A whisper of wind told Ari he was behind her. She turned around, but he had his hands clamped across hers already. He threw her backwards.

The floor sailed beneath her. Ari twisted, trying to keep an eye on Hine, but he'd disappeared again. It was impossible. With such injuries, there was no way he could still be so quick. If anything, he was just at the same speed as after Ari had first zapped him.

He struck her like a storm. His footsteps were louder, but that was the only thing in Ari's favour. He came from the back as a flurry of punches and kicks. Ari parried most of them, forced back. She could sense herself tiring. Hine's breathing was ragged, too, but the exhaustion seemed to power him instead of slowing.

Loud bangs and slaps echoed throughout the near-empty auditorium. Ari just about managed to reflect most of the energy in his attacks; the rest she converted to sound, usually a last resort. Her ears rang after a while. Her gasps matched Hine's. Each step forward forced the other one back, but then the other would recover and retaliate. Hine's desperation kept up.

Ari switched angles. Watchful of Hine's footwork, which was a dead giveaway to his intentions, she aimed for an opening in his defences. Hine was beyond the point of caring for his own well-being. His attacks held no room for change or self-defence. She grabbed his arm at his next punch. Absorbing his energy, his body came to a standstill. His eyes bulged when he realised what she wanted to do.

Energy soared through Ari's body. Her core emptied into her arms. With a grunt, Ari redirected all the energy she collected into the direction of Hine's punch.

He flew through the air and smacked onto the wall, not like Ari had moments before, and flopped onto the ground. He groaned, but didn't move.

Ari stepped back. Out of the corners of her eyes, she could see the other terrorists closing in. Only a few were looking in worry at Hine; the rest had gazes only for her. Her lungs burned with each breath. Blood drummed in her ears. She would be killed if caught, whether in the fight or via Kena's extractions.

"Stop."

Hine's voice was barely above a whisper. The terrorists halted, unsure what to do. Hine struggled to his hands and knees. He spat out a mouthful of spit. From the looks of it, he was barely hanging onto consciousness. He swayed on all fours, threatening to collapse again.

"You're in no state to fight, Hine," said Ari, more out of pity than anything.

With grunts, Hine forced himself to his feet. His legs quaked. Sweat dripped down his face. One arm hung useless by his side; the other clung with desperation to the wall. The impact against the wall must have split the skin at the back of his head. He left a small puddle of blood at his feet.

"Hine. Stop."

He continued to move forward, stumbling every other step, his head hanging in front of him. Ari didn't know what to do.

"You'll hurt yourself."

"I have no prospects if I can't succeed in this task. I have to capture you."

"You don't have to do anything! Walk away from this. Go back to normal life. Nobody needs to know about this."

He gave a short laugh, cut short as he inhaled in pain and coughed. When he stopped, he wiped blood from the corner of his mouth with his sleeve.

"It must be nice to be so ignorant, Ari. My background has always been my limitation. You think I can just waltz back into Class 5A? Become the old monitor again?"

He didn't wait for her answer. He shot forward again, landing a punch in her stomach. Ari doubled over, her breaths torn out of her lungs.

"Why don't you fight back, huh?" he said, breathless. He slammed another fist into her stomach, his broken arm dangling uselessly at his side. "Are you pitying me? Your existence condemns me to a lifetime of struggle and depravity. It's because of you!"

Coughing and her eyes watering, Ari backed away, clutching her abdomen. If she lost here, she would be dead. But if she lost, Hine would have a chance at leaving this terrible life.

But if she lost, she would doom every student in March City. Only she knew this much so far. The Investigators and Peacekeepers had no idea these horrific activities were on-going. Rale had no idea where she was.

And she would never see Mina again.

Her heart skipped a beat. She couldn't put Mina through this. She couldn't turn Mina into the monster Hine had become. Her sister needed her.

She swerved the next hit. Hine stumbled, clumsy. His attacks were slow but death still burned in his eyes. There was none of the overwhelming surge in energy as before, but his persistence meant Ari couldn't continue to deflect his attacks without retaliating. His comrades still stood on the outside, awaiting his command to kill her.

Ari's abdominal muscles strained with every step. She hadn't expected him to continue on his assault when he was so injured. She'd put everything in that throw.

She shook her head. "I can't do this."

He glared at her. "Are you admitting defeat? I win?"

"I don't care what you call it. I can't fight you like this."

He scowled, spitting at his feet. The saliva was streaked with blood.

"I resent the pity I sense from you, but if I get you to our leader, then I can deal with that." The other students moved in. Ari turned her head on alert.

"I'm not coming with you."

"You can't have both, Ari!" he said, giving a hacking cough. "If you give up, you're coming with us!"

"Only if you can catch me!" Ari said, turning and running. Two of the students converged in front of her. One had a glowing white ball of energy growing in his palm; the other's skin rippled, spikes emerging from the top of his head and across his body, piercing through his March City uniform.

The spike ball threw two punches in the air at her. His knuckles discharged with spikes. Ari jumped to the right, not looking at where they flew, and continued running, keeping her eyes on the far double doors with taped glass behind the two students. Hine hollered incomprehensibly after her.

The spike ball set off at a run, too, hot on her heels. If he tackled her – or even touched her in any way – the injuries would be grave. She dared a quick glance behind her. His spines bristled, gleaming in the dull light.

He jumped at her. Ari caught the movement out of the corner of her eye. His arms spread wide, as though wanting a hug. Spikes protruded a little further in his front.

Ari spun around to face him. Just when she contemplated taking his momentum and throwing him off, the girl sent a blast of light at her.

Jumping towards the light – and the hedgehog boy right behind her – Ari spread her palms wide. The beams hit her skin squarely on. Her flesh heated. Ari's eyes narrowed, half-blinded by the blast. There was more than just normal light frequency there – from the way her palm sizzled and tingled, there was an impressive amount of radiation energy there, too. Only one person had the ability to create electromagnetic waves on that magnitude and it'd been so long since she'd last transformed something like this – and that User was now dead.

She almost felt the spiky boy's breath on her neck when she turned and redirected the blast. Heat and radiation hit him square in the chest. His shirt burst into flames and then turned black within a second. His skin bleached and then blossomed a blood red. The muscle fibres showed through.

He didn't make a sound. Perhaps the radiation penetrated so deeply his heart stopped beating. Even his spikes wilted. He slammed into Ari, sending her flying on her side and skidding to the side. She got up, her head spinning a little from the impact, her heart pounding from transferring so much energy in one go.

"Wyld!" The girl with the transplanted light bolts rushed to the boy's side, but he was already dead. Blisters bubbled on his skin. The scent of burnt flesh, stronger than before, filled the air. "No!"

"So you're stooping this low, Ari?" said Hine. He limped towards her. Although his voice was still hoarse and he walked with a stiffness that suggested he'd fractured his hip or something, his eyes still held the fire from before. He struggled up to the body of the spike boy and looked down.

For a moment, Ari almost felt sorry for them. This boy had been killed because of all this mess, because of the experiments, because of March City.

"You have the nerve to sound disgusted when you hear of what we've done, but now you're exactly the same! You have a student's blood on your hands," Hine said with a sneer.

"I didn't have a choice." Ari's throat was dry.

"Oh yes, you did. You chose to shoot him in the chest. You chose to end his life. You're a murderer, Transformer, simple as that."

For some reason, that title didn't make much of an impact on her. She straightened up, taking in a deep breath.

"We all make our own choices, Hine. I chose to save my sister – and I'll kill a thousand times over for that."

He bared his teeth in a manic grin.

"You show your true colours at last."

"You chose the easy way out. You're the cheat. You didn't want to work your way up the way others did. You blamed the system, blamed me, blamed other high-achievers. Your inability to do well is everyone else's fault but your own."

For a moment, it was silent, punctuated by the girl's sobs over Wyld's irradiated body. Hine's mouth opened and shut, but no sound came out. A flush crept slowly up his neck. His eyes widened again.

"How... how dare you? My brothers and sisters, starving! My youngest brother dying of starvation – because of March City! Because of you! And you think I'm blaming others?"

She watched him. His hands were flexing. He forced his limp arm to his side, his face distorting from the pain. Suppressing grunts, he lowered his body, bending his knees.

"I'll make you pay, Ari, you smug cow. I'll punch that face in so hard you won't be able to make another smart comment."

"You'll hurt yourself."

"To hell with you!"

Hine shot forward, the speed hugely disproportionate to the injuries he'd already sustained. His attacks were wild, fists and legs flying everywhere. Every move sent a gasp of pain from him. Ari could buffer them all, but she didn't want to land another attack on him. If she hit again, he would probably die, and there was enough blood shed tonight.

If it were even possible, his moves became quicker. His eyes brightened. His breathing sped up along with his strikes. One strike hit her across the shoulder, sending her spinning into the ground. It was a weak attempt, but a surprising one nonetheless. He followed it up with kicks to her stomach. Ari curled up, agony exploding in her abdomen and radiating all the way to the back. She rolled out of the way.

Hine's next kick hit only air. Getting onto all fours, Ari made to jump at him but paused, a gasp caught in her throat.

The monitor's body glowed.

"Hine—"

"Hine, stop!" shouted one of the terrorists from the side. Panic infiltrated her voice.

He was beyond the point of speaking. He moved as if he had no injuries, as if he were part of the air itself. He struck her in a hail of punches and kicks, most of them dealing little damage, but they forced her back. One lash hit her on the chin, knocking her head back. Her world flickered. Her mouth fell open in surprise; her legs gave out beneath her.

Collapsing in a heap, Ari could only watch Hine advancing, his eyes no longer seeing. His body jerked with every step.

"Hine..."

He didn't hear her. His eyes rolled in their sockets. Ari felt a rising dread close up her throat.

"He's going to surge!" yelled one of the terrorists. A patter of footsteps disappeared through the doors.

Touching her necklace, Ari allowed a crackle of electricity to surge through her body. She forced her body to stand and she ran to Hine. He was glowing all over, now. With all her might, she rammed her body into him. Hine didn't utter a sound. He flew back ten metres and landed on his feet, clumsy and uncoordinated.

Ari didn't give another look back. She raced to the exit, managing to touch the double door.

Something massive slammed into her, sending her flying through the wooden doors. Her ears rang. Ari's feet left the ground. The world spun as waves of nausea rippled through her body. She landed palms down, catching some of the energy to refill her necklace. Groaning, instinct made her pull herself through an adjacent doorway. Shards of wood and splintering glass showered past her. She touched her head. Her fingers came away tipped with blood. Her legs felt weak – she hoped nothing had hit anywhere major.

It was a store room, small and dark. Panicked screams came from the corridors. With the last of her strength, Ari dragged her body into the nearest cupboard and quietly shut the door, fully immersing herself in the black abyss. She leant against the cool wooden surface and closed her eyes.

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