"Get on the bed."

Mina did as she was told. Her limbs shook under her body weight but she bit her lip, determined not to make any more weak noises. Ari was here. Ari would come save her soon.

Vexi drew the metal straps across Mina's upper arms, wrists, thighs, and ankles. She even lashed one across Mina's stomach, tugging it so tight that it dug into the skin. Mina maintained her silence, watching Vexi with resentment.

"Don't look at me like that." Vexi's voice was cold. "It's not my fault what this has come down to. We need Ari's powers and she won't give it to us. This is our way of ensuring we get what we want."

Two cuffs went over Mina's upper arms and stickers went across Mina's chest and wrists. The monitor near the wall flashed up, showing Mina's vital stats. Her ability metre was on the side, very close to the bottom. Mina strained over the straps. They were dense and heavy. No way she could phase through them.

Vexi tapped her fingers across the screen. It bleeped three times before something lowered onto Mina's side. It was a vial and a suspension of light blue viscous liquid swirled inside.

"When your sister gives in to us, her powers will be extracted by the leader." Vexi's voice held a trace of excitement. "Once it goes through the machines, it will merge with one of the stock abilities we have and it'll go in this vial. Then we'll transfuse it into you. You'll feel the difference immediately. Then you'll see what I'm talking about."

"I don't want it!"

Vexi stopped, an eyebrow raised. She brushed a hand through her side ponytail.

"Don't be stupid. We all want power."

"I don't!"

The girl reached over and unwound an infusion tube from the top of the cylinder. She popped off the lid, exposing a shiny grey needle. Mina squeezed her eyes shut when the metal pierced the skin on the back of her hand, swallowing a cry. When she opened them again, Vexi was taping the rest of the tube to Mina's hand. Liquid coursed along the tube into her hands.

"You only shun power because your sister provides everything, but let me tell you this." Vexi stooped, placing her hands on the bars on either side of Mina's bed. Her eyes burned into Mina's. Mina never noticed it before, but Vexi had what looked like a small pellet gun attached to her hip. Vexi never struck her as a toy-playing girl. "I was just like you, once. I had an older brother. Ziko, his name was. He was a high-achiever, like Ari. He didn't need to put in much effort and ranked tenth, like Ari. And like Ari, he thought very little of people who don't score well, including me, his little sister who looked up to him."

She leant back, dusting her hands off and adjusting her hair. Mina's hand throbbed where the needle went in earlier.

"He was ashamed of me, see. He sees me as the malformed screw in a toolbox, a rusty chip that was good for nothing but shorting the circuit. And he was right, in a way. I didn't fit in. He was a Rank A. I was a Rank E. Even when I worked hard, slaving away at work and assessment and practicals, I only moved up to a Rank D. I wasn't even worth his spit.

"And you know what he did? He cut me off his credits. Disowned me. He said he wasn't going to bring up a rat of a sister who had no contribution to society. He said I deserve to be purged for being so weak, like all the other low-achievers in the family. I was wasting his credits. I was wasting his time. For me – I was eleven at the time – it was like the world had broken into pieces. He didn't want me. Nobody wanted me. I tried to commit suicide by jumping off our building but it was such a pathetic short thing the Medics managed to revive me. The credits it costed Ziko! It got him raging. He didn't care I'd punctured my lungs and shattered both my legs. He didn't care I suffered such severe bleeding I required several litres of blood just to stay alive."

The hatred on Vexi's face dissolved into a cruel glee.

"When I went home a few days later I waited till he'd gone to bed, then I got a knife from the kitchen and stabbed him to death."

Mina's heart hurt at the tale. Vexi gave her an impatient look.

"Don't give me pity, Mina. I don't need it. Ziko taught me something very valuable: every kid for him- or herself. Don't rely on others. Don't be weak. This is my way of becoming strong instead of being a victim of the stupid system. I can fight back. And soon, you will, too."

"But Ari's not like that. She looks after me." Mina's tongue felt thick in her mouth.

"Let's see how long it takes for her to get bored of you and throw you out," said Vexi, snorting. "They're all the same."

She turned her back to Mina and gestured to Fris, who had stood with fear in the corner all that time. Fris shuffled over, averting her gaze. Vexi whispered in her ear. Fris's face fell again, her hands shaking. Vexi looked pointedly up at the corner. Mina followed her gaze. A CCTV sat in the corner of the room. They were all being watched.

"I shall see you once you've been transplanted. You'll see what it's like to be powerful, then, for the first time in your life."

An explosion made the three of them jump. It sounded close by, perhaps three corridors away. Vexi stayed still. Another boom, this time a lower magnitude than before. She tilted her head and then laughed to herself.

"I guess Jos found a new toy."

"Jos?" Mina whispered.

"Someone who was like you. She didn't want a transplant. But once she got it, she couldn't wait to use it. And now she got her wish."

Waves of nausea washed over Mina. Was this for her, then? A life of destruction and terror, hate perpetuating hate?

"I guess it's time to let the chaos play out."

"What do you mean?" Mina's voice sounded so distant. "Vexi! Stop it!"

Vexi left without a backward glance, leaving a stunned silence behind.

"Fris..."

The world was becoming dimmer. Mina's own voice echoed in her head. The redhead gave no notice, as though Mina hadn't said anything.

"Fris!"

Mina's face crumpled, her lips turning down at the corner.

"Why are you doing this? I thought you and Ari were friends! I thought you were so nice!" Even as she said the words, they slurred. "Ari will... Ari..."

She fell quiet. Her throat was heavy and her eyelids slid down until she could barely see through slits. Fris moved about in silence, checking various vials and readings and securing the ties around Mina's limbs. The world grew faint around Mina.

****

"The girl is in place."

"Good." The scientist tapped her finger against her chin, studying the remaining cameras.

The lockdown turned the ones along the main corridors and dormitories black as electricity was conserved for the central operating system. Data ran continuously along the ceiling like a stream of sparks; one connected to a part of the large screen that showed Mina's data along with that of one of the captured high-achievers in a different room. The camera that caught Vexi's eyes was the one in the top corner, three corridors away. In the dim yellow light, a dark patch on the floor smoked. Two girls stood about twenty metres apart, staring each other down. The one near the darkness had her hands in her pockets, swaying in anticipation. The one in the spotlight panted, securing the hair tie in her blonde hair.

"So that was Jos I heard," said Vexi. The scientist didn't reply.

The two fought without much progress for a good ten minutes. Vexi kept her eyes trained on them. The scientist started fidgeting, getting excited every time Ari used her ability. The more Ari struggled, the more excited Jos appeared, to the point where she skipped on the spot, clapping her hands as Ari was, once again, flung backwards in the explosion. Jos started as a demure shy girl, exactly like Mina. It was quite amazing – and a little surprising – such a simple transplant could have changed her into this.

Vexi swore when Jos suddenly went down like a waste disposal bag. Ari seemed equally astonished. From the darkness there emerged two figures, neither of them Vexi recognised. One of them held a translucent plastic gun in front of him.

"Goddamit," she said out loud. "It's a Peacekeeper."

"They're here?" Panic surged through the scientist's voice. She ran a hand through her hair, getting her fingers stuck in the knots of that tightly-tied back mess. "Why? Who told them? Nobody should have known!"

"Wait." Vexi leaned forward, squinting at the monitor. The other one wasn't a Peacekeeper. He was just a normal student. "There can't just be one Peacekeeper. Maybe he's off-duty."

"Off-duty or not, we need to get rid of him! Go kill him now!" The scientist's voice became shrill. "If I can't get The Transformer after this, we're all doomed!"

"I got it."

Vexi marched to the main control computer. She swiped her hand across it. Recognising her fingerprints, the computer bleeped and showed her a blueprint of the lab. Most of the peripherals were a faded blue. The active, unlocked corridors glowed orange. What few active cameras remained flashed yellow along the lengths of walkways.

"She's outside the infirmary, now."

Vexi's fingers flew across the keyboard, her face impassive. Colours reflected off her intense eyes from the monitor. One of the large grey areas to the left of the monitor, just beside the canteen, flickered before turning blue. The two reinforced steel doors that separate that room from the corridor slid back. The door further down the corridor did the same. From just round the corner, the whirring of machinery reached Vexi's ears. A grin appearing on her face, she waited for the sweet sound of excited creatures and the thumping of feet.

She sighed with satisfaction when she heard them. Glancing at the monitor showing Ari and the two newcomers, Vexi smirked.

"Let the circus play."

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