I woke up slowly, feeling groggy and drugged, laying on something stiff. I could taste blood - and a lot of it.

"Hey, you awake?"

I groaned in response and tried to sit up. Rough but gentle hands helped me lean against the wall, and then my blurry vision cleared and Eoin came into focus. He was smiling, but the bruised side of his face made him look like some villain from a movie.

"Not bad for your first fight," he said. "That other guy fights like a professional."

"Where am I?" I mumbled, looking around. There were other beds, covered in multicolored blankets, and counters covered in medical supplies. I rubbed my nose and felt blood start to gush.

"Don't -" Eoin started, then finished with a sigh. "- touch that. It took me forever to stop your bleeding. I bet if I let you just bleed and bleed, you'd die. Imagine that. Dying from a bloody nose."

"Comforting," I muttered, holding my hand up to my nose and feeling the blood pool in my palm. I glanced to the side and saw a rather large pile of bloody tissues.

Eoin noticed my look and handed me a clean one. "Yeah, it's not fun to try and keep an unconscious person from drowning in their own nose bleed."

"Sorry?"

"It's not your fault, don't worry." Eoin sat down next to me and leaned against the wall. "Man, Leo was brutal - against his own friend. I guess he really did fight in the games." He turned to look at me. "I thought escape from that place was impossible. How'd you do it?"

I remembered what Varien had told me. He thought they let us go. Now that I actually started thinking about it, I was starting to believe him. "I think ... I think they let us go."

I don't know what I was expecting, but what he said was definitely not it. "Yeah," he said slowly. "I think they did."

"Have you been there?" I asked hesitantly. "Is that why you're blacklisted?"

"No," he said, leaning his elbows on his knees and staring at the floor. I sensed his sudden mood change and didn't say anything, and didn't expect him to continue, but instead, he surprised me and spoke again. "I was a soldier in the wars in Europe."

"Then how'd you end up over here?" I asked softly.

He chuckled a little. "I did the least honorable thing a soldier can do. I ran away. Defected, in a way. But the armies over there - they all threw honor out the window years ago. It's pathetic, really. Puts the real heroes to shame." He paused, rubbing his arm uncomfortably, and sighed. "I couldn't take it - I couldn't do those things to those people anymore. Those innocent civilians we lined up and shot, the cities we stormed simply to get attention, the chemical warfare and poisonous gasses, the psychological torture ..." He sighed again, massaging his temples with his thumbs. "I guess a guy like me can't handle it. Someone with a conscious can't do things like that, not without a good cause. Not without a purpose."

"Then why'd you join?" My voice sounded stuffy as I smashed the tissue against my nose. I was afraid of the answer, or how he'd react to the question, and instantly regretted it.

"I didn't. I was drafted." Eoin leaned back again, lacing his fingers behind his head. "I should've run away right then and there, but I thought there was honor there. Thought there was something worth fighting for." He glanced at me again. "So. What are you doing here? British, right? You run from the draft, too?"

I shook my head and winced as a headache exploded through my eyes. "My parents - my mum moved us over here when I was fourteen, to avoid it, I think, before she knew it would happen."

He watched as I winced again, and then asked if I wanted some painkillers. I accepted, and he stood up to go get some. He was still limping.

"Did you fight today?" I asked.

"No, I'm out for two weeks. House rules."

"Then how are you supposed to pay?"

"Pay who? Anna? She won't let me. I have enough money to get me through these weeks for food. I'll be fine. I don't have a family to pay, anyway. Gus does. I'm willing to help him. My family - they're probably ashamed of me anyway."

"I'm sorry," I muttered, reaching for another tissue. My nose bleed had finally slowed down.

He shrugged, handing me two pills and a plastic water bottle. "There's nothing you can do about it. Anna and Gus - they're my family now. I don't need anyone else."

Speaking of family ...

"Where's Leo?" I asked after I'd taken my pills. I looked around, but we were alone.

Eoin shrugged. "I don't know. I'd avoid him if I were you. He's ... not as amused about the fight as everyone else is."

I felt my face turn red as I remembered what had happened. "I didn't mean to hit him there," I grumbled. "That's playing dirty, and I don't like to fight like that."

He shrugged again. "Well, then good luck. Life plays dirty. Sometimes you just gotta kick it in the crotch." He started to laugh and I let myself smile a little, though I really wasn't feeling it.

He was right. Life didn't play fair. If I was going to survive, I had to learn to play dirty.

...

There was a pile of multicolored bills on the table when I went back into our room. I counted them, and all together, there was a sum of one thousand, four hundred and fifty six international credits. I whistled softly under my breath. I had no idea winning once could stack up this much money.

Leo was nowhere to be seen. The light was on in the bathroom though, so I assumed he was in there. I found Braken asleep on the bed, curled up on his side with his hands up against his face, his blue bangs falling in front of his eyes. It was late. I was exhausted.

I went back into the living room kitchen and laid down on the couch, nearly falling asleep, when Varien burst into the room, slamming his own wad of cash down on the table. I jumped up with a terrified gasp for breath, my hand over my heart, and he started to laugh.

"Sorry. Didn't mean to scare you. One thousand, one hundred and thirty two. You're welcome."

"Nearly twenty five hundred credits," I muttered. "Wow."

"You know," he said slowly, sitting at the table, "we could always stay here. Fighting is what we're good at. We can stretch this money and have more than us Unnaturals have ever wanted."

I sat and thought about it for a moment. "But haven't you ever wanted to do something else? Be someone else?"

"This is who I am. It's been a long time since I've been anyone else. Who am I supposed to be, if I'm not myself?" he asked.

"You're Varien," I said. "That's not your real name."

He shook his head and sighed. "No. My name's Nick. But Nick is nothing. Not even a person."

"Then you have absolutely no limitations," I said, standing up and walking toward him. He didn't look at me as I approached him. "You can do whatever you want. You can craft your own person without having to worry about right or wrong."

"You pretend like you know so much about this, but you don't. I appreciate your attempts, but sometimes, you just make it worse."

"Oh ... sorry." I turned away from him and leaned against the counter, digging through the cupboards for something to eat before I went to sleep. I found some crackers and ate them slowly, thinking about what he'd said. "So, you do want to be called Nick, or do you want to stay Varien?"

He thought about it for a long time. "For now, Varien. But maybe ... maybe you're right. When I find out who Nick is, then I'll let you know."

A moment passed, and then I turned and looked over at the bathroom door. "Leo's been in there for a long time," I muttered. I walked over to the door, hesitating before I knocked on it. He'd hate me for asking. I knocked anyway. "Is everything okay in there?" I called.

There was a second's hesitation, and then his shaking voice came back, hard and snappy. "I'm fine. Go away."

"I have to used the bathroom," I lied, though as I said it, I found it was actually true.

There was a lot of grumbling, but finally, the toilet flushed and I heard the crisp sound of the sink, and then the door opened. Leo's face was deathly pale, making the dark bags under his eyes and the bruises on his face seem even darker. He glared at me a moment and then shoved me out of the way.

"Sorry about -" I tried to say, but he cut me off.

"Don't even think about it," he growled. He was still staggering as he walked.

I glanced over my shoulder at him, but then closed the door and relieved myself. As I was washing my hands, still picking at the blood under my fingernails from my nosebleed, I thought of something. I needed to get them some food. The Unnaturals were extremely underweight, and Braken - especially in the dark of night - looked like death itself. I could fix this.

The fights were over by the time I could talk to Anna about it. She agreed, and we gathered the ingredients. It would be simple, but it would give them a taste of what they'd been missing. I told Anna this and she started laughing at my totally unintended pun. Altogether, I felt pretty good about my idea, and hoped they'd appreciate it as much as I wanted them to - especially Leo. I wanted to stay on his good side. Being the enemy of an Unnatural didn't come with a bright future.