Thanks to everyone reading and to those who dare to leave such nice feedback.

Chapter 6

Rath was sitting on the railing at the running track; watching the sun getting up in the horizon. The air was slightly cold, but not unpleasantly and he enjoyed the clarity of this time. The conversation between Maria and that guy from the New York District kept replaying in his head over and over again. Even though some words had been whispered, he had understood it perfectly.

" There´s even a rumor he´s a half-breed"

The worst part wasn´t even that people thought he was one or that there were rumor about him floating around. It was the reaction from Maria when she heard it. Not that the guy had noticed anything, but he had seen it; that quick flash of panic in her eyes before she had masked it again. Had she been afraid of him or afraid that others could hear it?

For years he had been afraid that people would find out about him. He had heard rumors about half-breeds disappearing and never seen again. There was even a rumor that the aliens had headhunters looking for them to let them vanish from the scene. It was not something that he wanted to happen to him. But he knew that it was just a matter of time before his cover would be blown, yet he thought that he would still have enough time to make plans for his escape before anyone would realize that he wasn´t like anyone else.

Brushing his hand through his hair, he glanced at the different colors painting the sky in reds, oranges, blues and greens. How many sunrises and sunsets would he be able to see? How many days he had to live in this constant worry about being discovered? How many hours of denying himself any fun, because of his fear of being called a freak?

" It´s beautiful, isn´t it?".

Rath almost lost the balance when he heard the voice behind him. Holding tightly onto the railing with both hands, he glared at the person almost scaring him to death. " Geez woman, don´t sneak up on me like that!".

Maria laughed about his frightened face; she hadn´t been able to resist scaring him. It was strange, for someone that was told to be some kind of legend, he was easy to startle and it was starting to make fun to her. She liked him so open and real; so vulnerable and lively. " I made my presence known, but you didn´t hear me. It´s not my fault that you´re deaf".

" I´m not deaf; I was deep in thoughts", Rath didn´t even know why he was telling her that; it wasn´t like she was interested to hear anything about it.

Maria had suspected as much when she watched him staring off in the distance; his eyes unfocused and his body still like a statue. She wondered what was going on inside his head and why she had a feeling she could probably relate to it? " Something you wanna share? I will be even quiet for some time and listen".

Rath eyed her and for some reason he wanted to tell her; wanted to confide in her about his fears and his worries. Something inside him told him that she would understand him; understand how it was to be different. But he wasn´t so sure if he could trust anyone, not even her. " As much as I want to see you shut up for a while, there´s nothing I have to share".

" Fine, but if you change your mind, you know where to find me", lifting her leg to the back, she grasped her ankle and stretched it. If they weren´t going to talk, she would do what she wanted to do in the first place. Run a few laps before going to the training room.

Rath studied her and for some crazy moment he had the urge to put her over the railing and take her from behind until she was screaming his name over and over again; telling him to go harder and faster or maybe deeper. Shit; it had been too damn long without any kind of release and it was slowly driving him crazy. So in order to get his mind out of the gutter, he jumped from the railing and followed her lead. He could use some exercise. " Are you a fast runner or just a jogger?".

Maria was confused about the question and she was curios why he was asking her that. " I´m fast, but I like jogging more. Why?".

" There are situations at the arena that require you to flee instead of facing your opponents head on. You need to be faster than them in order to protect yourself", Rath only survived so long, because he had enough experience in knowing when to run away or when to confront.

Maria stared at him, really stared at him and for the first time she saw the shadows lurking behind his caramel colored eyes; shadows that would probably always stay with him, no matter where he went and how many good things he would do in his life. " Why do I have the feeling you´re not really talking about the Fighting Games?".

Rath avoided her gaze and tried to make an impression of being busy with stretching his body while in reality he was hiding the slight panic crawling up inside him. " Why do I have the feeling you like to piss me off with stupid questions?".

" Oh boy; I hit a nerve", Maria was puzzled over his behavior; one minute he was flirty and nice and the next he was trying to bite her head off. Why was he so touchy when it came to talk about himself? What did he have to hide?

Rath gave her an angry look before he took off without a word. His feet were furiously pounding on the cinder track and he made a fruitless attempt to get the question out of his head. What was happening to him? Did he lose his touch? Was he getting that obvious that people he barely knew could see what was going on behind his indifference? Or was it just her?

Maria was two steps behind him; pondering if she should give him space to calm down or if she should push her luck and maybe get a few answers that had been whirling around her head for some time now. Deciding that she had always been no fan of being cautious, she went into a faster gear and was besides him in no time at all. " Look, if I offended you in any kind than I´m sorry, it wasn´t my intention. I´m just trying to get to know you better, that´s all".

" Why?".

Maria shot him a questioning glance, waiting for some kind of explanation for that one word. But after a few seconds she realized that nothing was following. " Why what?".

Rath picked up his pace; to lose her or to see if she would keep up with him, he wasn´t so sure about that. Not surprisingly she was still at side and didn´t even sound like she had problems with getting air into her lungs. " Why do you want to get to know me?".

" We will spend a lot of time together. Besides I think you´re a cool person", Maria felt like a dork for saying that. Mentally she slapped herself for that. I think you´re a cool person! She did not just tell him that.

Rath chuckled when he saw the slight flush appearing on her face and she was doing that cute wrinkling with her nose that he liked so much. For someone that thought he wasn´t into all that sappy shit, he was awfully thinking a lot about that crap when she was around. " So I´m cool, hu? Never heard that from a chosen before".

Maria was two seconds away from giving him a push. What was she thinking being nice to him; he was obviously not interested to get to know her. Fine, she could take a hint and she had learned a lesson: to keep her mouth shut the next time. She had to get a filter and not just sprout anything that was popping in her head. " You know what? Forget I said anything".

" Maybe it´s better that way", Rath couldn´t let anyone close to him; never again.

Maria had finally enough. Stopping her jog, she grasped his arm and almost made him fall down from the sudden halt, but he was thankfully quick on his feet and managed to keep standing. " What is your deal? Why do you always have to act like an asshat?".

Rath glanced for a moment at his wrist, where her hand was still wrapped around and he wondered if she felt the same sparks that were shooting up and down his arm. Looking up, he was trapped in the bright green pools glaring angrily at him. She had never been more sexy than in that moment and he wasn´t so sure if he should wrench himself away from her or pull her closer.

" I was asking you a question", even though she could care less what he answered as long as he was looking at her like that. His intent gaze on her was like an open flame on a cold night and made her body tingle everywhere. She had never felt so much with another guy and it was slightly irritating her.

Instead of answering her verbally, Rath did something uncharacteristically for him. Without giving her a chance to say anything again, he cupped her face with both hands, hauled her towards him and kissed her like he never kissed anyone before. It was gentle, aggressive and passionate at the same time.

Maria was so stunned about the sudden attack that she was frozen for a few seconds, not knowing what to do. But when her brain and her mouth were connected again, she pushed her hands in the longer hair of the back of his neck and pressed her body so tight onto his that not even a sheet of paper would have been able to get between them. His hands were slowly doing a tour over her body until they were firmly wrapped around her middle and very close to her bottom.

Rath groaned when he felt her nails digging into his flesh and his dick started throbbing painfully. He had never felt something so powerful with just a kiss and it was scaring him. He thought that if he finally took the plunge he would stop obsessing over it. Unfortunately for him, it seemed to have the exact opposite effect and he only stopped kissing her when the need to breathe was overwhelming.

" Woah! What was that?", Maria was blown away. No wonder the other girls her age had always looked like drugged bimbos after a make out session with their boyfriends.

Rath glanced at her and he was only getting harder at her red, swollen lips and flushed face. Scratching his eyebrow to hide his nervousness, he tried to get his strong beating heart under control. He knew that what he did wasn´t the best move he ever made, but honestly he didn´t regret it. " That was just to shut you up".

Maria was sure that she had heard him wrong, because he just did not say that to her. She stepped back from him like he just punched her in the face. Her first real kiss and he was telling her that he just did it to make her shut up? " What? Say that again?".

" It doesn´t mean anything".

Maria breathed deeply in and out; knowing that if she would start flipping out, her powers would go out of whack again and the last thing she needed was anyone seeing her go alien. So instead of beating him to a pulp, she only slapped him once. " That was to shut you up and it actually means something", with that she turned around and walked off angrily.

Rath watched her form getting smaller and smaller, his cheek burning from the slap and his lips pressed into a tight line. He had to use everything in him not to cuss out loud or begin to scream the whole place down. He made a mistake and now he was paying for it.

Training room

Thankfully Maria wasn´t the only one in the advance group anymore; Josh and Max had joined her. They were a good buffer between her and Rath and kept her from scratching his eyes out. It was never good to piss off a female that had access to weapons.

" This is so much cooler than those props", Josh had instantly found a liking to the swords, even though it wasn´t even sure if they had access to those in the arena.

Maria stared quietly at him, her arms crossed over her chest and her lips pressed into a tight line. She was still debating to sit out one training out and do something else instead. But she didn't want to give Rath the satisfaction of scaring her away. So instead of avoiding him like she had wanted, she was here and planned evil ways to kill her Instructor.

Max eyed her with concern; the girl was too quiet and it made him highly suspicious. Since this morning she had been like that; there hadn´t been any teasing or scolding, there had been just silence and here and there a small smile, which was mostly directed at Mason. " Are you okay?".

" Sure, just peachy", Maria snapped irritated before she realized that her sentence and the bite to her note didn´t match. Immediately she relaxed her stance and chuckled; she was behaving like a petulant child and she wasn´t usually like that. " Sorry, it´s not you".

Max stepped closer to her and bumped his shoulder softly into hers. He didn´t know a lot about girls, but he could detect when something was wrong very easily. " Wanna talk about it?".

Maria smiled at him, for once that day a real one and not those faked ones. He was a nice guy and he would probably never kiss a girl just to get her to shut up and treat her like a jerk. Why couldn´t she be attracted to someone like him? Or to Billy? No her stupid heart was set on the most complex man she had ever met in her life. " Thanks, but there´s nothing to talk about. I made a mistake and I learned from it".

" You didn´t kiss Billy, did you?", Max had seen them both last night when he and the others got inside. They had been really close to each other and it had seemed really intimate between them. Even though it wasn´t exactly forbidden to have contact with the other Chosen, it wasn´t very smart to start something, especially when not knowing if you had sex with your future enemy.

Maria gave him a horrified look. What did he think about her? She didn´t walk around kissing any guy that was crossing her path. She had some decency, even if it had fled her this morning with Rath. But to her defense, he had surprised her and he was a damn good kisser. " Uh no, why would you even ask me that?".

Max just shrugged his shoulder innocently. " We saw you with him yesterday. You two looked cozy".

" And you think just because I´m nice to him I want to kiss him?", Maria couldn´t understand it; why did everyone always interpret her kind nature into something else. What if she got along better with guys than girls? That didn´t mean she wanted to jump them.

Max knew that the wrong word could make him lose a limp or two so he chose his next sentence carefully. Even though he liked the girl, she tended to be on the unstable side and anything could set her off, especially when she was in a mood. " No, of course not. Forget I said it, I wasn´t thinking about what I said".

Maria snorted angrily. That was the only problem with the male gender; they didn´t think before opening their mouths. They only realized that they said something dumb when the girl pointed it out at them and then they tried to find excuses for their behavior. " Yeah whatever".

" Uh it´s the time of the month", Josh shoved his elbow at Max´s ribs.

Maria balled her hands into fists; ready to use them to give the guy a five finger hello when she heard Rath coming into the room. For a moment their gaze met before he glanced away quickly, focusing his attention on the boys besides her instead, which was fine with her. She didn´t need his regard anyway.

Rath still felt guilty for what he had done that morning, but he told himself that it was for the best. For her and for him. It couldn´t end well, it never did. " Josh put the sword away before you hurt yourself. Max, grab those throwing knives".

" Are we gonna practice throwing knives?", Josh asked while he put the sword back at its place. He was slightly disappointed that there wasn´t any action at this point. What was the point of advanced training when there wasn´t any physical exercise or any weapons involved and no he didn´t count the small knives as weapons.

Rath rolled his eyes at the dumbest question he got ever asked. He was half tempted to send the guy back to the others just for that question. " No we´re practicing knitting", that earned him a unbelieving glance and he felt like shaking his head and getting him needles and thread to teach him knitting. " Oh god, are you really that stupid?"

Maria wasn´t really sure if it was the newfound friendship between her and her fellow chosen or if it was the humiliating encounter that morning, but something inside her was rearing its head and wanted to come out and play. " Hey, don´t talk to him like that! He´s not stupid, jerk!".

" Oh we´re back to calling names again? Very mature from you", and he wasn´t just talking about this situation.

Maria glared at him for a moment, but refrained from commenting. It would just upset her more and give him leverage against her and he had already more than enough. Breathing deeply in, she counted to ten before she smiled brightly at him while she scratched her nose with her middle finger. She knew that it was just as childish, but she could´t let that slide without any kind of revenge.

Rath caught the gesture and he wasn´t sure if he should be offended or really amused about it. One thing was for sure, that girl wasn´t doing what he expected her and it was making him slightly nervous. She was too unpredictable and hard to assess what she would do. " So blondie, why don´t you put your money where you´re mouth is and show us what you´ve got?".

" At least my mouth knows what its doing", Maria smirked at him, glad that she came up so quickly with her reply. Walking towards Max, she took three of the throwing knives out of his hands and made her way in front of the tall target that should resemble a male person. Adjusting her stance, she gripped two of the knives in her left hand while she held the other with the right one. A few times she stretched her arm like she wanted to throw, but she didn´t let go. Then she focused on the target and imagined Rath standing there. With pleasure she threw all three knives fast like lightning one after another.

Josh, Max and even Rath didn´t know what to say about that. If the target would have been a real person, he would have two holes in his forehead and no penis. All three males were slightly wincing at that, not wanting to think about how painful that would be.

Maria turned to her audience and made a small bow; mentally slapping her shoulder in pride; it wasn´t hard to hit a target when you had a calm hand and some supernatural gift and of course a Dad that was teaching you to handle every weapon that was invisible to carry around. Even though she had never used throwing knives for that; they had only normal knives and small daggers. " So now that you know how amazing I am, you could show me what you´ve got".

" Dude, I´m so not gonna piss her off anymore", Josh whispered to Max and Rath. He was afraid she was turning him into a female with just the flick of her wrist. Damn, that girl was too damn deadly for her own good.

Max swallowed visible, still holding tightly onto the knives in his hands. He was glad that she was in his District and on his team; otherwise he would seriously piss his pants in fear. For someone so delicate looking, she was tough as nails. " Yeah I´m with you".

Rath shook his head at them; for such tough looking guys they were too easily scared. Grasping three knives he went to the spot where Maria had been standing and smirked at her. Moving his head from side to side, to relieve a kink out of his neck, he barely glanced at the target when he threw the knives and then walked away without even looking where they stuck. He was confident enough to know that he never missed.

" Oh man, where was I when those cool skills were handed out?", Josh was in awe about the skills from both Rath and Maria. They seemed to know what they were doing. Whereas Maria had managed to hit more than one spot, Rath had put all the knives close to each other, just where the heart was supposed to be.

Maria was impressed, but didn't allow herself to show in on the outside. Giving him a cool expression, she appeared like she was rather bored. " It´s not skill if you train for it for years".

Rath was slightly getting pissed about her behavior. He knew that he made a mistake by kissing her that morning, but did she have to make such a big deal out of it? It happened and it wouldn´t again, end of story. But no, girls always had to make it into a weeklong drama, with the guy being the asshole. " Funny coming from you. I don´t believe for one moment that you were born with those skills".

" Maybe I´m really that awesome? Have you thought about that?", Maria wasn´t usually a bitch, but for once she didn´t feel any guilt for acting like one. He should be glad that she didn´t rip of his balls and fed it slowly to him.

Max was confused about the verbal battle between them. It had been so quiet with them, that they all thought the worst was over. But apparently the shit was about to hit the fan and he wasn´t exactly thrilled to be in the middle of it, especially with all these dangerous weapon within reach. So in order to stay in one piece, he decided to step in before it turned into something really ugly. " So Rath, is the force behind the throw coming from the arm, the shoulder or the wrist?".

Rath was making an impression like he would ignore the question and rather start a fight with Maria. But then he turned his whole attention on the two guys; after all he was here to train them and not waste his time with stupid arguments. " It´s a combination of all three. And of course the right stance. I´ll show you".

" Woah girl, that´s serious tension between you two. What happened?", Josh was keeping a nice distance between them, but his curiosity was just to big to ignore the question.

Maria watched Rath showing Max the right technique and as much as she thought their Instructor was a douche, that guy knew what he was talking about. It was so frustrating to her; on the one hand she thought he was the most delicious creature to ever cross her path, but on the other side she thought he was biggest jerk she ever met. " Nothing why?".

Josh had noticed the strange glanced between those two and he was sure that there was something going on. Either Rath had made advances towards her and she had put him down or the other way around, but he suspected that it was either or. " It´s a gut feeling. The sexual frustration is palpable between you and him"

" I suggest you don´t listen to your gut feeling, ever. Saves your life", Maria left his side and started with her own practice. Even though she had done something like that already, she could use a little refreshing. Her aim was a little off and she needed to be at her best when she would be going into the arena.

Rath was using every ounce of strength to concentrate on Josh and Max, even though the urge to watch Maria was almost painfully tangible. She was a pain in the ass, but she was also a really great fighter. And he had to remember that she was very young and a girl, which meant he couldn´t expect her to react like a grown up would. On the other hand, she had to be aware that this wasn´t a school party where everyone was having fun and got along great. There would be tension and hurt feelings the closer they got to the games, but that didn´t excuse to behave like a bitchy princess. Maybe he should pull her aside and talk to her; get her to understand that whatever happened, wouldn´t happen again.

Maria hated that Rath was ignoring her. Just because he had used her, didn´t mean she wouldn´t need his help. She was most likely a candidate for the games and she wanted to have the best preparation for it. But now it seemed like he was focusing all his energy on the others. Normally she wouldn´t care about it, she was very independent, but in that case she knew that she wouldn´t make it alone. So in order to get his attention, she threw the knife so that it was bouncing off the target, flew in Rath´ direction and dropped in front of his feet. " Oh sorry, must have slipped from my hand".

" Careful! You could have really hurt me", Rath was slightly startled.

Maria walked towards him and picked up the knife from the ground. She tried to appear innocently, but according to his expression, she wasn´t able to pull it off. " If I had wanted to hurt you, I would have".

Rath was just about screw his control and give her a piece of his mind when he heard a small cry of pain. Maria´s expression became alarming and before anyone could say something she was dashing out of the training room. For a few seconds he and the other two were staring at the spot she had disappeared and then without a word they followed her.

" Hey buddy; what is it?", Maria was kneeling on the floor besides Mason, who was crying while holding a hand to his face. Carefully she took it away and looked closely at the damage and was relieved when she realized it was just a little bruise on his hairline. Nothing that couldn´t be fixed with a patch. " How did you manage that?".

Mason hiccupped and pointed a finger at Zoey, who was looking guiltily at the floor. " She hit me with the toy".

Isabel felt bad for what happened, but she had to defend the little girl in that instance. It wasn´t anyone´s fault what happened. It wasn´t so unusual to get a few bruises and injuries during training; she had seen worse things, even though she knew that children had a lower tolerance for pain. " She didn´t purposely hit him. She practiced a move and Mason walked accidentally into it".

" You have to be more careful from now on", kissing him near his bruise she stood up and lifted him in her arms, which made him hold onto her tightly. " Now we´ll get to the infirmary to get you patched up; what do you say about that?".

Mason made a face at that; he hated doctors and the smell. Wiping the tears from his face, he tried to appear like everything was alright again. He didn´t want someone poking at his wound and maybe try to give him a shot or something. " I´m fine. It doesn´t hurt anymore".

Maria saw right through his lie; he was like her little brother in that regard. But she would feel better if someone would look at the injury, just in case there was some internal damage. His head wasn´t as strong as that of a grown up and a little bruise could be much more than it seemed on the outside. " I would feel more at ease we would get to the infirmary or do you want to make me worry about your health for the rest of the stay here?".

" Only if you promise that you will stay with me", Mason wanted to do everything to please her; because she was the only one he trusted completely.

Maria smiled down at him before she turned around and made her way to the infirmary. " I will be at your side the whole time", and she would stick to it and not just for the little visit to the doctor, she meant until she would go into the arena.

Mason snuggled his head on her shoulder and let her voice lull him when she told him some stories about her childhood; the first time she got hurt and the first time she had to take a trip to the towns doctor for a fall on the head. She had been scared and made a fuss the whole way and her mother was almost at the end of her patience when her friend Alex was joining them. He was holding her hand and telling her that Dr. Wallace got candy in her examination room and if she would be a good patient she would get some. That made her shut up, because she loved candy.

" You´re here again?".

Mason looked up when he heard another voice and he instantly shrank more into Maria, who was smiling at the male doctor. " Yeah, but this time it´s not me. My little friend here got a hit to his head and I want to make sure nothing is damaged".

The doctor immediately motioned for her to drop the patient on the examining table. As soon as Mason was seated, he pulled his little flashlight out of his pocket and was shining it in the young boy´s eyes. Pleased he noted that his pupils reacted normal. Then he touched the area around the bruise to make sure nothing was broken. " Are you feeling sick? Problems with your sight?".

" No", Mason winced slightly when the doctor pushed a little too hard on the tender skin on his forehead and he was glad that Maria was still holding onto his hand.

Maria watched the little guy and she was relieved when she noticed that wasn´t crying anymore. The whole incident had probably looked more severe than it was in reality. The shock of the punch had made him react so emotional. " So what´s the verdict?".

The doctor waved his hand scanner over the see if there was internal damage. But as far as he could see, there was nothing unusual on the picture. He was used to have overprotective Instructor sending the youngest chosen to him with every little injury. Most of the time it wasn´t anything serious; he was giving them a patch, some ice and sometimes a little pat on the back. " Everything is fine. Nothing an ice pack can´t cure".

" Good to hear", Maria squeezed Mason´s hand and grinned at him; trying to make him feel better. Lifting him off of the table, she put him on the ground and patted his hair. " Too bad, a little scar would have made you look tougher"

Mason was about to reply something when the doctor handed him an ice pack and a lolly; lemon flavoured, his favorite. Taking both, he smiled big at the man and instantly started to put it in his mouth. Maybe a trip to the infirmary wasn´t so bad after all.

Maria laughed at his expression and the forgotten pain. The little guy was so much like her it was scary and it was making her thinking about her brother again. Would there have been someone that would have cared for him like she was doing it for Mason? What kind of bruises would he have gotten? She didn´t even want to imagine it. Suddenly something appeared in front of her and ripped her away from her dark thoughts.

" I think you could use one, too", the doctor was holding a red lolly in his hand.

Maria tried to act like an adult; but if everything changed, one thing in her life wouldn´t; her love for candy. Snatching it, she gave the doctor a grateful smile. Putting the lolly in her mouth, she moaned when the strawberry flavor exploded on her taste buds. " See you next time".

The doctor chuckled at her words, even though he was sure that it wasn´t just a figure of speech with her. When she came to him the day before, they had talked and after what he could decipher from her personality, he would see a lot of her in the next few weeks. Add the fact that Rath was her Instructor and it was a pretty done deal. " Hopefully not too soon".

" You never know", waving at him, she took Mason´s hand and made her way outside. As soon as she closed the door behind her and turned around, she was so sure that the doctor would see her sooner than he probably thought. Quenching her sudden unease, she stared at the six chosen from the Copper Summit District.

TBC