There we are with the first chapter of the spin-off. The idea is born from a dream, like all the Gladiator's story. But pay attention, this story can contain some spoiler.

In fact this spin-off is connected with the chapter 22 of the FF "The Gladiators", the final part. So I recommend to read it before.

So this FF concerns the point of view of Vice, the older brother of Sharon and Ronad. It's a jump in the past, HIS past. We'll read about hid difficulties and sacrifices and how Vice had met Leila, his wife.

I want remain on a dark and serious tone because this is the worst period for Vice and his brothers, but I won't dwell on the details. This is a... how I can say, a short story and it will touch the more important steps.

NOTE: if you don't remember. The Berser is the sleeping force in every Gladiator. It can be vented only under big pressures and the strength of the mice grows up of about 4 times. Vice killed the Plutarkians in the chapter 19, "Unleashed"

Chap1- The beginning of everything

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During the captivity period Vice had feared to don't come back to his family. For him Leila and his children were everything. When he was back on the earth and saw again the faces of the little mice and his wife, his heart returned to be the usual. But perhaps Leila was right, he had to find a way to don't suffer the distance, it would be a problem with the passage of the time and he didn't want seem a weak. He couldn't afford it being the son of the clan leader. Every manifestation of weakness would be a reason to accuse him of incompetence and inadequacy once he would become, unwillingly, the leader.

The soft movement of the blanket interrupted his thoughts, Vice turned on the left side and glanced at the naked shoulders of his wife, and he did a thing that he hadn't done for a long time. He grinned amused, raised the index finger of the right hand and ran it along the back of Leila who gave a shrug as she felt the soft contact "You're still awake?" she asked turning towards him and smiled with sweetness "Aren't you tired?"

Vice shook the head smiling back, in the truth he was but the happiness didn't let him to sleep. He caressed her cheek with the hand moving away a strands of hair from her blue eyes and kissed her lips "Do you remember when we met?" he asked.

She arched the eyebrow, perplexed "Of course I do! You were a womanizer like few!" she exclaimed punching him on his chest, an amused sneer on her face.

As answer Vice hugged her chuckling "Yeah. But this womanizer had chosen you!" he answered nuzzling his muzzle into her white hair, he sniffed her smell as he could, he missed everything of her.

"I hope that you'll find Ruby. I'm worried." Leila said nuzzling her cheek on the chest of the dark furred mouse, she squeezed herself in his arms becoming tiny and wrapped her arm around his side, she sighed and tried to sleep. She felt Vice's tail wrapping around her's.

Vice didn't answer and just looked at his wife. He was worried too and for this reason he let the Berser take the control on him and it allowed him to kill some Plutarkians, he needed to vent and what it was better than the invaders? Also if Leila got angry after she had knew that, Vice was satisfied because he showed that it was better for the enemies pay attention.

He let pass some minutes without thinking and listening only the slow and regular breath of the lady white mouse, finally she fell asleep. Then Vice went away from her doing the less noise he could. He walked to the big wooden chest of drawers on which there was a big oval mirror. The dark furred mouse stood still to look his reflection, he noticed that he blended perfectly in the darkness of the room made exception for his white hair. New scars appeared now, in the darkness they seemed to shine on the dark brown fur and Vice studied them with criticism. He would return back in the past, avoid all what happened and delete every traces. But would it be worth? Would he meet Leila? Would he become like his cousin Arthan?

No.

He liked be himself. Leika liked him despite their relationship didn't start in the better way when they met. Vice would never imagine that it could finish at this way: he had got married her and he had had children. He was happy and didn't complain about it. Leila helped him to pass over the bigger mental blocks, Leila represented his guide whilst Sharon, his younger sister, represented that element that had always pushed him to do the best.

But Sharon's name took to his mind dark and terrible memories. Memories that he'd like to delete but the signs were indelible on his body and it wasn't possible hide them.

The terrorized screams of the little black lady mouse forced him to open this scarlet eyes, the young Vice looked around searching for the origin and saw the two jailers rats that were just arrived in the room in which the three little mice were closed. Vice fidgeted, he tried to stretch the hand to reach his sister of only 8 years but it was impossible, the wrists were blocked by the handcuffs attached to the wall with strong chains. Not having the required force, the little mouse couldn't break the metal and was obliged to watch what was happening in front him.

Sharon seemed tired and her look totally lacked of that brightness that was usual to be. The green and red eyes looked at the space showing a mix of confused feelings including fear and anguish. The male black furred mouse wondered what could happened to her. Once the handcuffs were settled and the girl sat, the two rats turned towards the two male mice: Vice and Ronald.

The green eyed younger brother curled on himself against the wall covering the head with the arms, but it was useless. Instead Vice tried to bite the long muzzled rodents where it was possible but at the end the jailers muzzled him and took him in another room with Ronald.

It was here that the young Gladiators were tortured in every way, the rats wanted to know something that Vice and Ronald ignored. But they were so stubborn to not give up to their aim. And during one of those interrogations, Vice had a fit of anger that risked to kill him. The rat in charge of make him speak had decided to hurt him on the chest but Vice flailed so much that his torturer hit him on the face targeting the cheek but the blade hit the left eye.

He had never suffered so much in all his life, it was one of the few moments in which the little mouse had left his dignity and let the tears run abundant, tears mixed with blood because the left eye was crossed by a horrible wound. He cried letting to the fear to wrap him in its irrational grip and take him to pass over the line that no one Gladiator had never crossed before he could be physically ready. He screamed with all the breath he had in his throat.

Vice had allowed the Berserk to take control on him before the time. His strength grew up just enough to destroy the chains to which he was tied. It was only for a moment but the rats expected the worst. But nothing happened. The dark furred mouse fell on the knees and fainted.

When he woke up, Vice could open only the right eye. The left one was bandaged and the pain was continuous enough to provoke a dizziness and a retch. The boy gritted the teeth trying to stay awake and looked around, he trembled as he was pray of the cold that only he was able to feel. Ronald was here and, luckily, he seemed to be good ad exception of his tail horribly bent in a strange angulation, it was swollen, and his eyes were still watery. The anger mounted again but this time nothing happened, he felt too weak also for move only an arm. Vice turned the head toward his sister, Sharon was there and she stood sat in an alarming calm.

The tears made again the way and the jaw of the little mouse trembled, the noise of his teeth that chattered was audible in that so silent room and Vice was assaulted by the sob. He wasn't able to hold it and the fear to not go away from there was big. But he promised to himself a thing. If everything had been arranged for the best he would do what he could to become the strongest. He would be the best and he wouldn't let anyone, rat or plutarkian, to touch his family. The rats had killed his parents and had taken the little mice there to know something that the three didn't know, it was like to get a spider out of the hole, useless. And the price of so much stupidity was the death of their mother who had tried to protect her children.

Despite Ronald and Vice continued to say that they didn't know anything, the tortures continued and one day Sharon herself was taken in the room unconscious and with a big bloodstain under her back. Vice feared that she was dead but when the sister opened the eyes, a veil of relief made him feel better. When it was the turn of the bigger mouse, the rats took all the precautions.

Vice was face to face with their lord, Gorian, a very big rat and it was him to interrogate the little mouse. The boy was sure of his positions, he really didn't know but the rat wielded the dagger under his chin trying to extort as more he could.

At the end Vice said that his father didn't allow him to go in his lab and Gorian seemed to believe him. But it was a bluff, the king turned to tease him, the dagger made pressure on the right side of Vice's neck. The questions were the same.

Persistent. Vice thought with the heart in the throat. He felt the blade pressing on his neck and the fear assaulted him again. He trembled. But it was in that moment that the boy got the second wound that signed him definitively. That was the day in which the Freedom Fighters had rushed to save the kidnapped mice.

It was a big explosion and taking advantage of the distraction Vice pulled the chains with a jerk without destroying them. During this action the blade sank in his flesh cutting off it in the deep and reached the vocal chords. The young Gladiator admitted that it had been his fault but the desire to escape from that place was big and nobody would stop him to rebel.

They had been hellish moments for him. Gorian thought that he was doomed now and left him to join the war. The screams of the Freedom Fighters were strong and full of enthusiasm. And whistle outside there was the uproar, Vice stood hung to the chains with the head down, unconscious. The blood flowed from the wound dirtying the fur and making it darker than it was yet. Even Vice couldn't explain what happened and when he opened the eye, he saw the ceiling of cloth of a white tent. His body was wrapped in soft blankets, the pain at the eye and the neck was gone. He opened the mouth to speak but no noise came from it. He alarmed.

"'morning." said a calm and reassuring male voice "I'm Nitkha, the doctor that has taken care of you. You were in bad shape. Luckily Stoker had find you in time."

The sound of that voice was still confused and muffled but Vice could understand what it was saying. He moved the lips, he wanted to ask where his brothers were and the doctor seemed to understand because he answered asking if they were the two wounded children. The boy nodded the head, he felt weak and stunned and hadn't the time to watch the face of who told him because he fell again in the sleep. A sleep strangely quiet and silent, a sleep in which moved evanescent presences that Vice wasn't able to recognize.

One month had been passed before the Gladiator could recover his voice but he didn't care about it. He was happy but he wanted to hug his brothers. Then he met the little Ronald who stood curled in the arms of a soft-eyed lady mouse, he had cried and probably called his mom. The grey furred lady rocked him in her arms accompanying the movement with her melodic voice. That view upset Vice bringing to his mind the memory of his mother Nadia and the words of her lullaby. He glanced at his brother's tail, some bandages were wrapped around it.

The young mouse felt horribly alone, abandoned by everyone. On balance he had no one, only his brothers. But Ronald was too little and naïve, Sharon refused every contact with the other mice and she closed in herself building insurmountable barriers that only Nitkha had been able to pass over. But with his astonishment, Vice discovered that someone else had passed over these barriers. It called Leila, she had eleven years and, with Cid, had been able to win over the confidence of the lady black mouse.

Cid was a boy with a premature intelligence, Nitkha's son, he loved the technology and had been able to drag Sharon in that field. Leila was the daughter of a big family. But all her brothers died during the war made exception for one, the oldest. He was Roran, a muscled mouse with the scarred face. Roran took his little sister with him at the Freedom Fighters camp and she had made friend with Sharon becoming her "personal hairdresser". Despite the young age she was able to cut and style the hair.

When the news of their rescue leaked out, Cloud had called his grandchildren but the situation in the clan was different from what Vice had imagined. The atmosphere was hostile, only Cloud and few mice were kind. The young dark furred mouse couldn't explain the reason of this coldness and detachment. According to what he could listen, the members of the clan feared that Vice could inherit the charge of clan leader before the time, being dead his father. The council ended with a fight and only Cloud could calm everyone reclaiming that place that before had belonged to his son Bruce. He would be the leader until Vice was ready.

But Vice was indifferent, he didn't want the leadership of a clan that cloud kill him only to take the yearned charge. And then there was Ronald, his younger brother had all the right to take the place of Vice if something would happen to him. But Ronald was too young and, after the recovery, he played like all the other children. But it was right so, thought Vice. Ronald was who had got away better than the others. It didn't seem that The rats had pressured on him too much and having realized that he was the less smart, they raged only on Sharon and Vice.

Since he had been recovered, Vice asked to become a doctor and had begged Nitkha to teach him everything.

"You're too young." Nitkha had commented with amused tone, nearly with hilarity without never stop to look at him up and down.

But Vice was stubborn "It doesn't seem that there's the time to think. I can't fight but I can study, I can learn!" he said with decision. He owed his survival to the medicine and owed their recovery to Nitkha. Becoming a doctor was the only way for him.

The two mice looked at each other for some minutes. Nitkha saw in the young boy a great determination to act and effectively he had a point. Nadia and Bruce had educate their sons good and Nitkha himself recognized that there wasn't nothing of bad to initiate him to the medicine. At the end he nodded "So, ok. It means that you must face a long path and be my assistant. We haven't a lot of time to linger on the little things, then you'll learn only what you need and what it will be really useful." then they would study only what had a practical utility.

So Vice went in a period occupied by long hours of study. When Nitkha went to the wounded or the sick, the young mouse followed him and watched attentive. This lasted about seven years, a record time. Vice had twenty years now and his willpower had pushed him where anyone else arrived. He helped Nitkha like an expert doctor, he recognized the illnesses and the required care but something pushed the other to judge him badly: his behavior and way to interact.

Vice grew up without a paternal guidance, he was grumpy and irritable. But physically he had become the dream of all the ladies of the city. In those years Nitkha moved to Stronghold, the capital and the command of the Freedom Fighters and the martian army. There the young Gladiator broke the heart of a lot of girls and very often he started fairly brief relationships changing girl. Sharon was deeply irritated about it and, being his sister of fifteen years, she told him off teasing him on purpose.

"If you act like that you'll never find a wife." she said taking an hair dryer and the shampoo.

His sister's comment made him smirk "I don't need a wife." Vice answered arrogant "Are you waiting for someone?"

Sharon nodded "Leila. It's the time to fix my hair."

Vice didn't see Leila since he had saved her from a group of Plutarkian that tried to kill her. About three years had been passed and because of his commitmens, the Gladiator wasn't at home like in the past and then he hadn't the opportunity to meet the lady white mouse.

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Yeah the chapter ends here. I don't want write a long one XD