Xander’s face dropped and I nodded in response. We took our gloves off and unwrapped the gauze. Neither of us spoke as we got ourselves ready to head to the pits. When we were ready the guards opened the door and the four of us walked in an uncomfortable silence. Soon we reached the fighting pits, I could see the seats around the main pit were quite full, everyone I had seen in the auditorium earlier was there but there were even more Phantoms and soldiers now. The group of kids was standing in the middle of the pit staring up at everyone in the stands.

“Finally, you two are here,” Maria stated as she appeared on my left, “it’s time to begin.”

She gestured to two empty seats in a group of all the Phantoms who had been chosen to fight in the pits today. We went and sat while Maria went to the microphone in the center of the stands.

“Now that everyone is here, we can start,” the woman began, her voice ringing through the entire room from all the speakers, “not all of you will make it through the night… some of you who do, may wish you hadn’t… but nonetheless it’s time for us to get things going. Fight.”

The kids just stood in the middle of the pit glancing between each other and Maria and all of us in the stands. Xander frowned and cringed next to me, obviously still conflicted about the decision he would have to make very soon. A gunshot ripped through the air making all of the kids below us jump.

“I said… fight,” Maria said threateningly as she lowered her handgun, “fight now, or the next bullet will hit one of you.”

With that threat put into the air the kids in the pit began looking at each other fearfully, waiting for someone to throw the first punch. I saw a young asian girl pull an even younger asian boy off to the side while a couple of the others started half-heartedly throwing punches at each other. The boy who had given the soldier a bloody nose in an escape attempt retreated from the center along with the two asian kids. Some others began to move towards the edge of the pit as well, and none of them seemed to truly be trying to hurt each other. Maria sighed deeply and I knew what was about to happen. I looked away from the pit as I heard the gunshot. When I looked back up I saw all the kids backing away from the body of a young girl that now lay unmoving in the center, blood leaking from a hole in her forehead. A guard walked over and picked the corpse up then walked away.

“Do you all understand now?”

The kids all looked at Maria then back at each other.

“You’re fighting to survive the night, if you can’t prove to be worth allowing to live, then your time here is up and I will dispose of you.”

Several of the kids below started to fight for real now. After it had been made brutally clear that they were fighting for their lives they lost any interest in not hurting each other. Soon there were fights spread all throughout the pit, but some kids were still refusing to join in. Others made a much better act of actually fighting than before, while still not truly trying to hurt each other. I felt a hand on my shoulder and looked up to see Colonel Joseph frowning down at me. He squeezed my shoulder tightly then left the room, several glances were thrown his way as he left but many people didn’t notice he was gone.The look he had given me had clearly been saying ‘you could have stopped this… you still can, don’t disappoint me.’

“What was that all about?”

“Nothing, Soph, dont worry about it.”

I didn’t even look at her as I responded, instead I went back to looking at the kids in the pit.

“Well, that was definitely a lot better than before. You can stop.”

When Maria’s voice echoed through the room again the kids stopped fighting instantly. They all looked up at her in fear and suspense, waiting to hear whatever she would say next. Before saying anything she pointed at several of the kids, as soon as she pointed at one a guard went and stood by them.

“If I pointed at you it means you’ve proven some kind of worth. I was hoping there would be more of you, but no matter. Guards, take them to their rooms… their training starts tomorrow.”

The guards who had gone to the selected kids led the way out of the pit, taking seven kids away with them.

“Now, the rest of you will have another opportunity to prove yourself to me. You will be fighting a current Phantom. A true life or death situation. If you put up a decent fight, you make it through the night as well. If you get killed, well, that’s less of you that I have to worry about dealing with myself. Xander, get out there… pick your opponent, and do what you have to do.”

I heard the boy next to me curse under his breath as he shakily stood up. I glanced at him and saw that he was still fighting with his own head about what he was going to do.

“Just do it quick… it’ll be better for you, and whichever one you choose will be… better off.”

He looked at me sadly as I finished my sentence. I grimaced at the realization that I just told him to kill a child, mentally beating myself up over how cold I had truly become.

“Thanks for your input,” he said as he glanced between the floor and my solemn face with a grim but resolved look on his face, “but I’ve already made my decision.”

Before I knew what was happening he drew his knife and threw it directly at Maria’s chest. People around us gasped in shock as the blade flew at the woman. In the blink of an eye I saw Maria visibly scowl as she caught the knife before it could hit her.

“Disappointing,” she muttered as she tossed the knife down into the pit, “help me get him to his cell.”

Two guards rushed forward and grabbed Xander by the arms, dragging him roughly out into the hall while Maria followed them out.

“This is a temporary reprieve. When I get back we will finish these pit fights and get on with the training.”

With that she swept out of the room, following the guards who were taking Xander away. The kids down in the pit continued to awkwardly stand around waiting for whatever happened next to happen. Many of the people in the stands began talking quietly amongst themselves. After a while Maria came back in the room… clearly fresh from beating Xander, quite possibly to death. When she walked back to the mic, silence filled the previously talkative groups in the stands.

“Now. Let’s see if any of the rest of you are worth keeping around.”

She then began assigning each kid to a Phantom. Once they were all assigned she ordered the first Phantom down into the pit. These fights would be fast, and either end with Maria deciding that the kid had impressed her enough to go on or that they hadn’t impressed her, and the Phantom would be ordered to take the kill.

The first fight was between Sophia and a young hispanic girl named Evelyn. The girl put up as much of a fight as she could, but Sophia had her unconscious in less than a minute. Before doing anything else Sophia looked up towards Maria who looked to be deliberating. She made her decision and gave a quick nod of her head, Sophia and a guard carried the unconscious girl out of the pit to the infirmary. She had passed.

“Aidan, get down there. You’ll be fighting that one,” Maria said as she turned to face me while pointing at the boy who had given his guard a bloody nose.

This fight is even less fair than the last one. She knows that, so what’s the point if she’ll get less than a few seconds to decide this kid’s fate.

I sighed and jumped down into the pit. The kids all shied away from me as I walked by, the kid I was walking towards backed up fearfully.

“Come on kid, show me what you’ve got.”

He didn’t move.

“Hey, do you want her to just shoot you?”

His skin paled at the thought and he lunged at me with his fist aimed at my stomach. I easily blocked the strike and made him lose his balance as his weight carried him forward.

“You won’t make any progress that way.”

He glared at me and tried to kick my knee out from under me, I dodged his kick easily and sighed.

“If you’re going to impress her at all, you can’t think just one move at a time. Don’t strike and miss and stop.”

He seemed to realize that I wasn’t actively trying to hurt him, the realization seeming to give him a little more confidence. He stood up shakily and threw several punches, all of which I dodged, but at least he was doing more than one thing at a time.

“Why are you helping me?”

I’m not really… if he impresses Maria then he’s just going to be forced to become what I have become. That’s almost a fate worse than death. It would be easier for him to die now… he wouldn’t have to become a monster.

“Aidan, you’re disappointing me.”

I looked up at Maria as I dodged another punch. The kid was getting tired and hadn’t succeeded in touching me once.

“Maria, if I fought back he’d lose in a second, you know there’s no way he could make it out of this if I tried… no way any of them could. You sent me down here to kill him, but I’m not going to do that,” the kid threw another distracted punch but I grabbed his fist with one hand and stared daggers at the woman in charge, “let me train him. He’ll be my responsibility like I was Colonel Joseph’s responsibility when I got here. Give me a week, then you can test him again.”

The woman stared at me with her arms crossed over her chest. She seemed to be contemplating what I had said. I held her gaze the entire time, knowing all too well that I had a look of complete defiance on my face.

Maybe everyone is right, one of these times she’s going to get sick of my rebellious and defiant attitude towards her and Chronos.

“Fine. You have a week. Then he’s going to be fighting you again, only it’ll be real next time… a fight to the death with nothing held back. One of you leaves the pit alive and the other leaves in a body bag.”

I frowned slightly at her response. If I don’t figure something out… some way to change her mind, this kid is still going to die. But I bought him a week, that also gives me that much time to figure something out.

“I’m done with this. We’ll pick back up tomorrow,” Maria said as she sighed and glanced around the kids still in the pit, “but first, those two have a decision to make.”

She was pointing at the two young Asian kids.

“In fact, it’s a similar decision to one you had to make at one time, Aidan, this should be fun.”

She jumped down into the pit and walked towards the two kids. They looked terrified.

“I told you all that you’re not family anymore, you’re enemies… yet you are still protecting him like the good big sister you were.”

She was looking directly at the girl now.

The kids looked up at her as she tossed her pistol down in front of them.

“One of you will make it out of here and to your room,” she said quietly, “and the other will be tossed away in a bag.”

She then walked a short distance away and crossed her arms. The kids glanced down at the weapon in front of them then at the woman that had dropped it. She stared back at them and gestured at the gun.

“Go on. One of you pick that up and kill the other. I don’t care which one,” she said as she stared angrily at them.

Neither kid moved.

Maria sighed and pulled a knife from her pocket, then tossed it in the air and caught it. Suddenly she threw the knife and it sailed straight into the young boy’s stomach. The girl screamed and dropped down to her knees next to the boy as he toppled over, crying in pain as the knife stuck out of his midsection.

Maria picked the gun up and walked over to them, aimed at the dying boy’s head and pulled the trigger, stopping his crying instantly. The girl fell back and scooted against the wall with her hands on the sides of her head, she was screaming and crying. Her brother’s blood had splattered on her face when Maria had shot him in the head with her right next to him.

It took everything in me not to try and kill Maria right then and there. I heard a gasp next to me and glanced over to see the boy who I had taken on as my student staring in complete shock and fear. Maria just turned and walked away, ordering guards to take the remaining kids to their rooms.

“Aidan, he’ll be staying with you,” she stated as she glanced at me over her shoulder and pointed at the kid next to me.

I just turned and nodded while trying to keep my anger hidden from her. I saw that Sophia had come back and had been watching everything while leaning against the back wall of the pit. She had a frown on her face as she stared at the dead boy and the broken girl against the wall.

I wish I could say I was surprised by what had happened, but as Maria had said I had been in a similar situation during my first week here. I clenched my fist as the memory came back to me. I quickly shoved it back down, deep into my mind, so I could focus on what was going on.

I slowly walked over to the screaming girl and her dead brother. I pulled the knife from his stomach and looked at his eyes, both were wide open, but the life was gone from them. I knelt down and closed those lifeless eyes. The kid behind me went over to the dead boy’s sister and tried his best to calm her down, he used his shirt to wipe the blood from her face and spoke to her quietly. Soon she stopped screaming and just sobbed into his shirt while he wrapped his arms around her gently.

Sophia came over and knelt down on the other side of the corpse and stared at me. She seemed to be trying to gauge just how much this was affecting me.