Alright, Crowe. Make me."