Neutral Territory, Planet: Iota

The four representatives stood in a line on a well light arena. Tubes illuminated multiple colors on the steal floor. The center of the arena rose a lone figure stood on the cylindrical platform in front of the four champions.

"Welcome to the empires from across the galaxy! We will hold the competition here with your champions… in one week! Hey intergalactic space travel's a pain so before we hold a competition we will have a week to unwind and experience a variety of festivities. I'm sure most of you are exhausted so today will be devoted to relaxing. Remember this is neutral territory, anyone who violates the terms of the standing truce will be punished." The announcer grinned. "Now you may take this time to converse!" Sola snuck up behind Zod and Kail and wrapped her arms around them.

"Hi, I'm Sola from Phunk, who are you guys?" Sola grinned while the crowd began to mingle.

"Kail from Akia." Kail said warily.

"Demeter form Furon, don't touch me." Zod said removing Sola's arm.

"Oh, O.K! This is Zahara, she's from Irk." Sola beamed.

"No really?" Zod scoffed, " I thought she came out of a black hole."

"There's no need to be condescending." Zane said firmly, she got between Sola and Zod. "Nobody asked you to speak." She glared at him, something about his eyes didn't seem right. Maybe it was because they were gold.

"I bet you didn't ask to be short either, but sometimes things just are." He said blandly.

"I see that sly, confident smirk on your face! Well it won't work on me!"

"What is she going on about?" asked Kail, "Look Zahara, we don't need, nor want to deal with your diva attitude." Zane didn't know what a diva was, but she was sure that it wasn't something pleasant. She huffed, storming out of the arena to a main hall. The various empire's symbols hung on banners that were pinned to a wall. Several small tables and plush chairs sat along the walls with a hand full of book shelves and snack tables. Sola ran up behind her.

"Hey, why did you run off?" she asked.

"I can't stand the Furon representative, he's so rude! I will tear him down if he looks at me like that again!" Zane complained.

"Like what?"

"Like I shouldn't be there. He made no facial expressions, but his eyes reflected that 'you're a joke' attitude. At least that's what I got off of him, his eyes were just weird."

"Not as weird as the Akians, aren't they supposed to be fat and…"

"Unattractive?" Zane suggested. "I think Mika mentioned something about that. How it's really cold on Akian planets so they wear like thirteen layers of clothes."

"That has nothing to do with appearances." Sola responded.

"Jealousy." A voice answered. The young girls turned to see an Akian with waist length white hair and blue violet eyes. Another stood there with long violet hair and elbowed the other.

"Leave them alone!" She got down to eye level with the two, "He wasn't telling the whole truth."

"HE!" They said in unison.

"That's the reason. Don't worry, we don't take it personally." She cooed. "You both are so cute!"

"Beryl, come on!" The white haired Akian called.

"Coming!" She called.

Outside the Arena

"I don't understand any of this." Kail complained. "Aren't only the champions and advisors supposed to be here?"

"Didn't you leader explain it to you?" Zod asked.

"Saxon? No, all she said was that I had to fight."

"But your Akia's champion, their toughest fighter."

"I'll only agreed to fight because they said I'd get clearance from my 'crime'. People in Akia… Let's just say I don't fit in, I'm way more aggressive than the rest and they just couldn't accept it. Six years ago they said that they would forgive me for lashing out if I fought for them."

"You're not alone, my people hate me because I'm a pure blood. If I win, I'll be a hero and no one will hate me anymore."

"This whole system sucks."

"At least we have a final week. Think about it, in seven days the whole universe will change. That's why people are here. The whole party before the end of the world thing."

"How do you know this stuff?"

"You aren't the only one who spent six years training." The two looked at the stars, there wasn't another planet for light years. "Being in the middle of nowhere is really weird. I've never been on a completely metal planet."

"It's not completely metal, there's wood, cloth-"

"You get the idea don't you?"

"Yeah, Akia's planets are mostly covered in ice, it's the first time I've hadn't had to wear a jacket. Teenagers jump from their home planet to a different one in search of a warmer healthier planet so each one is like a no man's land. Needless to say they all are pretty much the same and the diesis is on every one."

"Wait what diesis?"

"I think it's called Endemic Hymoptysis, it's a terrible diesis and it killed our last leader. It mostly affects the lungs and lower intestines. I've seen someone who had it they could barely walk and had trouble breathing, if she talked too much she would start coughing up blood."

"Sounds terrible, so Akia is hoping that the Abyss serum can cure their own people."

"Yeah, that's basically it. Pretty shallow hunh? They're dead serious on winning, they even made me cut my hair. Apparently people would use it to their advantage in the previous war."

"When we fight, I don't think we should kill anybody."

"…agreed."