by Stacy Jones
Squinting at him, she pressed, “You’re sure you’re not just saying that to keep me naked?”
He blinked in surprise before chuckling quietly and shaking his head. “No, my song. As immensely as I enjoy seeing you bare,” he rasped, slowly sweeping his gaze down her body before meeting her eyes again, “I would much prefer a layer of protection on your soft skin, something to keep the blood off when you wield your blade against any guards we should come upon.”
Aria damn near felt like melting at that. Going up on tiptoe, she pressed a quick kiss to his lips then dropped back down before he could deepen it and strapped on her weapons.
Finished, she gave them both a soft smack on the ass and started for the door, smirking at their grunts of surprise.
Chapter 6
They hadn’t made it twenty feet down the hallway when Tirox went stiff at her side and signaled someone was coming. Aria strained her ears, but even her enhanced hearing wasn’t a match for his ability to pick up the faintest vibrations in the ground.
Aria thought quickly. There was a door not three feet ahead of them, but they had no way of knowing what was behind it. The fabrication room they’d just come from was too far behind. Hell, it could’ve very well been their use of that machine to arm themselves that set off some kind of alert and prompted whoever was headed their way to check it out. Hiding there might only serve in getting them caught.
She could hear the approaching footsteps, now. Multiple heavy steps with clicking at the end of each, like claws on stone. It sounded like they were right on the other side of the bend. They had seconds to get out of sight.
Fuck.
Making a decision, she darted forward, quickly input the code, and shoved her men inside. Trusting them to watch her back, Aria immediately spun to the keypad on the wall to shut the door instead of checking the room for threats.
Sword raised, she moved with the door as it hissed shut, putting her body between whoever was out there and her men behind her.
The adrenaline pumping through her made the door seem like it was moving at half speed and made the hiss as it began to close sound like a scream.
Come on, come on, come on…
Finally, it sealed shut.
Waiting tensely, she listened to the footsteps pass by the door and continue down the hallway. When she couldn’t hear them anymore, she spun on her heel and quickly scanned the room.
From her position, she couldn’t see anyone, and listening didn’t reveal any sounds of someone moving around farther inside. At Tirox’s nod, telling her he, too, thought them safe, she relaxed, blowing out a silent breath of relief, and took a slower look around as she sheathed her sword.
The space was absolutely massive, resembling a warehouse more than any of the smaller rooms they’d checked. There were rows of horizontal tube-looking things stretching all the way up to the hundred-foot ceiling, reminding her of pictures she’d seen of vertical gardens, except the tubes were people-sized and looked entirely too much like the cylinders in the labs.
“What is this place?” she wondered quietly, a bad feeling already growing in her stomach.
Keeping her senses sharp in case there was unwanted company hiding within, she cautiously crept to the closest row to take a better look, Tirox on her heels while Kix stood guard by the door.
The sides of the tube were tinted, blocking her view of whatever was inside, but as she got closer she saw it was clear on the top, giving her a horrifyingly perfect view of the withered, emaciated alien sleeping within.
“What the fuck?” she breathed.
The being inside looked like one of the pink-skinned aliens she’d faced in the arena, but this one was old, its skin wrinkled and a sickly color instead of the odd, but healthy, pink of the one she’d fought. There were tubes going into its arms and stomach, and sensors around its ovoid head. It appeared to be sleeping peacefully, but something about the setup had the hairs on the nape of her neck standing on end.
Something about this was wrong. She could feel it, like a shadow growing in the back of her mind, holding secrets she knew would haunt her.
Peeling her eyes off the gruesome form, she slowly walked to the next tube. It, too, held a gaunt, shriveled being, though of a different species than the pink guy.
The next tube and the one after that held more of the same.
“Are these retired gladiators?” she asked, more to herself than to Tirox still following behind her. “Are they in stasis? That’s… slightly more humane than I anticipated. I assumed they’d just kill them when they were no longer able to fight.”
Aria frowned even as she spoke. Her assessment didn’t feel quite right, but she couldn’t think of any other reason Zhrovni would keep a warehouse of old, sedated gladiators.
She kept going farther down the row, walking faster and faster, looking in at the various aliens. She was searching for something, but what exactly that was she couldn’t say.
Glancing into the next tube, she froze. Her lungs seized, and she went perfectly still, not even reacting when Tirox bumped into her at her abrupt stop.
Blinking, Aria tried to interpret what she was seeing, but her brain wouldn't process it.
She’d experienced that feeling before, at a particularly gruesome crime scene during her first years as an agent. It was a defense mechanism, her mind’s way of giving her time to look away, to not see the terrible thing in front of her, to spare her the horror of having that image forever burned into her memories.
It was trying to protect her, but it was her job to look at the horrors, to face the nightmares so other people, regular people, didn’t have to.
So she stared, and waited, even as Tirox leaned against her to peer over her head and made a sound of such shock it set her heart to racing.
Finally, her mind quit trying to shield her and let her see.
Chapter 7
Aria choked back a scream, and her legs almost gave out. She would’ve dropped to her knees if Tirox hadn’t caught her.
It was her.
It was her, lying naked in the tube, hooked up to wires and sensors, with a helmet of sorts hovering over the top of her head.
Even wrinkled and skeletal, she recognized herself.
Tearing her eyes away, she swept the massive room, filled to the ceiling with bodies in tubes.
We’re here. We’re all here.
She’d suspected as much, but confirmation was a punch to the gut, not just for herself but for the hundreds of other people trapped here.
Swallowing hard, she took a slow, steadying breath and ruthlessly locked down her emotions, compartmentalized her devastation. She’d let herself feel it later, but right now she needed to think. She couldn’t do that when she was frozen with horror.
Stepping out from Tirox’s gentle hold, Aria made herself really look at… the body lying in front of her.
She— the female looked to be in her fifties.
I’ve been here for a hell of a lot longer than three years. Closer to thirteen.
Aria felt more than heard Kix’s almost silent approach, but she didn’t look at him, not even when his shock and rage washed over her in a stinging wave.
“My aessa… ” he rasped.
“Not now,” she whispered, cutting him off.
She couldn’t take their horror on top of her own. He must have understood, because she heard him suck in a sharp breath before his feelings slowly quit battering at her, lessening more and more until they were gone and she was left with the numbness she needed.
“Why are they here?” she asked.
Kix didn’t answer with words. Instead, he growled, a sound so low and menacing a flicker of fear shot through her, despite knowing he would never hurt her.
Turning, she yanked on his arm, forcing his attention away from what lie in the tube and onto her. He pinned her with his stare, murderous rage making him look fearsome and deadly, his muscled, pearlescent grey chest rising and falling rapidly with angry breaths.
But, she didn’t need his anger, she needed his mind.
“I need you to focus,” she snapped. “Why are they here? Why is Zhrovni keeping the original bodies when he has the cloned bodies to use in the arena?”
It took a second, but he eventually squeezed his eyes shut and uncurled his fists. When he had himself under control, he opened them and gave her a short nod then scanned the beings in the tubes, deliberately passing over hers.
“The probes affixed to their heads are the same as those in the labs,” he started, his voice still rough with anger. “The cap above resembles those we use on my world for immersive entertainment. As with all other technology here, it is likely far more advanced than what I am familiar with.” He paused for a moment, frowning, before he continued. “I think the consciousness is sent back to the original body at the end of each tournament via the probes. That cap then projects a construct of their homes into their minds to keep them docile. Even if they remember some of what happens here, they would believe it a dream, as we did.”
“And if the tech fails for some reason, they’d wake up in these weak bodies instead of those enhanced for battle,” Aria added. “They didn’t count on anyone waking up in the middle of a tournament.” Pausing, she frowned. “So how did I wake up in the lab just now, still in this body instead of that one? I was home. It was glitchy, and I knew almost immediately it wasn’t real, but I was still there.”
She expected Kix to answer, but Tirox beat him to it.
“You are awake, my heart,” he said, as if the answer was obvious. “Your mind is too strong for their magic. It is no longer soft and malleable as clay. It is a blade, sharp and deadly.”
He stepped closer, staring deeply into her eyes as he reached back and played with one of the beads in his hair. She could just hear the faint rattling sound and knew it was relaying information to him the same way hers warned her of danger.
“Your spirit is now bound to this body, as are ours. Their magic would have great difficulty moving it to that one.”
Kix narrowed his eyes contemplatively at the big guy and shook his head, adding, “Perhaps the probes in the lab can project a simpler version of the construct, to keep the gladiators enthralled without the risks involved in a full transference. Perhaps you were halfway between your body and… that one when we coaxed you out. We have no way to know in truth, but I imagine your awareness would, indeed, affect the process. Perhaps a sufficient amount of you was awake enough to fight back which slowed down the transfer. Crux, it very well could have been Tirox’s little rock creature that made the difference.”
“More questions without answers. That bugs the shit out of me,” she scowled. “Wait. If the transference has risks like you said, why do it at all? Wouldn’t it be safer and easier to just leave the person’s consciousness in the clone body?”
Kix nodded. “It would, I am sure, but I believe these also serve as fail-safes. If a gladiator should die in the arena, the original body still lives. Memories of the last fight are likely lost. Yet, previous ones of prior battles would remain safe, here.”
“I guess it wouldn’t make for a very good show if all the fighters had to learn everything all over again. How to wield their weapons, their opponents’ weaknesses, what shit like a hassilt stone is and where to find it,” she muttered cynically. “So, how the fuck are we going to wake them up in their gladiator bodies?”
Aria rubbed her forehead as the enormity of the situation hit her like a fucking truck.
“If we figure that out and manage to free all these people, where the hell are they going to go?” she asked quietly, gazing blankly at the hundreds of beings around her, unaware of the hellish place they were in. “Even if they have some kind of teleporter room like on Star Trek, and we miraculously figure out how to work it, and find the coordinates of all these peoples’ planets, would we send back these atrophied bodies or their clones? We don’t even know the full extent of what Zhrovni did to us, what kind of changes aren’t immediately apparent. My need for food and water is substantially decreased, and I haven’t had to use the restroom once.” She sneered. “I suppose having your slaves stop killing each other long enough to eat and piss wouldn’t be very entertaining. Fucking bastards.”
Aria paced, trying to come up with something resembling a plan.
“If what Zhrovni is doing here was illegal, we could find this planet’s version of police to help those affected, but from what he said in the lab, it’s not. Even if we kill him and free everyone—and that’s a big fucking if—there’s no bureau or organization to go to for help. He made a point of telling me he followed regulations when I called him an animal.”
Something else he said came back to her, halting her mid-step.
“He said he owns the most advanced arena on the planet,” she whispered, whipping a look at Kix and Tirox.
“So, there is more than one,” Tirox muttered, his eyes narrowing, not with anger, but with thought as if he, too, was trying to come up with a plan.
Good. She needed help because she was feeling pretty fucking hopeless right then.
Aria nodded. “What if the entire fucking planet is nothing but this and worse? What if there’s no safe place to go, even if we succeed? How the fuck are we supposed to help anyone? What, we’re going to wake them up to this nightmare, tell them the past however-many years of their lives were fake? That they’re slaves? Only to tell them they’re also trapped here with no way to go home or even anywhere somewhat safe? I can’t imagine they’d thank us for that.”
Kix stepped forward and cupped her cheeks, tipping her face up so she was looking at him. “We do not know what this planet holds, my song. There could be remote regions we could go to hide, where we would be safe,” he offered, trying to console her.
Aria swallowed hard, giving him tortured eyes. “And if there is, we’d just leave all those other people in the other arenas? Abandon them? What if their situation is worse than this?”
To her utter confusion, she saw Tirox’s expression relax from the corner of her eye. Turning to look at him, she saw a small smile curl his red lips. Before she could demand to know why he was suddenly so damn cheerful, he spoke.
“So we take over the planet, my heart.”
Chapter 8
Aria blinked up at Tirox, stunned, before an incredulous laugh bubbled out. “Just like that, huh? We’ll just take over the entire planet?”
He smirked. “I do not say it will be easy, or fast. But, it is not unattainable.”
Aria looked at Kix for help, thinking he’d be the rational one, but he was staring at Tirox with a contemplative look on his face.
“You can’t be serious,” she sputtered.
Kix gave her that shrug, hand wave thing he did and offered, “With this being a planet full of slaves, there would be planetary defenses to protect against pirates trying to steal them, as well as hostile species like the Gaulik that attacked my world in the past. The arenas themselves might have such defenses as well to guard against other Overlords trying to take their gladiators. There would also be either a land-based port or a spaceport for ships. Once we take over, we send the overlords, and any unsavory elements, off-world then activate the defenses. If they fend off pirates, they will fend off slavers just as well.”
“But… we’d need help. Lots of help! The three of us can’t take over a planet.” She scoffed and shook her head. “We’re good, but we’re not that fucking good.”
Tirox waved to the warehouse around them. “You have an army here, my heart. Find the ones with honor, and send the rest off with the filth.”
Aria wanted to wave away what they were saying as impossible, but she made herself stop and really consider the possibilities. Pulling in a deep breath, she thought about it, her hand dropping to stroke the knife hilt at her side.
If they could keep their coup of this arena secret and out of any news this planet may have, they could employ guerilla tactics, sneaking from one place to the next, waking up the slaves a
nd adding to their army. Hell, if she could find people to act as generals, she and her men wouldn’t have to do it all themselves. Those people could take a portion of the slaves willing to fight and attack multiple arenas at the same time.
An image of the dragon flashed before her eyes.
They needed to find him. She needed to find him.
Part of it was the advantage of having someone with such an ability as an ally, but most of it was selfish. Even during standoffs with Zhrovni, dreams of home, and creeping around she couldn’t stop thinking about him. Even with Kix standing so closely and Tirox staring at her with love in his beautiful, golden eyes, the dragon was in the back of her mind. Even knowing she loved these two men, a part of her was held captive by the image of white eyes and the feeling of recognition she’d had staring into them.
“Okay. Let’s do it. We need to go back to the labs and see if we can find files on the slaves to pick which ones to wake up first.”
And a file on him. There has to be a reason I feel this way.
Turning, she took a step toward the door but Kix’s voice stopped her.
“Aessa,” He waved to the wall near the door they’d come through. “I believe that is a data console.”
Aria didn’t see anything, just a blank space of wall, but she followed him as he headed that way. Closer now, she could see a seam, about a foot wide and maybe nine inches tall, set at chest height.
It popped out when he touched it, moving to hover in front of him. After a couple of minutes of tapping, he stopped and seemed to be reading something. Stepping closer to his side, she pressed a hand to his hip to steady herself and went up on tiptoe to see the scrolling text on the display.
Without pausing his rapid perusal, he slid an arm around her waist and pulled her closer, then pressed a soft kiss to the top of her head.
After a bit of swiping he tilted the screen toward her. “Found it. Data on the slaves.”
