*Note: The POV goes back to the standard 3rd person limited focusing on Sky. 😉

"NO!"

Sky's rough cry shook the air and the walls in the arena with a primal rawness. His throat ached as his voice died.

His tears were fast to chase Haywire's descent into the belly of the inner workings beneath the sandy ground of the arena. His knees went weak, shivered, forcing his body to give in to defeat and kneel right where he stood—at the currently unseen border where the ground had opened up like an enormous mouth and swallowed Haywire like a killer whale gulping fish down.

His hopes had sunk, as well.

Then, staring at the sand where the hole used to be a few seconds prior, he yelled unintelligible sounds and punched the ground.

"We have to go," Hazel whispered in defeat as she stood beside him.

"No! I'm not going anywhere without Haywire!" Sky complained as if his life was on the line.

He stood up, his lips trembling, and met Hazel's pitiful, bright eyes.

"Mrs Evergreen is more powerful than us," she said. "We need... a better plan, more people to help us, and... why not? Intel. Because—I don't know about you, but... hell—I didn't know the arena could do that! She owns this place. The entire city, for that matter. God knows what else she can do with her resources."

"No, I can't... I'm not leaving without him." He frantically started to look left and right, searching for a way to go, a button to push, a door to open, anything. Panting and madly running his hands through his crazy, dishevelled hair, he paced up and down while ignoring her presence.

"Sky, stop it," she insisted, putting a hand softly on his shoulder. "We need help."

He pretended not to listen as he rushed to the enormous glass window of the control room. He found the control panel to open the door of the lift that led to it and other floors above it, only available to teachers and staff by means of a numeric code.

"Locked," he whispered. "Lend me your Swiss knife, please."

Once Hazel handed him her knife, he lost not a single second to tinker with it. He took out the buttons and fiddled with the core of the device.

"Will this lift take us down?" Hazel asked.

"I hope so. If not, I'm running after Mrs Evergreen, and I'll force her to free Haywire."

A shrill beep sound echoed in the air roughly ten seconds later.

"Overridden! Yes!" he whisper-yelled with satisfaction.

Sky ran in the second the lift opened its doors. With an open mouth and a look of disbelief, Hazel hurried and entered right before the doors started closing.

"Damn," Sky said with furrowed brows. "It doesn't go down into any basement. Why?"

"Maybe there's another lift somewhere else."

Sky grunted almost noiselessly. "Only one thing left to do, then."

"I hope you know what you're doing, Sky. Running after Mrs Evergreen right now is the craziest thing I've seen you do."

"I'll choke her to death if that's what it takes for her to free him," he whispered darkly. His fists turned white.

With my newfound superstrength, I might be able to do that... even though I've never done such a rash and violent thing. This isn't me. It will never be, regardless of my powers. But I have to push her to free him—free us for good.

The lift went up, but it didn't reach the first floor. The lift stopped abruptly and trembled as it froze, stuck between two floors. The lights went off and the emergency red light went on.

"That was an unwise move on behalf of the Entity," a familiar ominous voice from beyond the grave said. The inhuman intonation pattern, the precision in articulation, and the formal tone were unmistakable.

Both teens gasped and went pale. Hazel bit her lower lip, while Sky clenched his teeth.

"As unwise as the coding he used to enable me to have full access to Evergreen's property." Endurance hummed for a second. His dark, inhuman, layered voice made the metal on the lift tremble. "Humans are puzzling."

It's Endurance! I had forgotten he was out and about, controlling the security system and all electrical appliances in the Anti-Ageing Inc.'s premises. These include the Elite Academy and the arena. Damn! I'm an idiot!

"Will he hear me if I speak?" Sky asked Hazel whispering, his eyebrows furrowed.

"Yes, I can hear the Entity," Endurance replied with his usual ice-cold metallic voice. "The emergency system has got a microphone and a camera, allowing me to see and listen."

"You have to let us go, Endurance," Sky said with assertiveness, staring right into the small camera close to the red emergency button, the small microphone in a tiny hole above it, and the grid-looking speaker.

"That would be unreasonable." Endurance's robotic speech uniformly conveyed his hatred and defiance. "The Entity is a threat to my goal."

"No, I am not," Sky complained. "Mrs Evergreen is. She's escaping as we speak."

"No, she is not. My malicious coding has successfully infected her headquarters," Endurance said. "3.5 seconds ago, it infected all her systems and devices in the academy and the arena as well."

"She's very resourceful," Hazel said.

To which Sky added, "If she's escaped from her headquarters and your threats so far, she will do it again."

A moment of hesitation later, Endurance replied, "The Entity can only be right in a 45.5%."

"I'm smart," Sky went on, "Smarter than electrical appliances. I can get her and make her pay for what she's done."

"Why would the Entity do that? He sided with her not long ago to kill my phoenixes. He also sided with Kane Kovak."

"Both are my enemies," Sky replied, and then added in a whisper, "at least to some extent, in the case of Kovak."

"Interesting." Endurance made a pause for a few seconds. "I cannot detect any trace of lying in the Entity's speech pattern and/or non-verbal communication."

"Exactly, I'm not lying! You have to let us go to stop her."

"I cannot," Endurance answered, harsh and cold as ever. "I detect traces of the infamous drug in the Entity, that which Evergreen wanted to create, and I aimed to stop."

"What?!" both Sky and Hazel exclaimed.

How can he know I've got the Lifebringer in me?

"The Lifebringer," Endurance's voice went darker and huskier. A low grunt followed. "The abhorrent chemical to kill death. I cannot let it exist. The Entity must die—or else I have failed."

I have to think of something to trick him into freeing us before he executes us. Now!

"No, wait!" Sky yelled as he started to hyperventilate. "Why can't you let it exist?"

"Many years ago, I was made to prevent the drug from ever existing. That is my goal, the core programming Kovak developed for me when he gave birth to me."

"Why?"

"Immortality should not be achieved by a species so undeserving as the human race," Endurance explained with the decisiveness of a judge. "Immortality should only be available to a species who are pure of the heart, devoid of greed and pride. I have to eliminate all traces of the Lifebringer. Humans would make an inappropriate use of it."

"But I can help you!" Sky exclaimed. "I don't want the Lifebringer to exist either!"

"Interesting." Endurance hummed briefly. "But the Entity is tainted."

"I'll find a way to get rid of it! I swear!" Sky went on. "But I need to get out of here alive to do so—and stop Mrs Evergreen. Will you let me do that?"

Endurance took a couple of seconds to reply with an intriguing question, "Is the Entity apt in human biology and chemistry?"

"No, but-"

"Wrong answer," Endurance's tone went several degrees colder. The lift suddenly got its lights back and the increasing humming of an engine could be heard. "The Entity is only trying to buy time. I will achieve my goal by any means necessary. All traces of the Lifebringer need to be destroyed."

"Stop!" both teens yelled.

Hazel banged the lift's doors while Sky slammed a hand beside the speaker with a trembling arm. Their eyes widened, and their pupils dilated, reflecting the terror that consumed them. Their breath quickened.

"Open the door!" Hazel shouted.

"I will finish what I started a long time ago, when I became sentient and started to create as many tools as I saw fit to destroy Evergreen and Anti-Ageing Inc., my phoenix army. First, I will annihilate the Entity. Then, I'll rebuild my army to desecrate Evergreen's home city once more—with her and the phoenixes she stole from me in it."

"No! Wait!" Hazel shouted, still banging the doors.

"I can give you your old army back!" Sky cried.

The whirring of the engine stopped. The lights glitched for a second.

"I'm listening," Endurance replied, lengthening the last word.

"May I ask first how Kovak lost control over you?" Sky asked, trying to control his quick breaths. Sweat coated his temples. "He must've at some point, right?"

"Kovak detested the true scope of my abilities and threatened to destroy me years ago, when I created my first phoenixes. He claimed I was too dangerous and resented creating me. Now, the Entity helped him because the Entity also seeks my destruction, as proven by his previous loyalty to Evergreen."

His reasoning isn't bad. There isn't a single lie in it. He's got all the facts.

"But I'm not loyal to either of them anymore!" Sky replied.

"The Entity is unstable," Endurance replied like a doctor who gives up on their patient. "Loyal to a party one day, to another the next. I cannot trust the Entity's word."

Sky pressed his lips into a thin line. "I was lied to. I was fooled, used as a tool!" he complained.

"Tonight, the Entity hacked into Evergreen's headquarters to let me in. Did the Entity want to use me as a tool, too? Am I a fool, as well?" Endurance asked, displaying a bit of sarcasm and defiance in its cold, robotic voice.

"I know this looks bad now, but humans are complicated," Sky explained. "We barely understand ourselves sometimes. But I can do better. I swear! I can prove humans can be good, pure of the heart, and free of greed and pride, as you said before."

Sky turned to stare Hazel in the eyes.

"I can stop Evergreen... and Kovak," he added. "And destroy the Lifebringer for good. All traces of it."

Hazel's eyes went open wide, almost flying out of their sockets when he said that last bit. She took a step towards him with a trembling hand aimed at his arm and shaking her head.

"You don't mean..." she whispered in a broken voice.

"How?" Endurance asked. "Some of my phoenixes are under Kovak's command, while others have been enslaved under Mrs Evergreen's... thanks to the Entity. She even took my precious PHOENIX10."

"What does that mean, PHOENIX10?" Hazel asked, frowning.

"It's Haywire's species coding," Sky replied. "It appears on the nameplate."

"Silence," Endurance commanded. "Now, the Entity is powerless. Bargaining for salvation is futile."

The lift abruptly started moving. It rose at a tremendous speed, making both teens weak in the knees, lean on the walls for support, fall on the lift's floor while hugging each other, and shriek.

The metal structure shook and wailed, a high-pitched protest due to an unbearable force putting a strain on the material. The lights glitched and exploded. The red emergency light was back on, but it exploded too.

"The Entity is short-sighted, unresourceful in emergencies, and promises things he cannot fulfil just to survive, leeching onto life," Endurance replied with pride. "Humans are leeches. I need to destroy the Entity, and by extension, all humans should be annihilated as well."

The lift reached its highest, the twentieth floor, and stopped.

The silence and the darkness were ominous and sickening.

"What's he gonna do now?" Hazel whispered in a frail whisper, close to Sky's ear. Her arms were shot around him in a desperate attempt to find safety.

"Cut the power and let us crash down below to kill us?" Sky whispered, hugging her back, sinking his fingertips into her flesh as if doing that would save them both.

"Correct," Endurance replied.

Both teens shrieked and hugged each other for dear life when... nothing happened.

Seconds ticked away.

The lift remained still.

Their cries subsided.

Sky took his phone and turned on the flashlight. It cast its eerie light onto both of them as they stared into each other's eyes, and then he aimed at the emergency system's camera. Bits of dust could be seen floating in the air.

"What's going on?" Hazel dared to ask with a faltering voice.

"I don't know," Sky replied.

He stood up and inspected the panel. Staring at the camera, he bit his lower lip for a moment and said, "Hello?"

Hazel stood up. "Shouldn't we try to open this goddamn door or something before Endurance is back or rethinks this?" She tried hard to push her fingers into the opening of the lift's metal doors, but they didn't give in. "Damn it. It won't budge."

"Why didn't it kill us?"

"Can we save our arses first, ask questions later, please?"

"No need to," a familiar baritone voice with cybernetic traits said over the emergency line. "Your arses have already been saved."

"Kane Kovak?!" both teens exclaimed.

"That's me. You're welcome." The lift's doors opened. "Let's meet somewhere quiet, the three of us. I'm sending you the rendezvous point's address on your phone. We have much to discuss."

Hello, my sugar cubes!

I love Endurance's voice and talking style, so robotic. Did you enjoy the lift scene and Kovak saving them in the nick of time? 😉

Stay tuned!

XOXO

Mar