After Shine's speech ended, the cameras went off in the Arena.

A lot of the guards looked at each other.

"Was that real?" one of them said.

"I don't know..." said another.

A few moments later, Sinister appeared on the screen, looking grosser than Jubilee remembered him from before.

"Pay no attention to that lunatic," he said. "That Weakling snuck in, and some rebels hacked our servers, that is all. All of that was pure delusion. You know how weak-minded the lower levels are. You have nothing to fear. It's just a Weakling spouting some insane rumors she probably got out of a rebel piece of propaganda. Commence with the games as usual and go about your other work."

He went off.

"No one buys that, right?" Kitty said loudly. "He's obviously lying."

Silence.

"Well, you heard him," one of the guards said, a bit uneasily. "Just some Weakling."

"Did you all not see? Apocalypse didn't even stop her!" Jubilee said.

Of course the camera hadn't picked up Apocalypse plunging into a portal--they weren't pointing that direction.

"Quiet, prisoner," the guard said.

"No, you've got to listen!" Kitty said. "All of what she was saying was true! The world could end today or tomorrow! We're from the past too! I swear it."

"That's it!" One of the meaner guards pulled out their disciplinary cattle prod.

"Now wait a moment." A different guard grabbed his arm. "That's an awful lot of people saying this is for real...and she was on the podium..."

"So she snuck on! You heard Lord Sinister? You're going to believe some Weakling over him?" the other guard said.

"I just think...why not scan them or something?" the guard said. "You want to take a chance?"

"You know...do what you want with them," the first said in disgust. "We have to start the matches. Push them to the end if you're so concerned. I'm washing my hands of it. Lord Sinister ordered us to proceed, and if we don't, it's our necks on the chopping block. We're supposed to execute them today."

"All of our group are like us!" Kitty called. "You'll play right into their hands."

"We can't just not have matches!" More guards got into this.

A whole argument broke out. Some of them were getting accused of treachery.

Finally Maximus came to settle it.

"All right, before you all kill each other and I have to toss you in the ring instead, we'll just start small. We have warm up fighters anyway. Put the Grunt-level ones out there, let them get the crowd going. We'll sort this out on our own."

He frowned. "But there's no rebellion happening here. You morons want to pull that? You can go the ring next. Settle your paranoia on your own, or I'll personally see to it that you die today."

Some of them backed up. Maximus must have been a higher ranking mutant than them.

"Hey...maybe we have a chance," Jubilee said to Kitty. "If they test us and we're telling the truth."

"Yeah...Trinity already tried it," Kitty said. "But...they didn't release her.... I don't know, Jewels.... And the Grunts? Don't they mean Roach, Spray, and Bolts? Who would they even put them against?"

"I hope not each other..." Jubilee said. "But...they...they can't really kill them, right?"

"Jewels, have you ever heard of the Roman Coliseum?" Kitty said.

"Hey, I dropped out of school," Jubilee said. "Except for the Mansion's lessons. Why would I want to hear about it? It sounds awful."

"You are everything wrong with the youth of today--yesterday!" Kitty said. "History is important--"

"All right, shut it." One of the guards opened her cell. "We're gonna scan you first. And if you're lying about this, you're in the next match, kid."

He grabbed Kitty by her collar and yanked her out.

"Get the rest of their group too. We can't waste time," he called.

That was how all of them in the X-men came to be questioned...

When their stories all matched, it perplexed the guards.

"They could all be crazy..." one said.

"What do we do?" Some medics who seemed to have already known about this were also there, and they were freaking out. "It's just like the Weakling said. All of them say it."

"This is stupid," one of the guards insisted. "If we follow their logic, none of us are even supposed to be alive...and all this is just some whacked out nightmare that's not even true. Now how do you think that makes any sense?"

"I don't know. This is spooky," said another.

"It's asinine. I'm real, I know it," said the guard.

"You real," Colossus spoke up, from where he'd been tied to a chair for questioning, "but this life of yours, maybe it not this. It might be better."

"Hey, I got no complaints," the guard in question said. "I do what I have to do. I'm fine. People who are too weak to cut it are the ones with the big problem with the system."

"And that's just okay to you?" Kitty said. "Do you know how people live around here? They're like sheep! It's horrible."

"You sound like a fragile, little Weakling also," the guard said, sneering at her. "What's the matter, Kitty cat? Not like getting your paws dirty?"

He took a prod and jabbed it at her.

Kitty, who found her mutation was on right now because they were standing near the practice area, phased, and the prod went through her, then she grabbed it with her hand and yanked it out of his grasp, to his surprise.

Angrily, she threw it into a water barrel, and sparks shot out everywhere.

"You're nothing but a bully!" she hurled at the guard. "And just because I'm not some inhuman monster who wants to kill people for fun like you, doesn't make me a Weakling! I think you're the one who's scared to disobey the big, bad Sinister guy because you're afraid they'll kill you! Well, newsflash, you're gonna die anyway, so what do you have to freaking lose? You're all fools for going along with this!"

The guard stared at her.

"Wow," said a medic. "She's got some fight in her. Maybe she'll do better than I thought."

"Changing your bet?" said the other.

"Hmm." The first guard scrutinized Kitty. "All right...I have an idea. Shadowcat, right? I don't listen to people who can't fight...but you have some potential. If you win your match and live to fight another day, I'll think about what you said."

"What? But...I'm not killing someone," Kitty said.

"Well, if you're not willing to kill someone for what you're saying, it can't be true," the guard said.

"What kind of logic is that?" Jubilee said.

"Hey, kid, here if you want to do something crazy, you're going to have to kill over it," the guard said. "Even if you were telling the truth, this ain't your world, is it? It's ours.... You're going to have to swing it. Now, these matches only last about 5-10 minutes usually. What's the big rush?"

Kitty stared at him. "I'm not doing it!" she said.

"Then you're not going anywhere." The guard held up a remote and turned her tracker back on.

"Wait," Colossus said, as they grabbed Kitty by her arms. "Is no other way to win except by killing? What if other person give up?"

"If they give up, and you're too lily-livered to finish them off, the Game Master will do it for you," the guard, who's title was Hacksaw, unpromisingly said. 

"Wait," one nurse spoke up. "There's a few exceptions...with the really high-priced fighters.... They'll allow you to just KO your opponent; they don't really want them dead...so...sometimes they don't kill. They call it a draw, so they can fight again."

She shrugged. "Two of our top fighters are actually friends. They trade off winning, so they stay alive."

"That would be sweet," Jubilee said. "If they didn't have to be killers to get that far."

"Well, you do what you have to do," the nurse said. "But sorry, Newbie, you'd have to have someone bid thousands of dollars worth on you to get away with that."

"Maybe I can help then," a new voice spoke.

The team looked up.

A differently dressed woman in a hood had come in.

"Hey, you're not allowed back here," said Hacksaw.

The woman held up some kind of card. "I'm a Gold Class investor. You might want to be nice."

"Oh..." Hacksaw said. 

"Did you come to inspect the merchandise?" the nurse said. "Because they're supposed to be in the cells for that...just in case they get frisky."

"I think I can handle myself," the woman said. "Name's Sculptor."

[Note: While I did find a Kristie Nord with a mutant name, Petra, she appeared to just be in the video games and has no relation to Maverick, so she's not the same Cristy Nord. The Cristy from the show didn't have a mutant name, so I made one up.]

"What...? Oh..." Some of them must have known who she was.

"I didn't know you invested," Hacksaw said.

"I like to keep it quiet," Sculptor said. "But I heard about these mutants here.... The whole story seemed kind of strange to me. And they don't want to kill?"

"Yeah, but they can't just not do it," the nurse said.

"What if I said I'd top every other bid on them, by triple, if you elevated their status?" Sculptor said.

Kitty, Jubilee, and Colossus all gaped at her.

Kevin, who was farther down, looking their way, wondered what was happening.

"You're that invested?" Hacksaw said. "They're nuts."

"Call it boredom." Sculptor shrugged.

"That's a king's ransom," the nurse said. "Some of them had high bids."

"I look at it this way, if they're right, then our money will be meaningless by the end of the week," Sculptor said. "And if they're wrong, it's worth it to make a public show of it, right?"

Silence.

Then some of the guards and medics laughed.

"You know, I like that," Hacksaw said. "Fine.... No orders saying we can't up the value on them. Might even get more people to bid. Fine...they can win by Knock Out...but we can't guarantee the other fighters will follow that rule. Don't expect to get any hand holding from the Game Master either."

Sculptor pursed her lips. "Understood. Can I inspect them?"

"Go right ahead." The guards took a very breezy attitude with it.

Apparently money talked, even in this world.

"Who are you?" Jubilee hissed as Sculptor got closer to them.

She looked to make sure the guards weren't looking.... They were too busy changing their bets.

"I'm Cristy Nord," she hissed. "My father and I are old friends of your buddy Wolverine...met your other group earlier. I promised them I'd try to help you guy out."

"What?" Kitty gasped. "They...they aren't just ditching us?"

She'd thought that ever since yesterday.

"They're alive?" Colossus had wondered if only Shine had survived, to be honest.

"Yes, for now, at least when I asked them," Cristy hissed. "I can't talk, okay? Look, I'm sorry, I can't get you out of here. I'd never break this place all on my own. All I can do is up your chances.... You have to win those matches.... If you do, you'll get another day or so of rest time, and we might get you out of here. Got it?"

"Okay...what about Trinity?" Jubilee said. "She's not here.... They didn't count her as one of us because she's not a mutant. She's human..."

Cristy got a very serious look. "I heard.... I'm sorry." She looked down. "I'd never be able to get her into higher rankings...the prejudice against humans is too strong.... I'm...I'm really sorry."

"What?" Jubilee said. "Just get her out, then..."

Cristy shook her head. "I can't.... If I try, I won't be able to get out..."

She backed up. "Well, they look healthy enough," she said loudly. "This should be interesting."

She cast them one last, long look and then headed to the auditorium.

"On bright side," Colossus said, "we now have fighting chance."

"We have to win against killers!" Kitty cried.

"Hey, you all have to go get ready," Hacksaw called. "I don't care what your insane story is. You got d--- lucky with that sponsor, but you still have to fight."

"Can we have, like, 2 minutes to at least say goodbye?" Jubilee said. "I mean...will it kill you to show us the least bit of sympathy here?"

Hacksaw frowned at her.

"High bidding," the nurse reminded him. "And why not humor them a little? Maybe they'll put on a better show that way."

"Sentiment is for Weaklings." Hacksaw turned away contemptuously. "You have 1 minute."

Kitty's lip was trembling.

"Is okay, Little Mouse." Colossus put a hand on her shoulder. "You can win.... Just be clever."

Kitty hugged him and buried her face in his chest. "I can't.... I just want to go home."

"Be strong," Colossus said. "For all of us.... For team...for home...that is what we fight for."

Jubilee swallowed her tears. "Yeah...I'm just going to say bye to the boys, okay?"

She walked a little ways away.

"Hey, Ryan, Kevin, they're only giving us like a minute, but...uh...good luck," she said. "They said we can win without killing.... If you knock someone out.... Maybe you can get in a lucky shot."

"I have, like, zero fighting experience," Ryan said.

"Me too," Kevin said.

"Kevin, you're gonna win easy," Jubilee scoffed. "Just encase them in rock or something. It'll be fine. We got this!" She gave them a thumbs up. "And if we make it, I just bet the rest of the team is going to come get us. The Sculptor lady says we just have to make it through today and we'll get a break."

"Just...just win one match?" Kevin said, trying to look brave. "Where's Trinity?"

Jubilee's face fell. "She couldn't.... I...I don't know what's going to happen to Trinity."

They stared at her.

"This is scary, Jewels," Ryan said.

Jubilee nodded.

"Break it up!" Hacksaw said.

"Can we just have a few seconds more?" Ryan begged. "We weren't there..."

Hacksaw rolled his eyes...but he glanced at Kevin a little nervously, and Kevin frowned at him.

The guard didn't want to mess with an Omega Level teenager, even if he was restrained.... You never knew.

Hacksaw looked the other way.

"I don't know what to say..." Kevin whimpered. He buried his face in his hands.

"He's like Ferdinand the bull," Ryan said weakly. "He's the strongest one of us, but he's got no fight."

"Yeah." Jubilee rubbed her head. "Well...uh, Ryan...in case we don't make it...I mean...uh, you guys are cool and all.... Thanks for being my friend."

"Are you kidding me?" Ryan said. "I mean...if it wasn't for you, I'd never have moved to the Mansion and made all these friends...and...except for this part, it's really been the best thing ever.... I should be thanking you, Jubilee."

He looked kind of worried. "Actually...there's kind of something I've been meaning to say...but don't get mad, okay?"

"What?" Jubilee said.

"I...uh..." Ryan rubbed his neck. "Well...you know...I kinda sort of..."

"Yeah," Jubilee pressed.

"Maybe...like you?" Ryan said nervously.

[Who'd figured it out already? Everyone? I thought so.]

"Who, me?" Jubilee said.

"Yeah," Ryan said.

"Oh," Jubilee said. "Whoa...that's cool. I've never had someone like me before."

"So, you don't mind?" Ryan said.

"Oh, no," Jubilee said. "That's really sweet."

Ryan looked a little embarrassed. "Oh."

"Actually, I kind of like you too," Jubilee said, smiling impishly because she'd just played him.

"Wait, you do?" Ryan said.

"Sure...I mean, you're sweet," Jubilee said. "If we live through this, we should go out sometime."

"Really?" Ryan said. "That'd be great! Uh...if the world's still around."

"Yeah, this really isn't a good time, huh?" Jubilee said. "But thanks for telling me." She kissed him on the cheek.

Ryan turned beet red.

"I guess we gotta win this now," Jubilee said. "Or this is gonna be really depressing..."

She saw Hacksaw giving her a look.

"All right, I'm going, geez." She walked away.

"What did you mean when you said you like her?" Kevin asked Ryan.

"Don't you know anything?" Ryan said. "It means...I don't know...you know, you got a thing for her."

"A thing?"

"You know, she makes you feel all nervous and stuff, but you kind of like it, and you want to hang out with her all the time," Ryan said. "What, you've never had a crush...? O,h right...you've never met girls at all.... That's kind of sad, actually."

"Is it?" Kevin said.

"Yeah...but you kind of like Trinity, right?" Ryan said. "Oh, man...actually that's real rough." He shuddered. "I almost forgot...but...but maybe she'll be okay.... She's really tough, right? I mean...she was okay before.... If she just had a frying pan or something."

Kevin didn't understand.

"Move it," Hacksaw barked at them. "You need to get to the prep rooms. You, Serf, you'll get a weapon if you want one. They let low levels like you take them...just to spice things up. Otherwise it'd take hours for one of you wimps to wear the other one down enough to win a fight. But nothing you can use against us, so don't get any ideas."

He jerked Ryan up.

"Hey! Don't take him!" Kevin cried.

"Oh, can it," Hacksaw said. "You'll get your chance. He might even live. Chin up."

The "chin up" was sarcastic of course.

* * *

Trinity was sitting in a prep room. She was surprised to have her fight before the other Serfs did, but she got delayed because of the controversy.

To her surprise, she got a visit from Steel, the medic of the day before.

"Well, Weakling, it looks like your story got collaborated after all," he said in a low voice. "Down right spooky. Now there's been an announcement from the Temple itself.... They say it's not real, but I'm not so sure."

"I heard some of it," Trinity said, looking down. "But it's too late.... They're sending me in anyway."

"Yeah..." Steel said. "Too bad about that. If you're telling the truth, even a Weakling like you might be of some use."

Trinity glanced up. "Wow, that was almost not totally biased," she said. "Careful there, Exalted Steel, someone else might think you're warming up to Weaklings."

"Watch it," Steel said. "In no way does this make us friends, girlie. I'm just looking out for my own interest.... And in my own interest..."

He slipped her a small device.

"What is this?" Trinity said.

"Remote for the trackers." Steel lowered his voice. "Won't work inside the Arena, the pulses in the wall interfere with it, but outside, for the training area and bathrooms and stuff, turns off the mutation-blocking trackers."

"I'm not a mutant," Trinity said.

"No...couldn't give this to them--they'd be searched," Steel said. "But who's going going to search a Weakling for this kind of device? Hide it good...and if by some miracle you survive...well...maybe it'll come in handy."

"You...you want us too--" Trinity said.

"I'm playing it safe," Steel said. "It's no skin off my nose if we lose a few fighters, so long as I didn't have anything to do with it. On the other hand...my whole world? That's more of a problem. You'd better be right."

"But...I can't just..." Trinity said. "I'm not even going to try to win. I'm no killer."

"So knock 'em out," Steel said. "They're allowing that...not for you, but if you just knock out another serf, no one is going to care who really won. They just watch those fights to laugh at how pathetic you are. Might get away with it."

"Really?" Trinity said.

"I said might, and that's all the help you're getting from me." Steel shuddered. "I never thought I'd see the day where I see helping a Weakling as useful to me. This is a weird day."

He shut the door.

"Steel!" someone yelled. "No messing with the prisoners before the matches. You know they need to be at their pique."

"Just telling the Weakling what we do to people who step out of line," Steel said. "No touchy, just talking."

"Yeah, well, don't get ahead of yourself. She's up. The Serfs are almost done. Put her in the line up."

A guard opened the door and yanked Trinity out. She just barely had time to stash the remote in her bra.... She hoped no one would check there that closely.

She was searched in the stall for any concealed weapons, but the remote was so small, they didn't notice it.

They then showed her a table of weapons and told her contemptuously that Serfs were allowed to pick one, and as she was lower than a Serf, she needed the extra help.

Trinity didn't know what to do.... She knew without something she'd be a goner...but how was she going to do this?

"God...please..." she said.

She glanced at something that looked like a slingshot, the kind with a handle...

Will used to have one of those...

She looked down at the ground.... There were little rocks here and there.... Maybe there'd be a bigger one.... It worked for David.

She picked it up.

The guard snorted in derision at her choice. "Well, you were dead anyway."

Then she was put into a stall that she could see the arena from, like they have new horses or bulls stalled at a rodeo.

Trinity peered out of the slats, which were charged with mutation-blocking tech that had no effect on her whatsoever when she touched them, and peered at the arena.

She was trying to see if there was anything in it that would help her.

It was just a big circle of dirt, not a lot to help anyone, about as big as a football field, maybe a little bigger.

And along one wall, two people were fighting.

Trinity peered closer. It looked like Spray was one of them.

She wasn't really fighting, she was running.

She didn't seem to have a weapon.... Trinity noticed that the other mutant had two. She must have stolen Spray's...

They came closer to where Trinity was.

The other mutant, who looked pretty much human, like Ryan, but with eyes more like a bird's and a beak-like mouth, had some kind of rash along one arm, so Spray must have used her power on her.

But it wasn't that bad, not enough to stop her.

Spray ran into the wall and fell back from it. Maybe it zapped her.

She put her hands over her head.

Trinity bit her lip.

From the stands people were yelling.

Someone yelled, "Come on, Crow, finish her off!"

"She's useless!"

"Kill her!"

Trinity looked at Crow.

Maybe it was the beady eyes, but the mutant girl didn't look like she had any pity for her opponent.

Spray shivered.

"Hey!" Trinity suddenly screamed. "Hey, stop it!"

But over the crowd, no one heard her.

Trinity doubted it would have worked anyway.

She had only time to think, Wait...this is actually happening.

Before Crow raised one of the blades she had and brought it down.

Trinity only just flinched enough to fall back and not actually see what happened.

But she heard Spray screaming.

Trinity gasped...

Then she hugged her sides and fell to her knees. She covered her ears.

The crowd was cheering...those sick monsters!

"I can't! I can't! I can't..." Trinity gasped. "I can't..."

"Well, that was over fast," she heard a guard say. "You're up, Weakling! Good luck. You're gonna need it!" They laughed.

"No..." Trinity said.

This was really...

No, it wasn't.... It was just a projection, right? None of this was ever going to happen.

She couldn't go out there.

A voice suddenly spoke in her head.

"They'll kill you if you don't."

"I can't do it!" Trinity whimpered.

"Go. I will show you what to do."

"I..." Trinity looked up

The guard was sticking a prod in. "Do you need a little encouragement?"

Trinity sprang to her feet just in time, then, in anger, she suddenly used one foot and kicked the prod out of the guard's hand. It fell to the floor.

"Hey, you little--!" The guard started to open the door.

Trinity darted out of the stall and slammed the door of it behind her.

A loud bell suddenly announced that the new match was starting.

Trinity turned.

To her shock, she saw Crow was still there, cleaning her blade off.

"What?" she said in a harsh voice. "No one told you that we underlings double up? Fight till you drop or you're the last one standing, Weakling. Either that or I'm dead by tomorrow...and by the looks of you..." She raised her knife.

Trinity didn't have time to process this.

If anything, she had no time at all. Crow charged her at once.

Trinity had no strategy except to run like a deer across the Arena.

She heard a lot of jeers from the mutants watching...must have been hundreds of them. They were yelling things at her, most of which she couldn't understand...and what she did would have horrified her Christian parents.

Oh, what would they think if they saw her now?

She ran to the wall. "Well, Dad, you always said you wanted your children to stand for their faith just like the apostles did..." she muttered. "Not sure this is what you meant."

Crow was coming after her.

"What? You just going to run the whole time?" she cawed at Trinity. "You could at least try, Weakling. Give them a show."

"I--don't want to fight you for their entertainment," Trinity said.

"Then you're in the wrong place," Crow said. "You want to give up? Just say it now."

She held up the knife. Trinity just inched along the wall more.

Crow, getting tired of this, just threw the knife at her.

Trinity's reflexes as a sports player kicked in--she dodged flying soccer balls, why not this?

She sprang out of the way with a bit more speed than Crow expected of her. The knife hit the wall.

It still had blood on it...

Trinity shuddered and kicked it away across the arena.

Crow still had another weapon.... This one was a mace.

"You could have at least used the knife," she said, in disgust.

Trinity took off running again.

Knocking her out...she just had to knock her out.

"Oh, give up running, Weakling." Crow was running after her.

At least she didn't seem faster than a normal human. Actually she was smaller than Trinity was, so she might have been slower, and she was thinner and less well fed.... Without the weapon, Trinity might have had an advantage against her.

Thinking this, Trinity suddenly thought to herself, Wait, you've been playing soccer with mutants for months, and you did just fine there. Why? Because that's your game. It didn't matter that they had powers and you didn't, if you had skill.

Suddenly she stumbled...

There was a loose rock in the dirt here...

A rock...perfect.

Trinity picked it up hastily.

Crow was on her now.

"Too late!" She swung the mace at her.

Trinity screamed but kicked at it like she was kicking a soccer ball upward for a goal.

It actually worked. She kicked the mace out of Crow's hand, and it fell into the dirt.

Crow tried to go for it, and Trinity tripped her.

That was a foul, but this was life or death.

"Hey!" Crow cried.

Trinity pounced on her, using her body weight to her advantage, like in a tackle.

"Get off me!" Crow twisted frantically.

Trinity pushed her back down into the dirt.

"Just give up!" she said. "You just killed someone...and for what? So you can live to do it again? I don't want to kill you. I'm a Christian.... We don't kill people for fun. I want to save people's lives."

"Fool!" Crow suddenly elbowed her in the face and threw her off.

She tried to grab her mace again.

Trinity somehow grabbed her ankle and tripped her, then pulled her backwards.

The crowd was growing a little more invested in the fight now, but they were still pulling for Crow.

Trinity grabbed the rock with her free hand.

She had to be careful here...

She hit it like a ball into Crow's back.

That knocked the wind out of the mutant girl for sure. She fell forward, gasping.

It could have bruised a few ribs too.

But it wasn't lethal...

Trinity stood up.

Crow was still gasping.

Trinity looked around, then she picked up a smaller rock about the size of a golf ball.

Crow looked at her and tried to get up, and then fell back over. She'd scraped her hands on the gravel of the pit.

The crowd suddenly had gone quiet.

You knew all of them were thinking one thing: Was a Weakling actually about to win this fight?

Trinity held up the rock and put it into her sling shot.

Crow stared at her, then she started to crawl back.

Trinity chased her.

Crow went for the mace, and Trinity kicked it away from her.

Crow tried to go after it, and Trinity blocked her like any good player would have.

Helpless, Crow backed up more, then she hit the wall.

Just like Spray had...

"Kill!" the crowd shouted.

Such bloodlust...

Made Trinity sick.

She drew a deep breath.

"I hate what you did to that girl," she said, tears in her eyes. "It was horrible and cruel and inhuman...but I figure...you did it because you thought you had too...and Jesus would forgive you.... But I'm not going to do the same thing you did...even if it kills me. I don't know if they'll punish you for that...so...sorry."

She pulled the sling back.

Just like Will showed her...not too hard, just enough to stun something.

"Lord, help me not do this too much," Trinity said.

She let go.

The stone hit Crow right in the forehead.

She blinked at Trinity, and then she fell forward.

A hush fell over the arena.

Then on some reader board overhead, the words "K.O. ..." appeared.

So she wasn't dead... Trinity almost started crying.

"Finish her off!" one person was yelling.

"Weakling doesn't have any guts!?"

"Kill her!"

Trinity was disgusted.

She took the sling and threw it across the ring, then she held her hands up.

The crowd stopped yelling for a moment.

"I'm not going to do it!" Trinity yelled at them defiantly. "It's wrong! And all of you are wrong! God as my witness, I don't care if you kill me for it! I'm not going to do that to someone!"

They all stared at her.

Some of them looked at the box that the overseer of the games was in.

That mutant was looking at Trinity narrowly, then he said something.

Medics ran into the ring.

Someone picked up Crow and dragged her out.

They grabbed Trinity and roughly hauled her out of the arena.

But the match was over.

[Wow....that was horrible...

Some might wonder why I chose to have this happen so fast.

Well, unlike many YA authors, I don't actually think that people dying is always something you get to focus on in the situation a whole lot. The worst thing about it is how sudden it is, and the worst of war is that you have to just keep going whether people die or not.

I knew I couldn't get by without at least one death in the Arena, so I tried to make it realistic but not too gruesome...

I am so sorry.]