Hello to everyone reading this story. Here is the next chapter. This is a lead up to the next chapter that I'm working on for this story.

Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I don't own anything Arc-V related.

Chapter 36:

Another month passed with the same goings on. Iggy continued to harass Celina into being with him. The academy continued with their harsh training and Yuri continued his ongoing rivalry with Iggy as well as being defiant towards most of the teachers and the Juvenile Officers.

"I dare you to say that again," Yuri challenged Arlo as they fought each other outside the rec room.

"Sure. Celina is mine. At least she will be soon," Arlo sneered.

"I wouldn't go out with you if you were the last person on earth," Celina growled at the Juvenile Officer.

The fight continued as the rest of Yuri's friends watched from a safe distance. This had been going on now for fifteen minutes with neither person backing down. Celina stood behind Yuri who was facing Arlo whose back was too the rec room door. The door was closed but everyone was sure the fight could be heard from in there. Soon the Professor would probably come and deal with it.

It wasn't long before Arlo had Yuri pinned to the door with a hand around his throat. Yuri fought to remove the hand but it tightened. He pressed his back firmly to the door and brought his legs up to kick Arlo off him. It worked. Arlo stumbled back and Yuri found himself able to breathe again.

Arlo took a swing at Yuri's face but he dodged. The he landed a kick to his opponent's stomach. Soon both boys were locked in combat. They both had a hand around the other's throat, they also aimed punches at the other and were also trying to kick each other too.

All of a sudden Yuri's friends started interfering. Yuya and Gong stayed in front of Celina to protect her. Shay and Kite were trying to restrain Iggy. Dennis and Moon Shadow were trying to restrain Yuri with Sora crying out for everyone to calm down. Sylvio tried to pull Sora away from the area with him. He was tired of being punished especially over stupid things such as this.

"What is going on here?" Professor Akaba demanded as he finally found the source of the noise.

"Cadet Sakio needed to be reminded of his place again as he keeps forgetting it. He thinks he has a say in things around here," Arlo spat out.

"Officer Arlo keeps harassing one of my friends. I was simply assisting her. She wants to be left alone," Yuri countered.

Arlo was about to lunge at Yuri again but Aster and a few other Juvenile Officers with the Professor restrained him. Kite and Shay had since backed off not wanting to get in trouble for fighting with a Juvenile Officer.

"That's enough," Akaba shouted, "Punishments for all involved."

"Pick up the pace," Barrett yelled as Yuya and the others ran around the obstacle course for what seemed like the hundredth time but was probably only the thirty-fifth.

They had gotten into trouble again. This time all they did was witness Yuri and Iggy fighting over Celina just outside the rec room. The fight had gotten physical and it took not only Yuri's friends to pull them off each other but several Juvenile Officers as well.

"I don't know why we have to run," Sylvio complained. "We didn't start the fight. We didn't even join it. The only time any of us got involved was when we tried to pull them apart."

"But we witnessed the fight," Shay voiced, "and according to the Professor that makes us involved."

"We are also Yuri's friends," Kite added in. "We should have pulled Yuri and Celina away from the area when we saw Iggy approach them."

"At least Iggy got in trouble too," Yuya chimed in.

"Humph! Cleaning duty," Sylvio grumbled. "Let's see two weeks of cleaning duty for Juvenile Officer Iggy Arlo vs three weeks of running seventy laps with Barrett's harsh comments…"

"Sylvio Shut up," Shay interrupted.

"I'd rather take three weeks of running then two weeks of cleaning bathrooms and dishes and floors," Dennis added his two cents.

The conversation ended there. The rest of the laps were done in silence. Sylvio was angry at being punished for not doing anything while Yuri and Iggy had been fighting. He was angry that the rest of the group was willing to put up with the punishment even though they also did nothing wrong. He was angry at being in this stupid place and he was angry that he couldn't get out of here.

"I won't tolerate this. I shouldn't have to run laps. I did nothing wrong. Yuri was the one who fought with the stupid Juvenile Officer. He and Arlo should be running laps. Not the rest of us. I think it's time we had a talk Yuri," Sylvio muttered to himself as he continued running with the others.

After they finished their laps they joined the rest of the academy students for Supper. They sat at their usual table in silence for a while until Yuri addressed Sylvio.

"Look your mad I get it. But let's get something straight here. You could have left the group at any time during that fight but you stayed. I was punished for the fight you were punished for staying and watching it. Next time leave the area if you don't want to get into trouble."

"I'm mad yes but not at you." Sylvio told him after he'd had some time to himself to calm down. "I'm mad at the Professor and at this stupid academy. Every little thing we do isn't enough for this place. We need to be their perfect little soldiers, we have to obey their stupid little rules all the time. We can't even see our family until we graduate. Yet you all seem to be taking being captive here quiet well."

"You're wrong," Kite spoke out angrily.

"We all want to get out of here," Shay added. "But we can't escape its impossible."

"The Juvenile Officers patrol everywhere after lights out and during the day we have to be in class or at our military training with Barrett. All other times the instructors are constantly watching us carefully where ever we go," Sora reminded Sylvio.

"There has to be a way out of here. We can't afford to wait to graduate. We lost three of us from our group alone and I've heard rumors that another two cadets have recently died," Sylvio stated emotionally getting worked up again.

"Well let the rest of us know when you find a way out. We'll be happy to try," Kite said a little angry himself.

The whole table fell silent. It was not often Kite got angry. He was usually a calm collected and rational person. But today he seemed to have lost all patience with Sylvio.

"Kite that's not like you," Shay commented.

"I'm sick and tired of listening to Sylvio complain about being here if he wants to get out of here he needs to try instead of waiting for someone else to do it for him. I would love to get home and see my family as well as my girlfriend right now but that's not an option at the moment so shut up and stop complaining. We all want out of here," Kite ranted.

Again the whole table went silent. They were shocked. Kite had, for the first time since they had met him, gone off on a rant. A small one but a rant none the less. Even Sylvio was shocked. As everyone sat in silence at Kite's loss of temper no one noticed Yuri staring at the table deep in thought. No one but Celina who turned her attention from Kite to Yuri before frowning at the look in her boyfriend's eyes.

"Yuri," She cautiously said

"We're falling apart," Yuri muttered. "We used to be so close like a family. Now look at us. We're fighting and complaining and losing our tempers with each other."

"We're all scared," Shay expressed. "The punishments are numerous and there's stupid reasons for being punished. No one can survive of off these food scraps with the amount of training we have to do here and on top of all that people are dying."

"Who wouldn't be scared?" Dennis voiced out hugging Sora close as the boy was the most scared out of the group.

"We can't keep going like this," Yuri continued in a soft low voice.

"What can we do though?" Celina wondered.

"I don't know," Yuri admitted sadly. "I just don't know."

"We'll think of something," Yuya stated in as hopeful a voice as he could muster.

No one noticed Moon Shadow at the far end of the table. He sat still and silent listening to the conversation going on. His arms were crossed and his eyes were closed. He was thinking of ways to escape this building as well as ways to survive until Dr. Faker could take the academy down. What could they do?

There you go another chapter. Another fight with Iggy as landed Yuri and his friends in trouble again. this time Iggy is also punished. I think the Professor is getting really annoyed. Sylvio is becoming less and less of a team player. Kite got mad. wow. What will happen next? Keep reading to find out. Here's a little hint in the next chapter there will be a death. I'll let you guess who's though. See you all next time.