Setting: Coliseum

"Fight!" Jasper shouted and in a flash, Tigress swiftly moved in on the two. Remus ran toward her as well to cut her off then swung his blade to land the first strike, but she blocked it with her spear. Her reflexes were faster than Remus could predict and she elbowed him in the gut, punched him hard in the face, then grabbed him by his shirt and threw him behind her back before running over to Silver.

"Whoa!" Silver said before shooting at her, but she tiptoed around each shot and would've closed the distance if Silver didn't use Gravity to jump high in the air at the right moment.

Back on his feet, Remus used this moment to attack from behind, but Tigress' senses were sharp and she already felt his presence. Silver saw that she was ready to retaliate and increased his gravity to send himself plummeting to her with Ceasefire in escrima mode. The two boys were about to pull off their pincer maneuver, but Tigress split her weapon in half and used both halves to block the sword and escrima sticks at the same time. She moved her weapons slightly, using the momentum from their attack to move them forward. Remus was forced to take a step forward and Silver had no choice but to land on the ground. In that moment, Tigress jumped, attacking them simultaneously, kicking Silver in the jaw and hitting Remus in the back of the head with the staff half of the spear. Silver fell to the ground along with Remus and he grabbed his jaw to make sure it wasn't dislocated. He saw that Tigress wasn't letting up as she rushed to them again with her weapon back to normal. She jumped and planned to run through them with her spear.

"Remus!" Silver shouted and his friend saw what was about to happen and teleported both of them away from impalement. Tigress looked around and didn't see them on the ground, she quickly looked above, but only saw a blue smoke, the next thing she knew, she felt a pair of hands on her back. They were ready to use Cirque du Ciel.

Silver used Gravity to lighten Tigress' body and he quickly threw her in the air, his and Remus' turf. Remus teleported above her ready to attack, but his attack was met with the blade of her spear. The two began a midair battle that had no winner and they continued to clash until Silver jumped in and hit her in the back with a surprise headbutt. His intervention gave Remus the opportunity to hit her while her guard was down. He landed a good slash, but Tigress changed the form of her weapon again, this time, it transformed into a three section spear that allowed her to fend off both her adversaries at the same time.

The aerial dogfight continued for a while and the female warrior was able to parry every attempt they made to attack her. Every time Tigress was about to descend, Silver would threw her into the air with little gravity affecting her and when he needed some more air time, Remus would teleport beneath him and Silver would use the flat side of his sword as a foothold to jump up and continue his attack. They did this again and were about to fight her on both sides until Tigress grew tired of this repetitive dance.

With her partisan in its regular form, she concentrated while her opponents got closer and closer, then she suddenly split into two versions of herself, a completely orange one that clashed with Remus and an entirely black one that clashed with Silver. Their confusion allowed the Tigress Twins a chance to change the tide of battle, the black half grabbed Silver while he was still under the effect of Gravity and tossed him back down to the coliseum floor then landed on top of him. His aura protected him from any fatal injuries, but that didn't stop the immense pain he felt as he rolled on the ground in pain and the black half was about to attack while he was down. Remus teleported to so save his friend, but the orange half hitched a ride by grabbing onto his shirt.

Remus teleported between Silver and his opponent, he stood with his back to the black half so it would attack its orange companion with its spear. The black half halted her assault to avoid friendly fire. Remus teleported again, without the hitchhiker, but only teleported a few inches away so he was facing them. He changed his sword to a railgun and fired an energy pulse that hit and knocked them both away. Silver finally got up and tightened his grip on his escrima sticks. The crowd cheered against them the whole time, but with this level of battle, the warriors tuned it out.

"There you have it folks, Tigress' unrivaled semblance, Gemini!" Jasper shouted over the microphone and the fans went wild.

Setting: Violet's Suite

Violet watched as her boys were having difficulty against this one opponent now two. She was worried, this person was strong, maybe too strong for Remus and Silver to defeat, even together.

Setting: Zelts' Cell

Zelts was alone in a cell and he was standing up from anxiety. He didn't know how this fight was going to end and the mercy rule wasn't allowed in top tier battles. The only one who ever defied that rule was himself. He prayed that if his old friend would do the same.

Setting: Coliseum

The Tigress Twins got up then moved in sync as they moved to their opponents. Silver thought the best move was to divide and conquer so he and Remus took their respective opponents. Silver changed one escrima stick back to a gun then charged for the black half. Remus sprinted toward the orange half. The black Tigress lunged her spear at Silver, but he deflected it with the escrima stick then tried to shoot her with the gun. The twin saw this ploy and immediately ducked before he fired then changed her weapon to a five-section spear and fought him up close, but Silver kept a good distance so he could stay out of the attack range of her weapon while close enough to fire his gun at close range. The orange Tigress did its best to keep an eye on Remus, who was running around her at high speeds, but she kept track of where he was. He ran straight for her and slammed his blade against her spear, keeping her ground, but the force pushed her back several feet. She reached for the section of the spear that held the spearhead and disconnected it, giving her a free arm to attack. Her dual handed attacks fended off Remus's high speed offense.

The black half had Silver cornered. The five-section spear knocked the gun out of his hand than swept his legs to knock him down. It was about to deliver a killing blow by stabbing him in the heart. Meanwhile, Remus was holding his own as his momentum was increasing, overwhelming the orange half in close combat, so she decided to jump back, but Remus was quick and slashed her ankle, causing it to falter and fall. The same pain was felt by the black half as it staggered. Silver took complete advantage of this and started to hit the twin on her shoulder and sides with his escrima stick. The pain was also felt by the other one and the boys came up with the same conclusion.

"They share the same pain,"

Remus and Silver learned of the semblance's weakness, but were unable to utilize it to their advantage. The Tigress Twins turned into energy and came together between Remus and Silver, becoming the original Tigress again, looking as serious as ever. The duo ran to take her out once and for all. They fought her off together, but she remained untouched by their attacks and in the midst of the fight, she detached one of the sections of the partisan and planted each one into the ground. She circled around them and planted all five sections around the two until all she had left was the spearhead. The sections in the ground appeared hollow, nothing inside them, pretty harmless, but Tigress did this for a reason. She kept fighting them hand to hand to distract them from her earlier action then she jumped off of Silver and was in the air, high enough to get out of range.

With her spearhead in hand, Tigress pressed her thumb onto the middle area of the spearhead and it made a noise like a device. The hollow inside of the planted sections began to glow and the duo were too focused on Tigress to notice before it was too late. The sections shot small cannon fire that hit them from all directions and Tigress did this a second time for good measure, leaving a smoke from cannon fire everywhere. Smoke from the attack covered the duo, but Tigress already knew as she landed a few feet away that the battle was over. Her opponents were defeated, Remus was on the ground, knocked out and covered in soot with Silver beneath him still conscious, but his aura broken and unable to continue the fight.

"Your winner, Tigress!" Jasper shouted happily and the crowd cheered for her as she approached her defeated foes.

Silver looked at Remus, who was unconscious. "Dammit, why did you have to protect me? We were both going down anyway?" Silver was more upset with himself than Remus. His friend made a last ditch effort to protect him by taking more than his share of the blast. Silver jerked his head up and saw Tigress standing above them. She was silent as she looked at him and he didn't know if they were supposed to talk or something. The crowd was cheering for her to kill them and she was going to. Tigress was gathering the sections of her spear before delivering the finishing blow.

Setting: Violet's Suite

The door to her room was broken, looking like it was kicked from the inside, and the several guards standing outside her door were incapacitated. She was running out of the small hotel like building to save her boys.

Setting: Zelts' Cell

Zelts was on his knees, still praying that Lily wouldn't do it. He hoped the kind girl he met here long ago was still in there.

Setting: Coliseum

As she gathered the last of her weapon, Silver contemplated his would-be demise. He dodged death more times than he can count and he never thought of a proper one for himself. "Guess I'm not going to make it this time," he said in a hoarse tone that only he and Tigress could hear but she ignored his final words as she picked up the third section. Silver tilted his head to look at Remus. "Sorry Remus, I know you wanted to prove you're the strongest for whatever reason, but if you asked me, I'd say you leveled up a lot being here." Tigress reattached the fourth section.

"Sorry Vi, I know you probably wanted the honor of killing us for getting involved in this stupid thing." He chuckled a little as Tigress reattached the final section. She aimed her weapon at Silver's heart. He closed his eyes as he said his final words.

"Sorry Zelts, looks like we couldn't bring you back home." He waited for death, but her chilling grasp never came.

"What did you say?"

Silver opened his eyes to see the spearhead an inch away from his face. Tigress looked at him like he spoke a foreign language she couldn't understand.

"What do you know about Zelts?" she asked in a demanding tone. The crowd was beginning to wonder why the killing was taking so long.

"What's it to you?" he asked and kind of regretted using that tone seeing as how she's holding a weapon in his face.

"He was the former champion in Never-End before he died in battle and... someone special to me," she said that last part with feeling.

"Oh, he's our friend and he's not dead."

"Don't lie! We all know what happened. There's no way he could've survived." She was getting frustrated with his words and her spearhead was a little closer than Silver would've liked.

"What can I say, the guy is hard to kill. And I'm not lying. Zelts is alive and he's here, fighting in the games. We're here to knock some sense into him and bring him back home. We were suppose to fight him if we beat you, but as you can see, that won't be happening."

Tigress, no, Lily didn't know what to think at first but came to a conclusion. "I-if he is alive and he's here... they're his friends and they've come for him. But..." she was lost in thought trying to figure out what to do.

The crowd was beginning to turn from the silence and Jasper wasn't happy. He intended to silence those two by using Tigress. He wanted Zelts' new friends to be slain by his old flame for his own morbid inside joke, but that plan seems to be having trouble coming to fruition. He grabbed his microphone.

"Tigress, kill them already!" he shouted sounding more angry and unraveled than he wanted and it showed.

Lily furrowed her brow when she looked up at Jasper's office/viewing box then looked at Silver. "If Zelts is alive, they are my best chance at finding him," she thought as she stabbed her spear into the ground and folded her arms as an act of defiance.

The crowd was upset with a mercy call in a top tier match, but Jasper was furious. No one has ever snuffed him like this since Zelts when he refused to kill a single soul. Remus and Silver were constantly sparing foes, Tigress' outright disrespect, it all reminded him of Zelts who grew more favor than anyone in Never-End, including the master of Never-End himself and it made his blood boil. In his enraged thoughts, Jasper pulled an evil smile, he thought of the best way to take revenge on Zelts.

"Very well Tigress, we'll respect your decision. Take them all to the dungeon," Jasper ordered. Silver relaxed now that he cheated death again, but knew he and Remus weren't out of it yet.

Absinthe went down there with several armed escorts to guide them all down to the dungeon with the other contestants. With Absinthe there, they had no choice, but to go to the dungeons. In the audience was Violet, standing by the entryway and donning a mask to hide herself in the crowd. She knew where they were going, but she was going to find someone else.

Setting: Dungeon

Now that Remus and Silver lost and Tigress failed to kill them on his behalf, Jasper saw no further use for them and needed a new way to dispose of them. Giving them a hotel room to losers and people you want to kill didn't seem lucrative to him, so he sent them to the cells all the other participants were in. Silver was sitting in a cell with Remus slumped over the wall until he finally woke up.

"Hey buddy, feeling better?" Silver asked jokingly, but relieved he was alright.

"Did we win?" Remus asked stretching his arms.

Silver shook his head no and the boy lightly slammed his fist into the ground. "Man! I wanted to win so bad!" he said a little frustrated.

Silver arched his eyebrow. "To get to Zelts, right?"

"Hm? Oh y-yeah, that too." Silver knew Remus liked fighting the most out of VRSZ, but this might be a problem.

"You said you know Zelts, talk," a voice said and they didn't see who it was. The cell adjacent to theirs was a cell occupied by Tigress. She was standing near the cell doors as she spoke.

"Is that anyway to people you just beat up? We were told by Jasper that Zelts came here to redeem himself in battle." Silver countered.

"And you believed Jasper?" she said in a tone that Silver didn't like. Tigress was treating him like a moron.

"Hey, I didn't know he was lying at the time, we just met. Besides, we followed Zelts here, how were we supposed to know about this place?"

"The massive horde of Grimm driven here by the massive negativity of the prisoners wasn't a sign?" she said sarcastically.

"...You know what, I really don't like you." Silver's insult didn't faze the girl one bit.

Setting: Zelts's Cell

Zelts sat in his cell eyes closed. He was relieved to know Lily spared his friends, but showing mercy in top tier matches was not allowed and Jasper allowed it, meaning he has something nefarious planned for them. The question was what.

Setting: Never-End Cavern

Violet walked along with the people as she searched for Zelts. She took note of the small canteens made for people to eat, drinks, and other recreations while they waited for battles. She also noticed that the walls of the underground cavern were carved, they weren't natural, likely carved by Jasper to make more room. Violet looked around her and above, she was wondering how stable and safe this whole place was.

"A good rumble will probably bring this whole place down,"

She kept moving to remove suspicion. She couldn't locate Zelts anywhere. "Wherever he is, they're keeping him well hidden," she thought as she vanished into the crowd.

Setting: Violet's Suite

Absinthe stood in front of the room Violet occupied to see men defeated and his apprentice gone. His face was neither angry or upset, just blank. He walked down the hallway to try and find his escapee.

Setting: Dungeon

"Tigress, can I ask you something?" Remus said breaking the silence that she and Silver created from their previous conversation.

"What is it?" she said with little venom in her voice. Based on her talk with Silver she wasn't looking for another verbal dispute from the other one. But, this is Remus.

"Can I fight you again?" he asked and the other two wore bewildered looks.

"Huh?" She had no other words to say to his request.

"Really? This is what you want to ask? Do you think of anything else?" Silver said not amused by his friend's one track mind.

"I think of other things like video games, food, you guys, questions like 'Can you daydream at night?' or 'Does money grow on trees?, I think it does."

Tigress was holding back a small grin from hearing him chatter.

"Money doesn't grow on trees genius," Silver said getting carried away by Remus's silliness. His involvement in Remus' antics made it funnier for her.

"If money doesn't grow on trees, then why do banks have branches?" he said a little snarky. Tigress put her hand on her mouth to suppress her laughter, but she was about to break.

"...You truly are a freaking moron," Silver said and that last comment was her limit.

Tigress laughed, she couldn't hold it in anymore and it not only surprised Remus and Silver, but the other residents of the dungeon stirred from their queen's amusement. "You two are ridiculous," she said wiping a tear away. Any animosity she had washed away just like that when Remus joined in the conversation with his usual self. "If you want, we could fight again some other time," she said to humor the boy but he took it as a promise.

"...Hey," Silver said trying to speak to her in a less hostile tone. "What's your relationship with Zelts?"

Tigress was hesitant, but answered anyway. "He taught me how to fight and how to be kind even to my opponents. He was my mentor and...friend." She was hesitating because she didn't know how to address her status with Zelts.

"He did a helluva job on the first one, but not too sure about the second," Silver commented and she didn't mind.

"When I heard he died, I lost hope in the world, sorry about earlier," she apologized and Silver asked another question, one he wanted to ask Zelts himself, but thought she was the next best person to ask.

"What happened here? What is his real connection to this place?" Unbeknownst to them, Violet found her boys, she stood on the other side of the dungeon's wall, pretending to mind her own business as she eavesdropped. Tigress began telling them the tale of Zelts and Never-End.

"Zelts has been a prisoner here for six years. He's been fighting here ever since he was twelve. He told me when he first came here, he was a short, scrawny little thing that no one imagined would last a fight. Six years later, he's everyone's favorite. He survived longer than anyone in the dark history of Never-End and became famous, but he also became infamous for his inability to protect those who fought by his side. No matter how hard he fought or how hard he tried, they never survived and it haunted Zelts every day. Despite it all, he kept dreaming about being free, to be his own person under the big blue sky, he kept helping and befriending new prisoners, including me, I came when he was seventeen and made me what I am today, the fighter with the second longest lifespan in Never-End. He even gave me my name," she said the last part with flushed cheeks.

"Tigress?" Silver asked and she shook her head.

"Lily," she said fondly.

"Unfortunately, prolonging your life here isn't great either. Zelts was gaining favor with everyone, contestant and viewer , and it meant he had power, something Jasper didn't like. Even though Zelts made Never-End popular, he'd rather have Zelts dead than be a bigger influence than him, so he orchestrated a fight for Zelts, one that if he won, he would get his freedom. He accepted and waited for his opponent but... there was something he didn't know. Absinthe found a fighter for Zelts, or more like he found Absinthe, a person willingly entered Never-End for the sake of fighting and killing, and that person... that monster was going to fight Zelts."

"The fight was one-sided the entire time. Zelts was losing and from the sound of it, he was going to die. I was in my cell and I don't know what happened, but I felt a huge explosion then I heard Jasper announce that Zelts died. My heart was broken that day and I shut myself off from everyone, just fighting as a means to an end, until you guys came along and told me Zelts is actually alive."

Lily ended her tale. Violet felt satisfied knowing a large portion of the truth and it was almost identical to what Zelts told her before and that made her happy. She left because she stayed in one place for too long and needed to keep searching for her other teammate.

"I guess he made it out somehow, without Jasper knowing too," Silver deduced. "Now the question is, what does Jasper plan to do with him?" Silver asked. Lily didn't know, Remus didn't know, and Silver didn't know either.

Instead of figuring it out, Silver thought of something else. "Maybe we should try to escape now."

Lily laughed at his idea. "Good luck with that. Jasper has his stooges keeping a sharp eye on everything that happens here. When one of them sees you, the whole place will know and drag you back here or worse. I don't know what worse could be and I don't want to imagine it."

"If worse come to worse, they'll capture us again, put us back in the games, feed us to the Grimm outside, and who knows, the people here will use this opportunity to have their with your tight dark body," Silver added staring at the ceiling.

"How dare you!" Lily said offended.

"I was talking about Remus," Silver said and Remus looked in Silver's direction upon hearing his own name.

"Hm? Did you say something?"

Their conversation was interrupted when several guards opened their doors.

"To the coliseum," one of them said.

Whatever Jasper had planned it was starting now.

Setting: Zelts' Cell

Absinthe was on the other side of Zelts' cell as he stared at the young warrior before opening the door. Zelts looked up when he heard the screeching of the door and saw the man who took him from his original family. Zelts' anger flared, but he kept it under control, fighting Absinthe won't come without consequence.

"He wants to see you," the hunter said as he picked up the Wings of Icarus and gave it to its owner.

Setting: Jasper's Office

Absinthe took Zelts to Jasper's office where the man sat at his desk with a triumphant smile on his face. His smug look annoyed Zelts to no end. Jasper asked him to sit, but Zelts defied him and remained standing. Jasper let him be in order to speak.

"Your friends did poorly against Tigress, such a shame, I liked them to-"

"Let them go," Zelts interrupted with his demand. "They have nothing to do with this place. You already have me, what more do you want?"

"I'd like to have everything, but we can't always get what we want so we make do with what we have," Jasper said and Zelts knew what he had to do if he wanted something from Jasper, he had to sell his soul to the devil.

"What would I have to give for you to let them go?" he asked, preparing to sacrifice himself for his friends and Jasper smiled. Absinthe was still in the room, waiting by the door to escort Zelts. He already knew what was going to happen, it was all foreseen by Jasper and Zelts was in the palm of his hand.

Jasper cackled, everything was going the way he wanted so he went right to the point. "If you want me to set them free, then you have to do only one thing. Win the next battle, I don't care about killing or mercy, don't care how you do it, all you have to do is make sure you come out victorious."

Zelts furrowed his brow at the simplicity of this deal. "My next opponent is Lily, so your game is for me to choose between friends? Remus and Silver or Lily, a game to see who I value more?" Zelts wasn't amused by Jasper's ploy on wagering lives.

"It's a little more than that my young friend, see, whoever wins faces the champion, Chrome."

Hearing his name sent a chill down Zelts's spine. The fear was still there, deep in his heart.

"If you lose than the winner of that match will face him in the final fight. Are you sure you can subject her to that same experience?" Jasper asked rhetorically. Zelts' silence was all he needed as confirmation.

"Remember, if you don't win, someone else will fight Chrome and most likely die in the process. You are the only one here who can last the longest against him, before dying that is. Do you want someone you care for to suffer knowing you had the power to prevent it?"

Zelts didn't answer. He left the room without permission, but Jasper smiled. He knew Zelts was going to do anything to win against Lily. However, Jasper left out something important about his battle.

Setting: Coliseum

The arena was packed with masked spectators that were waiting restlessly for the next fight. Sitting in the crowd was Violet still in disguise. She figured if she was going to help either of her boys, it would best to be where they were. Her idea was probably too sound as she saw who entered the ring.

Remus and Silver on one side, Lily standing on the other, and walking down the hall leading to the arena was Zelts. No one here knew about the spectacular battle that was going to unfold.

Next Chapter Title:

Team VRSZ Volume Two Chapter 26: VRSZ Zelts, Fight the Knight

Additional Information

Lily's semblance is Gemini. It splits her body into two halves, one completely orange and another completely black. They can fight independently or fight together. The are just as strong as Lily in her original form and coupled with her versatile weapon makes it one of the more powerful semblances. The only weakness is that they are twins that share the same pain. Injuring one injures the other.

Lily's weapon is named Flying Eagle, the name the Indian chief gave Peter Pan. It is a weapon with more forms than most and is very difficult to master. The sections on the partisan are hollow except for a piece of dust inside each of them. They are connected and can disconnect through the wielders aura.

Lily and Zelts got their weapons from Jasper. He has his men buy, steal, and search for weapons and armor then bring them to Never-End for the prisoners to fight over. Zelts' shield was originally owned by the legendary huntsman Sterling talked about. He died in the desert and Jasper's goons miraculously found it in the desert. Lily's weapon was just a rare find as well.