CHAPTER 29: GO FOR BROKE (PART TWO)

"People of Cassidia, what fate shall behold the fallen?" Ari's words seemed to drip with acid, eating away at the hearts of Giroro's fans.

With his head driven into the sand by Agatha's heavy press, the Keronian corporal contemplated his fate. Would his heart's blood feed the golden sand? Or would his life be given back while his hopes for saving Natsumi were snuffed with the flames of defeat? The crowd, whose raving appetite for blood usually clouded their personal judgments, was torn amongst itself, fighting over the life of the defeated toad. The Giroro's honorable, but distasteful action had incited a literal riot within the stands, as audience members fought for the fate of this little rana.

A good half of the spectators wished for the soldier's immediate death by Agatha's hand. Their reasoning varied in complexity, with the simplest being that he had lost and that death was the gladiator's only exit. Others believed the Keronian was too cowardly at heart, or his race's weaknesses had finally begun to show. Still other, mainly female viewers took a more feminist viewpoint and raged against the misogynistic views of the misunderstood corporal. Death chants roared from their throats as they held their hands decisively over their hearts, urging their senator to side with them. Their unofficial ambassador was Drusus Pulorius, who murmured harsh words towards the squirming frog. Giroro had killed Claudius, one of Pulorius' best gladiators, and the hate for the red warrior glistened brightly in the elder's drooping eyes.

The other half of the Arena raised their voices with cries of, "mitte," begging for their hero to be spared a gruesome death. To them, he had fought honorably and it was a chivalrous act to have chosen to forfeit the contest to save the life of this young woman gladiator. However, most audience members with this perspective were either women or children, who found the crimson frog to be an adorable gentleman. They outstretched their palms towards their "impartial" host in an act of peace, hoping his righteous verdict would forgive Giroro's moment of weakness. Their hope was reiterated through Hadrian Bauxtius, who, fearing the public's response and having picked up on the underlying personal implications this gladiator seemed to have with his host's ancilla, urged the irritable politician to tread a lighter course of action.

With the crowd evenly split, it became obvious to Ari that he would be the deciding factor and he carefully mulled over his two options. Of course, killing the pesky toad would instantly end the nonsensical power struggle between them and quell his ancilla's irritating rebellion. He would get to bask in her despair as she bent once again to his will and use the event as a morbid reminder towards the next time she dared to act against him. Killing Giroro seemed like the best course of action, erasing his personal dilemmas while feeding the crowd's blood lust, and assuring Agatha's ascension to the top. Well…scratch that last part. The Argean was already destined to fight Ragnarök with this last victory. No loser had ever fought the Arena champion and Ari's decision would not alter this path. And yet, something nagged at the back of his mind, urging him to spare the pathetic frog.

"Cicero, what side is Fate on?" he curiously asked. Having an unbiased AI's opinion was sure to help along his choice.

Cicero's knees buckled as all the attention was diverted towards him. He quickly scoured his holopad for the answer, searching F.A.T.E's databank to review all her predetermined calculations, "Sh-she's not picking a side. She says the d-data change is too continuous for her to have a precise d-decision," he stuttered.

Ari scoffed, grasping the bridge of his flattened nose to pinch his anger, "Typical woman. They're so opinionated until the hard choices come along."

Quietly in the background, Natsumi scoffed.

"Do you have something to add?" Ari snapped as his head turned towards the delinquent girl.

Silence past as Natsumi built the courage to retaliate. To refrain from speaking and wittingly anger the overgrown reptile was one thing, but to openly voice her hatred for him and throw herself into the subsequent line of fire was something that took slightly more forethought. The first time she opened her mouth, nothing came out. Her chest felt so heavy, Ari's dominance compressing her lungs and forcing the temperamental woman back into silent servitude.

"That's what I thought," Ari scoffed, resuming his in-depth contemplation.

"You should spare him, Senator," Hadrian creakily begged, "Think of the scandals his death could arise," With these past few days, it had come to the old Galean's attention that something disreputable was happening between his powerful host and that red Keronian. The anger that radiated from Ari upon sight of the little warrior and the way the gladiator had responded with the brutal act Ari had demonstrated upon his ancilla had almost given it away. Almost.

He had accurately discerned that the Red Defender, or whatever the warrior was calling himself, and Ari's newly obtained ancilla were lovers. However, the circumstances he believed surrounded Giroro's presence within the Arena tournament were much darker and more deceptive than they actually were. He thought that the Keronian had threatened to go public with a sob story about how his love was taken away from him by an evil politician, and to silence him Ari had had him arrested and sentenced to fight in the Arena until death. If he was to be killed now and somehow his story got out it could spur an anti-Vallokius campaign trail or even worse, an abolitionist uprising. Bauxtius enjoyed the interest he was receiving from the senator too much to allow the rash Galean's career to be spoiled with a hasty clean-up job.

"Don't listen to him, Senator. He's gone senile. You should kill the Keronian. He's caused too much trouble for you," Drusus cut in. Unlike his rival, Pulorius hadn't caught on to the connection between Natsumi and Giroro, believing the "scandals" Hadrian talked about were signs of his deteriorating old mind, a sign he believed would prove to Ari that he was more deserving of the politician's money and attention than Bauxtius. It was a vicious battle between the two elders over which would receive Ari's personal investment. Before, he had been giving patronage to Pulorius in order to pay for Claudius' training, but since his death the two men had been ruthlessly trying to one-up the other in order to secure the senator's next big investment.

"You're the one that's gone senile! You're too rash. The people love him!" Hadrian croaked.

"Not anymore. He's just like Claudius. They expect too much out of a gladiator to see them fail. The people want blood."

"No, you just want revenge."

"Shut up both of you!" Ari yelled. His companions constant bickering had gotten the better of his short temper, and the two elders quickly silenced themselves at their host's decree.

Why was he hesitating? Wouldn't it be easier to kill Giroro and let his ancilla suffer than deal with another random variable that had nearly escaped his control? The possibility of a scandal was not the reason Ari was hesitant. He had dealt with the underhandedness of the media in the past. When he was just beginning his career as a politician, the press had accused him of war crimes because of the horrid methods he had used to "extract information" from enemy prisoners of war during his service in the Galean army in an effort to derail his campaign. It was all garbage. Everything he had done was in service of his military, and was completely legal. If for some unforeseen reason the pesky frog did decide to go to the press and pitch them some soap opera he would be dealing with a similar situation of legality, which of course he would win easily. So, scandals were not the reason for his indecisiveness.

"You're a coward if you kill him now," the words finally spilt from Natsumi—words that sent the already agitated Ari over the edge.

As he turned to meet the defiant woman, his pupils constricted into a thin vertical slit and his blackened sclera gleamed with fury. Who did this girl think she was to imply that he was cowardly? To be a coward was to be weak, and Ari abhorred weakness. In fact, the sheer sight of anything that could be considered frail sent shivers down his spine. The only reason he put up with Cicero was because he was so full of cowardice that it was actually humorous to watch most of the time. But how dare she call him weak. Was she trying to taunt him into sparing her love? Or did she really just have a death wish?

"Go on…" Ari droned, struggling to keep a composed façade. He had already escaped the eye of the camera once when he assaulted his slave, surely he would not be so lucky again.

Natsumi's amber orbs stared daggers back at her captor and the electricity sparked through the air, "If you kill him now, it'll be the easiest way to get out of your fight. Surely you're not afraid he'll kill you, because it would look rather weak of you to chicken out."

Chicken? What was a chicken? Wasn't it that feathery flightless creature that woke people up in the mornings on Pekopon? While the idiom escaped Ari's immediate understanding, he discerned from the tone of her voice that to be a "chicken" was not something that was wished for, and that alone irked him further. In truth, the reason Ari hadn't made his decision yet was because part of him really wanted to fight Giroro. It would be a nice change from enduring ignorant politics and sycophantic parasites. However, choosing to spare the Keronian only to have to be bested when they fought would be a major setback that the Galean didn't necessarily want to chance. He didn't want to lose his new ancilla and the large investment he had put into acquiring her, but he wasn't about to break his word either. Ari was a lot of things, but a hypocrite wasn't one of them.


Back on the sand, Giroro's mind had begun to drift into towards the decision that had gotten him in this predicament in the first place—why he hadn't killed Agatha. Was it because she was a civilian? No, he had killed Claudius despite his innocence. Innocent, what did that word even mean? In all reality, neither Agatha nor Claudius was truly innocent. They had both killed countless before in the Arena either for money or sport. What made them any different than the Grall and Hayg he had slaughtered without a moment's hesitation? Then again, both of those aliens were convicted felons, sentenced to fight until their death in the Arena. He knew why he had hesitated when killing Claudius; because like him the gentle giant was fighting for love—a dream Giroro had doused when he drove his saber through the Galean's heart. "Ironic," he thought, lying cloddishly on the sand, for now his enemy had a chance to extinguish his goal as swiftly as he had Claudius'.

He sighed and turned the unanswered question over in his mind again; why hadn't he killed Agatha? It wasn't because she was a woman, like the wrathful Argean (and half the female audience) thought as she dug her boot into his head, awaiting the senator's decision. Was it her reason for fighting? Her reason was arrogant and prideful. She fought for the love of fighting, for the joy of blood and all the attention that followed. For that reason alone Giroro should have had no problem taking this woman's life, and yet his hand had abstained.

He had killed so many people in his career as a soldier of Keron that he had become desensitized to blood and war all together. He had seen his brethren blown to pieces beside him and he had ruthlessly slaughtered enemy forces without thought. He was ordered to, and so he did. He was blissfully brainwashed into thinking the enemy were evil, godless beings that deserved death. However, he wasn't being ordered to kill now. Giroro was apart from his platoon, far from his home, and the only one who told him what actions to make was himself. It was strange feeling, and one he wasn't sure he was completely comfortable with. After all, the only difference between a soldier and a murderer is that one is reinforced by the State.

So why hadn't he killed Agatha? Because Natsumi was there.

Sure, he had protected her against threats in the past, but they had been different. In those instances, his true enemy had been the one he was fighting. The enemy here was watching him fight with maniacal enthusiasm, vehemently withholding the freedom of Giroro's beloved. He fought not by his government's decree and Natsumi had no wish for either of them to be in this situation. He had been fighting all for the sake reaching of his true enemy…the one who had given him the terrible choice to kill or be killed.

He had chosen this terrible path, but he hadn't wanted it. Giroro had no wish for Natsumi to think of him as a cold-blooded killer. His desire was to protect her, but the only person he should have had to kill was the one holding her captive. Like a master puppeteer, Ari controlled the strings of fortune and chance, bending people to his will. And now Giroro bent—his life completely in his enemy's hand.

As Ari stood and walked to the front of his box, the crowd grew eerily silent and those fighting quickly relinquished their struggle to stretch their heads towards their senator's words. The decision had been made. He cleared his throat, and the microphone screeched under his sultry voice. The camera zoomed on the handsome Galean's features and an air of yearning swooned over the mass of young female spectators. It was amazing really, Ari was pushing 40 and yet he could still make school-aged girls blush and giggle like feverish hyenas.

"I, Senator Ari Vallokius, have decided the fate of this fallen gladiator," Ari started, gathering the attention of his citizens as they hung on his words, "The Red Defender," the tension was so thick it was hard to breath, and the air was still as stone. Even the babies had stopped crying to listen to the indecipherable words of their senator, their large eyes widened as they cooed at the sublime expressions captivating their parent's faces. Jeroro's grip had tightened on his cane, his whitened knuckles trembling with both rage and suspense. It was unforgivable the actions Giroro had taken, and the old frog would make sure to assert his discrepancy with the corporal's beliefs when he saw him again…if he saw him again. Leather creaked as Agatha wielded her busted baton, and Giroro slowly groaned as she dug her metal heel into the side of his swollen face. "…shall live."


Finally, the entire chapter is completed. This is part 2/2 for the "Go For Broke" OC Prize chapter, and the only reason it's not called Ch 28: Part 2 is because I didn't feel like all my chapters being one behind FanFiction's numbering system. So, to get the full effect of this chapter, read part 1 and 2 back to back. It was extremely long and I basically took 5 pages to explain action consisting of five minutes. XD Lawl. As always, review! :)