Leo spent the whole day singing softly to Braken and absent-mindedly brushing through his friend's hair, just as the silent Unnatural had done to him. I didn't interrupt them, not when I knew this could very well be the last day they ever got to see each other again. Braken could be killed out there.

For some reason, he didn't seem nearly so worried about this. He just let Leo do his thing, never interrupting, never moving. He sat as silent as ever, barely even attempting to communicate unless Leo asked him a question.

I watched them for a while and then sat down and closed my eyes, listening to Leo sing. He and Braken finished his song and he sang it a few times so he would remember.

"You can lift your head up to the sky,
Take a deeper breath and give it time.
You can walk the path among the lines
With your shattered frame of mind.

Or instead you could always stay.
We can wait right here and play,
Until somehow you can find
A slightly better frame of mind."

The words were truly amazing. Even though I tried to keep myself separate from them, every moment, every bit of emotion told me that they were just as human as I was. They were just ... different.

"When they say 'you will fall,
You can reach nothing at all.
Hide your tracks beneath the rind
Of a different frame of mind.'

Is that what you heard?
Broken words in the dirt
Yelling out into the sun,
Here we come, here we come."

I wanted to remember these words forever. These feelings they brought made me rethink my entire life. I was raised just like everyone else, but that didn't made it right. The way they treated these Unnaturals, these people, as if they were animals or objects was completely unacceptable. Everyone in our world had been so concerned with feminism, LGTB rights, racism, et cetera, that we neglected to notice another problem, a far more destructive one. Not to say that any of these others aren't significant, by any means, but these people here, these Unnaturals - they weren't even treated like humans. They had no rights - not even the right to live. They were born different - just like all these others - and yet the world thought they weren't as human as the rest of us.

These thoughts haunted my mind all day, causing deep feelings of guilt and anguish. I suppose I was grateful for the paradigm shift - for the different frame of mind. If I hadn't had it, I would have been the same as all the other humans, thinking just as I was taught.

"And when daylight comes through,
When the day is anew,
Then it will be time
For a new frame of mind.

When all eyes are on you,
You will know what to do,
Since you will have found
Your new frame of mind.

When you lift your head up to the sky,
Take a deeper breath and give it time,
You can walk the path among the lines.

But always know that you'll be safe.
I'll be here throughout your days.
Come find me, and we will play."

And suddenly, the sun was setting, and the games were upon us.

The soldiers came slowly down the halls, starting from the other end. "Michael Parsberg," one of them called. "Tonight, you will compete against Braken."

"You here that, silent boy?" another called. "Mikey here is finally gonna put you out of your misery!"

Braken stiffened, and Leo gently squeezed his hand. "You'll be okay," he whispered. "You always are." They both glanced up as the soldiers came closer. Leo licked his lips nervously held Braken's hand a little tighter. "Braken," he said quickly. "Promise me something. Promise me you'll be okay."

Braken gave him a quick sign with his hand. He had a sad look in his eyes. I could see it clearly. He knew his time was up. He felt that cold, foreboding atmosphere that came before death.

"Promise me you'll come back," Leo insisted, grasping his friend's hand with both of his. "Promise me."

Braken gave him a regretful smile and shook his head. I knew exactly what he was going to say. He couldn't.

"Please, promise me," Leo begged, his voice cracking.

The cage door opened with a squeal that physically hurt my ears. Braken glanced over his shoulder and shook his head again.

"Please, Braken, you have to promise me. You're the only one I have left." Leo was crying now. I didn't have to see his face to hear it. I could feel it in the air.

"Leo, he can't," I said softly, my throat closing up with emotion.

The two soldiers gave Braken a sharp jab with their electric spears to get him moving, and the Unnatural flinched, backing away from the window and away from Leo's grasp.

"Promise me!" Leo cried, reaching out as if he could stop them by stretching far enough. "Promise me!"

The soldiers roughly took Braken's shoulders and shoved him forward, out of the cage. Braken shook his head again and held his fist up to his heart, making a little circle.

The one sign I knew.

"No!" Leo screamed, his voice choked with tears. "No, please! Bring him back! Promise me, Braken! Promise me!"

I'm sorry.

...

The round was scheduled to start in twenty minutes. I paced across my cell, back and forth, rubbing my arms, my face, my side. I couldn't get that dark feeling out of my chest - the same feeling that came before entering into that maze with Laszlo. Braken may have had one of the deadliest powers out there, but he was physically weak and small. He had to grab the other before they killed him.

Leo was sitting with his head between his knees, staring blankly. He'd stopped crying a few minutes ago, and now it was as if he didn't know what to do.

I went up to the window and stared in, sighing softly. I wanted to help him, but I didn't know what to say. I couldn't do anything.

I waited for a moment, and then spoke. "Braken really loves you," I said, surprising myself.

Leo looked up and rubbed his eyes. "What?"

"Braken really loves you, you know."

"Oh," he said, dropping his gaze and resuming his staring.

I blinked in surprise, waiting for him to continue. He didn't say anything else. I hadn't expected that reaction. It was as if he didn't know what to say or how to react.

"Joel?" he said suddenly, looking back up at me.

"Yeah?"

He hesitated, as if embarrassed by his words even before he said them. "Um ... what's ... what's love?"

I actually let out a strained laugh and backed up. "You're serious?"

His face flushed deep scarlet, both in anger and embarrassment. "I just asked a question."

"But ..." I didn't know what to say. My hands grasped at the air, as if physically searching for the words. "But everyone knows what love is."

"Okay. So then what is it?"

I looked into Leo's eyes and saw something that completely caught me off guard. He really thought he didn't know what love was. He was honestly curious.

"It's ... it's indescribable ..." I murmured.

He stood up and came closer, tracing the bars with his finger and looking up expectantly. "Can you ... at least try?"

"It's ... the indescribable feeling of ... of attachment and compassion," I said slowly.

He stared at me, and then said, "I don't understand."

I rubbed the back of my neck uncomfortably. "What, the attachment or ...?"

"Compassion," he said. "What's that?"

How did he not know what these two simple words were? "Concern for someone's ... pain. You want to help them because you feel bad."

"Is that was love is?" Leo asked.

"Sort of ..." I didn't know what to say. How were you supposed to describe an indescribable feeling? "Why are you asking me?"

"Because you used the word," he said without hesitation.

"You mean you've ..."

"Never heard of it," he finished for me. He caught my horrified expression and dropped his eyes. "What? I don't hear much from down here."

"What about your mom?" I asked, thinking hard. I had a sick feeling in my chest, aching and tugging, breaking my heart.

"Never met her," he said, his fingers playing with one of the braids by his neck. "Never met my dad, either."

"Then how did you ...?"

"My first memory is of the cops shooting a gang member for protecting me." This time, Leo's voice was hard and broken. "In case your precious Post hasn't told you, I was abandoned when I was five years old. One of the gangs picked me up and I guess they felt ... that word you used. Compassion. I was raised by them, I guess. Maybe that's why I turned out like this. The Refs caught me when I was twelve, using my fire to keep Jack, the gang leader, from freezing to death."

"There," I said immediately. "That's love. What you felt when you were trying to keep him alive. You were good friends, weren't you?"

"Not really." He shrugged. "I don't think he liked me very much."

"Then why'd you do it?"

He paused to think, glancing up at the window to the arena. "I don't know. I guess I just felt like I had to. I owed it to him. He saved my life, so I saved his." He let out a strained laugh. "I don't even know if he survived or not." He looked over at me again, still playing with one of the braids in his hair. "You said Braken loved me. What does that mean?"

I rubbed the bridge of my nose and sighed. I didn't know. How could I explain it? "I'd say it's ... putting someone's wants and needs before your own." I glanced up, but he was still staring at me in confusion. "It's ... giving them the last bite of your food, even though you really want it for yourself, but you know it will make them happy. It's ... defending them, comforting them, and cheering them up. It's when you can talk for hours with them, when you can tell them anything and trust them with it, when it's okay to just ... sit next to them and not say anything, because just having each other's presence is calming." Now he looked like he was starting to understand, and I grew a little more confident. "It's ... doing things for them just to make them smile or laugh, not caring what people think when they see you together, and caring about them regardless of their flaws. It's being willing to live for them and willing to die for them. That's what love is."

"That's love," he whispered.

"That's love," I said.

And then I heard the announcer out in the arena, yelling that the rounds would begin in a few minutes. Leo's almost peaceful expression quickly turned into one of terror, and he ran up to the window to the arena, clutching the bars tightly and looking out, searching for Braken.

I looked out, too, but all I could see were people, people filling the stands, buying snacks, hoping for a good game tonight. Seeing them made me want to escape - to tell them everything they didn't know. I wanted to show them that the Unnaturals were human, just like they were.

Still, a part of me longed to be human, too.

Finally, they brought the two contestants out, Mike and Braken. They held Mike's shoulders, giving him rough shoves, but no one would touch Braken. Honestly, I didn't blame them. I didn't particularly want to be turned to dust, either. They jabbed him with their spears, prodding at him until he went where they wanted him. They made sure they stayed far away from his hands. He'd taken off his pinkish hoodie, and to my dismay, I noticed he was barefoot.

"Please, Braken," Leo whispered. "You can win this."

The announcer began his speech, rambling on and on about how deadly Braken was and how Mike had nothing worth fighting for, now that Alex was dead. "Beware of the person who has nothing to lose," he said.

And then just like that, they began.

Again, Mike transformed, one of his energy explosives resting in his hand. I remembered the round about a year ago when he'd hit someone dead in the face with one, and his opponent had literally exploded, ripping apart and splattering across the arena. Was that how Braken would die?

Braken immediately darted forward, trying to get close to Mike, both to grab him and to avoid the bombs. I think they're called grenades or something, but I couldn't remember. All I knew was that Mike wouldn't throw them if Braken was too close.

Braken reminded me of a snake as he seemed to slither his way up towards the other Unnatural, staying low and grabbing for his arm or his leg. They circled the arena ominously for a good five minutes, and then Mike suddenly took off, running toward one side. Braken reacted immediately, faster than the crowd did, but he tripped over himself and fell hard on the ground, rolling over in the dust.

"Braken!" Leo screamed, and the spectators went crazy.

"Come on," I whispered. "Get up."

Mike didn't waste any time. He hurled the bomb as hard as he could, and Braken barely had enough time to scramble away before it hit right where he'd been laying. He was still too close, and the energy burst knocked him over and sent him tumbling over himself. He didn't have time to catch his breath, or even stand up, as Mike threw more bombs toward him.

"Oh, how the tables have turned!" the announcer shouted excitedly as the crowd cheered. "At first, it looked like Braken would get him! Now, he's too far away and Mike is pushing him back with all he's got!"

"Come on, Braken!" Leo shouted through the bars, his voice cracking.

Braken stumbled to his feet, but Mike threw another bomb and he just barely avoided it. Again, it threw him harder and farther across the arena. He slammed into the wall on our side and crumpled to the ground. I could just barely see the screen from here, and it showed him half conscious, his ankle twisted awkwardly, with blood from multiple gashes running down his face.

He wasn't going to make it.

Leo could feel it, too. His white-knuckled grip began to loosen, his terrified eyes filling with tears. "Oh no," he whispered.

I glanced around my cell, wondering if there was something I could do. My thoughts were frantic and scattered, but finally, I remembered something, and a terrible, deadly idea came into my head.

Quick author's note: The last description of love is word for word what SingACh0rus said when I asked him. Isn't it beautiful? :)