by Izzy Shows
No, I had to stay away from the males, unless I wanted to end up killing one of them. Make no mistake, now that I had something to hope for again, there was no way I was going to lie down and die without a fight. And just as I had said to the first slave when she was dressing me for my first proving, I didn't have a problem believing that I could best my competitors. She'd said that humans were considered some of the best fighters in the universe, and I had bested Kaidan.
Didn't that mean I could best these aliens?
I thought so, but I wasn't so foolish as to think it impossible that one of them could compete with me. Highly unlikely, maybe, but I wouldn't let my arrogance allow me to drop my guard. I needed to be cautious as I moved through the building and followed through with my plan.
Just then, I picked up the warm smell of another female, though there was a heavy layer of fear and anxiety clouding her scent. I held still, breathing in deeply to see if there was anyone else with her around the corner. I could smell no others present, and if she had had anyone with her, it was more likely that they'd be fighting, and there were no sounds of battle.
I inched forward and looked around the corner, glad for my night vision, and saw that her back was to me.
Good, good. This is excellent. I can sneak up on her before she realizes I'm here and attacks me.
I did so, taking care with each step not to make a single noise, until I was directly behind her. Quick as could be, I grabbed her, wrapping an arm around her head so that my hand clamped her mouth shut, and the other arm around her waist. I held her tight against me, my arms bands of steel that she couldn't hope to escape.
She made a muffled sound of terror and immediately started to struggle against me.
"Be still and quiet," I hissed in her ear. "I'm not going to hurt you, I promise."
She stilled, but her breathing was rapid, and I knew she was still afraid.
"Don't say anything at all. Your jawbone mic will pick it all up and relay it to your master. Listen to what I have to say, and then you can make up your mind about what you want to do next. Nod if you understand."
She nodded.
"We're going to walk a few steps to the left so that we're out of the way, so no one will to find us while we talk," I said, and she nodded again, so I scooted us to the side and flattened myself against the wall as much as I could. "My name is Xiva, and I want to get out of here without having to kill anyone. I'm sure you want the same. I hope you don't want to kill anyone. I found a male here whose name is Iten, and he doesn't want to hurt females at all. We're going to try to get a group together so that we can stand against the masters. This is your chance to get free without having to walk away from here with blood on your hands. Nod if you'll come with me."
She stood very still for a moment, and I held my breath, anxious to see what she would do. If she resisted, I would have to fight her. That was the risk of this plan: it put me in a clear path of destruction. I wasn't avoiding the other combatants now, I was seeking them out, and if they wouldn't come with me, I would have no choice but to fight them.
At long last, she nodded slowly.
"I'm going to let go of you now. Follow me. I'm going to take you to a safe place where the cameras can't see us."
I let go of her, and she turned around with her eyes wide, opening her mouth, but I held a finger to my lips and shook my head before she could speak. She closed her mouth and nodded, and although I could tell she was burning to ask a thousand questions, I was grateful she knew enough to keep silent for now.
I led her through the hallways, stopping to go back and down another corridor a time or two when we got two close to other combatants, until we had made our way back to the hidden room that Iten had shown me. Once we were inside, I shut the door behind us and let out a breath of relief.
We'd made it back unscathed. Leaving the room was always dangerous, but at least I'd made it out and back again without having to fight anyone.
I took a step closer to the female, and she edged back. I sighed, and gestured at her to come closer.
She watched me for several clicks, then slowly inched closer to me so I could whisper in her ear again.
I quickly told her how to disable her jawbone mic, and then we were free to talk.
"Oh my gods, I didn't think I was ever going to get to say another thing without that dreadful male overhearing me," she said, letting out a giant breath. "It's such a relief to have some privacy again."
I grinned. "I know exactly what you mean. While I was going through the provings, I developed a bad habit of talking to myself, and it took a lot of effort not to keep doing that during the tournament. I didn't want him to overhear every single thing I said, so I kept my mouth shut."
"That's kind of funny," she said, smiling tentatively. "I didn't expect to meet anyone here who wasn't going to kill me."
"Yes, I know. This isn't exactly an environment where you can make a lot of friends, but I'm hoping to find a mostly peaceful way out of it."
"I—"
Just then, the door opened, and I whirled around, ready to attack. But it was only Iten who came into the room, leading two other slaves with him.
"You're back!" I smiled brightly at him. I'd only known him for a few rotations, but I already felt like he was a dear friend. Perhaps it had something to do with meeting him in such a dangerous situation. Perhaps that amplified the feelings of friendship.
He shushed me immediately, gesturing at the females' jawbones, and I clamped my mouth shut, embarrassed. I hadn't meant to exclaim like that, certainly not without thinking about the potential dangers, but I'd been so happy that he'd made it back in one piece.
He quickly went over how to disable the microphones with the other females, and then we each took a seat in the center of the room.
"This is amazing. I can't believe we're already building our numbers," I said, unable to contain myself. "We could actually get out of this alive."
The other females looked back at me rather sadly, with something akin to pity in their eyes.
" I don't know you," the female I'd brought here started. "And I'm sure you're a great person, but I only came because I thought it would be nice to have a respite from all the killing and the terror, and I wanted to be able to talk to someone again. I don't think we should fool ourselves into thinking there's any way out of this. I don't want to kill anyone. Gods, I hate it, but it's kill or be killed here. If we don't fight the others, if we don't kill them or they don't kill us, our masters will kill us themselves."
I huffed out an agitated sigh, but I understood where her fears were coming from. Her spirit seemed to be broken, and she'd resigned herself to what was going to happen here, but I hadn't given up hope yet. Particularly not now that we had found people who didn't want to fight any more than we did.
"What if I could promise to keep you safe?" I asked.
The three females all looked at one another, then back at me.
"How would you do that?" one of them asked.
I held out my hands and called my magic into them, allowing a golden globe to materialize there, burning brightly.
"I have powers this universe has never seen before," I said, still holding the globe. "And I swear to you, I will use every ounce of my power to keep you safe, no matter what. All I ask is that you give this a chance."
Their eyes lit up, and one of them even started to cry, though I hoped it was out of relief.
But I meant what I'd said. I'd die before I let anything happen to these females, now that they were under my protection.
Xiva
Only a few more rotations had passed, but already Iten and I had brought in four more slaves, though we had had to kill three males in the process, and a female who had taken pleasure in the killing of others. I had tried my best to sway her to our side, but she had laughed at me and called me pathetic for not being willing to fight, and in the end, there had been no other option but to fight her. I would carry her death like a stain on my heart for t
he rest of my life, but I wasn't willing to lay down that life, not now that I had others to protect.
I hadn't said anything to them, but protecting others made me feel like I had a purpose again. That was what being High Priestess of the Aelodhari was: I had led and protected the other priests and priestesses, and I had ruled Strios with a kind heart, taking care of the people whose safety I was charged with. This was what my entire life had been, and I had again assumed that role when the humans came to Eyrus. I didn't know how to exist without having someone to take care of, and I was glad to have taken the role of protector once more.
It made me feel warm in my heart and gave me a reason to keep pushing. More than the desire to survive, the need to protect fulfilled me.
I was moving through the building again as I thought about this, trying to find out if there were any more slaves we could bring to our side. I didn't know how many combatants were left, but there could only be six at most, and likely there were far fewer. We had only started out with twenty in total.
The scent of a female was close, and my heart sped up as hope bloomed all over again. I couldn't wait to give another person the hope that they might live through this, and to see the joy in their eyes when they realized their lives weren't over. I sped down the corridor and entered the room the scent was coming from.
And came face to face with…myself.
I froze, too shocked to think or move as I stared at the creature who looked like me. The same height, the same pale skin and blue glow. Her hair was just as white as mine, and her eyes were the same mingling of pink and purple. She even had the bioluminescent lights across her face and the visible parts of her body.
How could this be? How could I be looking at myself?
I didn't have a chance to wonder about that much longer, because she wasted no time in attacking me. She launched herself into the air, and I barely had time to dodge to the side before she came down right where I'd been standing. She rolled as soon as she touched the floor and sprang to her feet, one leg already lifting up in a scissor kick.
I brought my own leg up to deflect and carry her momentum to the floor, and had to move quickly to block the fist she was driving at me.
All I could do was defend myself, for she was a flurry of movement, always coming forward. It was as if she needed not even a click to take a breath and recover herself. She didn't even seem to need to collect herself after I had blocked a blow; she was already flowing into her next move.
I had never seen anyone fight this well, or anything like it, but although I was only blocking and defending myself against her at the moment, I still had an inkling that I could fight harder if I wanted to.
But there was something about having my own face staring back at me that made you loath to hurt it.
"You think you're going to win, don't you?" she taunted me as she circled, both of us constantly moving to the side to keep space between us. She was looking for a weak spot to attack, and I was doing everything I could to keep her from finding one.
I refused to answer.
She lunged and swiped at me, and I dodged to the side.
"You think you're going to get out of here, but all you've done is round up those little pitas for me to kill as soon as I'm done with you!"
She leapt forward again, thrusting with one hand, but when I dodged it, I found it was a feint, and she closed the other hand around my throat, bearing me down to the floor. "I've killed everyone else. There's nothing left to do but kill your little pets. Right after I kill you."
She tightened her hold on my throat, bringing her other hand up to squeeze as well, choking the life out of me.
I gasped for air but found none. If I could, I would have laughed at the irony of being caught in this situation again.
You got out of it before. Do it again.
Right.
With a grunt, I threw my head forward so that it connected with hers, then brought a fist up and around to slam into her abdomen. She rolled off me, skittering to the side, and then jumped to her feet.
But I was faster than she. She might look like me, but she didn't have my genetic build, so she wasn't as light as I was, and I was on my feet before she could stand. I threw a hand forward and chanted a quick spell, freezing her in place.
The hatred in her eyes was immediate and a little terrifying.
"What's wrong with you?" I snapped, unwilling to finish the fight until I knew what was plaguing her. "Why do you enjoy killing so?"
But she only laughed at me, a mad sound that clawed at my mind.
"If you don't hurry up and kill me, pita, I'll call my beast forth. We'll see if you can hold it still. It'll tear you apart."
I shuddered, not sure what she meant by calling her beast forth, but I was sure I didn't want to find out. She was right, I had to end this, but I was torn.
I didn't want to kill this female. It was plain as day that she was mad, and it wasn't her fault that she was so insane that she would enjoy the killing of others.
If I could just…
With a great amount of hope, I closed my eyes and called my healing energy forward, pushing it out of me and into her. I showered her in the golden light and opened my eyes to watch it pour over her.
Immediately, she began to scream, a high-pitched sound that grated at my ears, and I would have been worried that it would call others forward, but she had said that she'd killed everyone else already.
She fought her invisible bindings, trying to move, to get free, but she could only budge an inch or two against my spell. It was a testament to either her strength or her madness that she was able to move at all.
It felt like an eternity, but at last her screaming came to an end, and I dropped both spells, withdrawing the light that I had poured upon her.
My doppelgänger, dropped to her knees, sobbing. She seemed to be saying something, but I couldn't understand what it might be.
Carefully, I edged closer to her, but I still couldn't hear, so I crept closer until I was standing over her. Then I knelt beside her, and, acting on instinct, wrapped an arm around her. I held her close, feeling her shudder with each broken sob that left her throat.
And then I heard what she was saying.
The broken apologies that poured from her mouth were almost more than I could bear.
Xiva
Freedom.
It was soon to be mine. The shapeshifter, who said her name was Anjela, had come back with me to the secret room to meet the other slaves after she had finally stopped sobbing and apologizing and had found herself again. I could see she was still a broken woman, that there was little left to her threadbare soul, but I hoped she would be able to heal herself in time.
I didn't know what had broken her in the first place, what had driven her so mad, but I was glad I had tried to heal her. I had never healed a soul before, but it seemed that I had managed to at least mend her somewhat in order to give her back access to her mind.
That had turned out to be the most important thing I had done. Anjela wasn't just a shapeshifter, she was also a techie. She could interface with almost any technology, or so she said, and she had disabled the kill switches that each of us slaves carried in our backs, just below the napes of our necks.
In doing so, she had effectively freed us. No longer were our lives tied to our masters, and no longer could they kill us on a whim.
Together, we stormed out of the building. Iten led the way, for he knew the best way to get to the club as quickly as possible. We had to move fast, in order to maintain the element of surprise.
Anjela hadn't only disabled our kill switches, she'd also killed the cameras. At the moment, the masters didn't know anything that was going on, and they wouldn't know until it was too late.
With every step we took, I felt energy charging within me, my adrenaline building up for what we were about to do.
I'm going to be free of all of this in a click. I'll be free to go and find Kaidan!
Iten showed us where to go in
the club, leading us right to the viewing room where all the masters were packed in together. At first, they took no notice of us, they were so busy trying to figure out why the camera feeds had gone out.
And then one of them turned around, his yellow face going a shade paler, and he shouted out a warning to the others.
Surprised shrieks burst out of them, and then their expressions settled into smug satisfaction.
You won't be smug for long. You don't know that we're already free.
"Male who thought to own me," I said, raising my voice as I looked directly at the male who had been my master. "I formally challenge you to a fight for my freedom, that you may have the honor of a good death, though you do not deserve it."
He laughed as if that was the most hilarious thing in the world and shook his head.
"That's absurd. I'm not going to do that. Now, get back in there and finish what you were meant to do, or I swear I'm going to end you here and now," he snapped, pointing at the door.
"I have tried to be honorable with you, but you're wearing my patience thin," I said. "You have no power over my life anymore, and I have offered you a good end. Take it."
"I don't care what you think about being honorable. You're going to finish this fight!"
I shrugged. "Very well. I tried. Either you and your fellow slavers can do the right thing—free your slaves and turn yourselves over to the authorities—or I will leave you to the mercy of these fine females, those who were once your slaves."
Several of the masters' faces had gone red, and they were blustering, trying to form sentences, but they couldn't seem to find the words they needed.
And then a few of them began to laugh, and that eased the panic that had taken the others.
"We'll never turn ourselves over, of course," one said in between bouts of laughter. "The lot of you can't hurt us. Your lives are tied to ours."
"So you thought," I said. I turned to the females behind me. "Do what you want with these males. You are free now, but I have had enough bloodshed. If any of you are not sated with the lives of those who owned you, you are welcome to the male who thought to control me."
