Bella was just about to leave to fight Professor Allistair, still a little rattled, when she heard someone running down the hall toward her.

"Bella!" She knew it was Hades from the voice. She turned to look at him. He looked winded, but he was alive and still in one piece, which she was still confused about.

"I told you not to worry about killing me," Hades said with a smile on his face. "I heal pretty much immediately. Part of my power is that each life I take adds life onto mine. I'm down to 15 now not including my actual life, but still..."

"How many people have you killed?" Bella asked.

"Officially? On record?" Hades laughed at Bella's face. "Only three, but superpowered people actually give me two lives and one of the people I killed had a healing ability. He gave me several lives before he ran out of energy and died."

"Wow."

"Yeah, I know. Kind of dark, but honestly, after killing my sister, killing anyone else didn't bother me as much. None of those deaths were on purpose. The healer died the same way my sister did, I just didn't know how to control it, but the third guy... I just didn't know he was there until I felt his life added onto mine."

Hades put his hand on Bella's shoulder. "But enough about me and my backstory, it's about time for the next battle. I just wanted to make sure you weren't rattled after your fight with me."

"Actually, I was a little. Thanks."

"You figured out what I meant."

"Your cryptic message? Yeah, I finally figured it out with no help from you."

"You're welcome. Now go win the competition." Hades pushed Bella out onto the field where Professor Allistair was already almost at the center. Bella didn't rush to catch up, instead opting to save her energy for the actual fight.

"Professor Allistair," Bella said, shaking his outstretched hand when she arrived at the center of the field.

"Belladonna Marimoor," he responded. "At least now I know for sure what you're capable of and how far you're willing to go."

"You have no idea how far I'm willing to go."

Professor Dark came up once again after the announcer finished riling up the already excited crowd.

"Yes, yes," Professor Allistair said. "We know the rules."

"I still-"

"Just go. We know the rules."

Professor Dark looked like he was ready to take Bella's place in this fight, but he walked away angrily and stood back as the clock began counting down again.

"Do your best to last as long as you can," Professor Allistair said.

"Do your best not to lose," Bella mumbled as she backed away from him, willing herself not to just punch him in the face and break his nose. Rules were made to be broken, but not when the stakes were so high.

Once the buzzer sounded, Bella was pulled into her own mind.

That was one lesson she'd learned the night before. With a telepath inside your mind, it was easier to retreat completely inside, but if you were already prepared to be pulled inside, you'd enter at the same time they did.

The problem was that Bella still entered just slightly after Professor Allistair, so he was already there waiting with a knife to stab her in the stomach with.

Bella looked down at the crimson substance draining from her midsection, wondering about how this was allowed. Direct attacks aren't allowed. They were still in the dome so they were still at the competition, so this was illegal.

She looked around to make sure she was right. The audience was still there, the two of them were still on the field, and the hole in the ceiling was still causing a little sunlight to stream inside. So why was no one saying Allistair broke the rules and was, therefore, disqualified?

Hades ran onto the field and Allistair smiled a wicked type of smile, the kind you see when someone has figured out someone's deepest secrets. "Oh, I see," Allistair said.

Bella finally crumbled to the ground and watched as another dagger appeared in Allistair's hand seemingly out of nowhere. She felt herself losing consciousness slightly, a foggy feeling taking over but not yet consuming her. She pulled the dagger out of her stomach, knowing it would mean bleeding more quickly and likely losing altogether, but she needed the dagger.

She used her powers to throw it and embed it in Allistair's back before he could reach Hades. Why Hades had yet to use his powers to fight back, she didn't know. Maybe it was because he'd end up hurting her as well.

She watched as Allistair stopped in his tracks, looked at her, smiled, and then just pulled the dagger out like it was nothing.

But it wasn't nothing.

She'd hit his spine. She spent hours, hours, studying the body to figure out what made it tick. The brain was the main focus, but she'd studied it all and the spine was pretty vital. She hit his lower spinal cord. No, she couldn't be sure that he'd be paralyzed by it because she had no clue exactly where to hit, but he couldn't be this unaffected by it.

That's when she saw her. Another Bella was being held back by Scarlet Phoenix and Bells. This Bella was dressed normally and seemed to be really trying to fight through Scarlet Phoenix and Bells to get onto the field.

Bella immediately knew where she was. Somehow, it had escaped her mind that she'd been drawn into her mind with Allistair. Everything just seemed so real and so unlike the other times she'd been inside her mind.

But maybe that's what Caeden meant when he said that a healthy telepath would find a way around my rules.

Instead of going through the proper channels, Allistair drew out "Central Bella". The problem was, Bella didn't know how he knew how to do that. Or maybe he didn't and he was just hoping for the best.

Bella didn't believe the latter was a real possibility.

She put her hand over her stomach and then pulled it back to see if she could make the blood disappear. Apparently she could not.

Bella struggled to her feet in time to watch Hades fall to the ground with a dagger in his chest. After that discussion from before, she was sure this was a dream. Otherwise, she wouldn't have been able to see the life drain from his eyes.

She heard a commotion behind her and turned to see that Scarlet Phoenix and Bells had failed to keep Central Bella at bay and she was now running toward Allistair and her. As if she didn't have enough problems.

The look on Allistair's face was somehow more evil, more menacing than it had been after he stabbed her. He was excited, likely because he knew he'd won, but Bella was sure of one thing even if she was unsure of everything.

This was her mind.

Independent of everything else- Allistair's ability to somehow simulate Bella actually getting injured, his control over what the inside of her mind looks like, his confidence in winning the battle of her mind- this was still her mind. That meant that she was the one who was ultimately in control, even if Allistair seemed to be more in control than she was.

It was her mind. She made the rules. She was in control. No one else, just her.

Bella created a telekinetic dome around her and Allistair, one that Central Bella kept trying to break through. In a few seconds, Central Bella was going to win that battle, so Bella worked fast.

Before Allistair could register what was happening and before Central Bella could break down the barrier, Bella did the one thing she'd spent hours studying in order to be able to do. She used her powers to overstimulate the brain, specifically targeting the parts of the brain that controlled the eight senses. Just as Central Bella broke through, Allistair passed out and they were both pulled from Bella's mind.

When Bella returned from her mind, she still felt the same pain in her stomach, though she noticed that at least she wasn't bleeding. She fell to her knees in pain, pain that she felt in both her stomach and her head, but she wasn't in so much pain that she missed Professor Allistair fall to the ground motionless.

There were a few minutes of silence before she was announced the winner.

********************************************

The field didn't need to be cleared as it had after the fight with Hades, so Bella felt no reprieve between the fight with Professor Allistair and the one with the headmaster.

They simply put Professor Allistair on a stretcher and carried him away as the headmaster walked onto the field. Bella hadn't quite gotten her head together and the ghost pain in her stomach hadn't quite subsided, but she stood as if everything was fine.

It'd be a cold and snowy day on hell's equator before she let the headmaster think she had an easy win for even a second.

They met at the center of the field, the headmaster with her arms crossed and Bella with the straightest face she could muster considering the circumstances. Bella thought she could see just a small bit of apprehension in the headmaster's eyes, but it didn't translate to the rest of her face and with the discomfort she was feeling, Bella couldn't be sure of it and she definitely couldn't enjoy it.

The announcer once again said something to excite the crowd, something Bella ignored. The announcement was followed by Professor Dark's appearance next to them.

The headmaster didn't even let Professor Dark take his last step before waving him off. "We know the rules. Leave."

This time, Professor Dark didn't argue and didn't grumble, he simply turned around and walked away swiftly.

No sooner had the countdown timer reached zero and the buzzer sounded than the headmaster used her power. Bella immediately felt the odd sensation of losing the feeling in her body again, but this time it was faster and... more dizzying?

This time, Bella didn't care to notice the lights that radiated from their bodies and switched places, nor did she care to wait for her to receive some type of power. This time, Bella knew what power she would be able to use and some of what she could do with it.

And yet, Bella knew nothing at all.

Once the feeling of losing feeling had disappeared and was replaced with the feeling of pins and needles, Bella felt as if her entire body had grown hotter by several degrees and it was only getting worse. Then, as if to tease her, vines covered in thorns grew slowly from the ground beneath her and encircled her, crisscrossing and forming a seemingly impenetrable barrier.

Touching it wasn't an option and even if it was, Bella felt too warm and sickly to move to touch it anyways. Besides, chances were the headmaster would put her out of her misery soon and simply poison her with one of Mitch's vines.

Yes, those were Mitch's vines. Bella would recognize them anywhere. They'd been the bane of her existence for a year.

But this was a new development. The headmaster liked to play with her prey, like a cat with a mouse.

Maybe Bella could still win.