Wow! I was SUCH a fan of this show when it was on! I was also so upset when it got cancelled! ABCFamily always cancels the good ones…
Anyway, just so you all know, I did not get this idea from the Hunger Games; rather, from a Criminal Minds episode that I barely remember this being the plot for. I think it was fathers fighting for their daughters, though…and, yeah, that's definitely not what it is here. Haha.

As you'll probably notice if you take to reading this, I'm not a very detail-oriented person. Rather, I thrive on characterization (at least, I hope that's the term for what I do). You should have a pretty good idea what's going on at the end of this chapter, but in the event that you still have questions, please, feel free to PM me.

Also, please DON'T HESITATE to leave a review!

My eyes opened slowly, and I was aware of a major headache. I tried sitting up, but that wasn't happening with the state of my head, so instead I stayed where I was on the ground on my back and looked around with my eyes. Of course, that hurt like hell in and of itself. It looked as though I was in an abandoned indoor swimming pool. It was somewhat dark, muggy, and smelled horrible.

I was quickly growing irritated with the state my head was in; so, after blinking furiously a few times I forced myself to sit up. I took yet another look around, and my heart sank as I realized I hadn't been lying on the ground in this unfamiliar place alone.

There was a curly-haired blonde girl lying on her stomach next to me.

Chloe.

Shit.

Forcing the pain from my head to the back of my mind again, I crawled over to her and gently shook her; belatedly hoping she hadn't lost yet another one of her lives…

On my watch.

I was thinking of the inevitable as I started examining her for wounds. She had a bump on her head in the same place where mine hurt, and it looked like she had defensive marks – as did I – but other than that, she looked fine.

What the hell had happened to us?

And why in the hell was she not waking up?

I lightly shook her again and started gently calling her name. If she had a headache like I did, she would be grateful.

Finally, she lightly groaned before shuffling around and propping herself up on her elbows.

She blinked furiously, trying to either shrug her own headache away, or get her focus back to figure out who I was.

But suddenly, she said, "Alek?"

I couldn't stop the smile that came upon my lips. I nodded, "Of course, you know you can't get rid of me."

She scoffed, putting a hand to her head and turned to sit up. I quickly moved to put a hand on her back to steady her.

"Where are we?"

I took another look around. Being conscious for these last few minutes was helping my headache to heal, and I could see clearly. "I would guess this is some abandoned high school. That looks like a pool."

There was actually no sarcasm in my voice with that answer, but she looked at me as if there had been, and when I used a gesture to question her, she rolled her eyes, but smiled. Whatever trouble I was in, I had apparently been forgiven.

"Do you remember how we got here?" she asked me.

I shook my head. That was the only part of this blasted headache that hadn't healed yet. The last thing I did remember was walking out of Valentina's apartment to take Chloe home…

Then we woke up here.

"The last thing I remember was walking out of the apartment…" Chloe told me, as though reading my mind.

"Same." I replied, uneasily. I hated not remembering things. It makes any normal person vulnerable. And for Mai? That fact alone makes everything twenty times worse.

Like I said, I wasn't sure if Chloe had lost another one of her lives or not.

I stood and offered a hand to her to help her up.

As she grabbed it and I pulled her up, I looked around again, and that is when a voice came over the intercom system.

I was surprised it still worked.

"Ah, the Uniter and her Protector, I see you have finally woken. Now we can begin."

The way he had called me her protector wasn't hinted with malice…it was mocking – definitely mocking. Regardless, I was instantly on high alert, my body reacting instinctively. My gaze jerked upward since I couldn't tell where the intercom was, let alone the person who was controlling it. My hearing kicked in as I was listening for a heartbeat, breathing, anything…

The sounds were suddenly, very overwhelming, and when we apprehensively approached the pool, I found out why.

Chloe gasped.

In the pool were a bunch of other guys, and I could tell that they were all Mai.

I could also tell that they weren't friendly.

And, I was pretty sure they had hell of a better idea of what was going on than I did.

"Traitors." I muttered under my breath, narrowing my eyes at them, and forced Chloe behind me.

As soon as the word left my mouth, though, television screens all over the room came to life; and showed a bunch of girls tied, sitting on chairs, unconscious.

All of the men growled as they watched what was on the screens.

Besides the fact that there were a bunch of tied up girls on the screen, something else left me uneasy…

There was a square at the bottom right corner of the screen that had a chair, but no girl.

The voice on the intercom system chuckled, "Well done, Alek. I think you have a good idea of what's going on here. But in case you don't, let me explain the rules one more time for those who just woke up."

The Mai in the pool groaned.

My focus stayed on them as the voice continued, "The rules are simple, Alek, two men will square off in the pool until one dies."

"If you wanted to kill us so bad, why not do it while we were unconscious?" I shot back. I couldn't stop myself. Chloe hit me on the arm, and her eyes widened at what I was tempting them to do. I didn't care. They weren't getting to her unless and … until … I was dead anyway. Even though I'm Mr. C. B. as Chloe likes to put it, the chances of me beating all of these guys were not good.

"Where's the fun in that?" the voice responded to me. "Anyway, if in the middle of a fight, you try to surrender, we will kill you anyway. If you and the other male in the pool try to team up, we'll kill you both. And, if for whatever reason you refuse, we'll kill both you and one of the girls on the screen. And I know exactly which girl we'll start with."

Yeah, I did too.

"First up, Jonathan McAvoy and Alek Petrov."

All of the males in the pool suddenly jumped out except one.

I had a blasted feeling that I would be the one going through all of the rounds.

When my eyes roamed to my left, I saw Chloe being dragged away from me by guards.

"No!" I shouted, but suddenly, I was grabbed around my mid-section and hauled toward the pool. Before I could get my bearings, I was being lifted off the ground as though I weighed nothing – which frankly, was a feat in and of itself – and thrown toward the pool again. When they finally stopped throwing me, I was using every ounce of strength I had to get these guards off of me. They couldn't be just human.

"Now, now, Alek, you'll want to save all the energy you can for your fights."

Well, if I had had any doubts in my mind as to the fact that I was going to be fighting through all of the rounds; that sentence had just sent them flying out the window quicker than I can run.

I couldn't count how many guards were around me, but I quickly lost sight of Chloe as they took her behind some door. I turned my attention to the screen, and there were at least two, forcing her to sit down. My stomach dropped as I then watched them take out a syringe that was filled with god knows what, restrain her, and plunge it into the vein in her arm.

It took barely any time at all for Chloe's eyes to droop and her to fall unconscious again.

My blood was boiling. If they were going to force me to watch that each and every time before a fight I had absolutely no doubt I would win all of them now.

I all but ran and jumped into the pool. I got into a fighting stance, as did Jonathan, and the voice over the intercom boomed again, "Ready…Set…Fight."

Then there was dinging as though this were televised fighting for entertainment purposes.

What the hell?

I didn't have too much time to think after that before Jonathan advanced toward me. He looked like he was supposed to be pretty evenly matched with me.

He attempted to throw a punch, which I quickly grabbed, throwing him back against the pool. He hit with a thud and went to the ground. I waited for him to get back up in case he would try to pull a fast one.

He got up, but slowly, and came at me again. Once again, I dodged him and sent a punch to the side of his head.

I'm not going to lie, I wanted this to end so I could make sure whatever the hell they had given Chloe did in fact, just knock her out.

And that small fact alone was enough to get my blood boiling again.

When he stood this time, he was disoriented, and stumbling. I threw my arms out and looked at the intercom system.

"Really? You wanted a challenge, but I don't deserve one?"

I was tempting fate. I was well aware. I just wanted to get this whole shitshow on the road and find out what happened after I won.

Jonathan stood and came at me, and I swear, if I didn't know any better he was begging something of me because I read his lips…

"Please…"

I narrowed my eyes at him, but grabbed him by his hair and threw him hard against the wall. I heard something crack and I barely stifled my cringe.

I heard gasps coming from around me, but I stood – stunned – with my mouth in a straight line. I'll be damned before I show any emotion to these jackasses.

"Well done, Alek." The voice over the intercom boomed, and sudden, at least two people in white uniforms advanced toward the pool and right to Jonathan. The one man put two fingers to his neck; then looked up and nodded.

"Jonathan McAvoy is dead." The voice boomed over the system.

Next thing I knew, the doors where Chloe had disappeared moments before were clicking open.

I turned to the doors, jumped out of the pool, and sprinted up to her. She came walking out and was dazed and disoriented.

"Alek? Alek, what happened?" there was pang in my heart when I realized that her words were slurring – sending anger coursing through me.

But even worse, had she forgotten everything from when we had woken up here, too?

Hopefully I did Alek's P.O.V. justice!

Will I see ya in the next chapter?

;)