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Chapter 11: Unleashed
Yet again I sat in the study wearing that same black suit I'd donned so often for the funeral of a teammate. I boiled, I had never been so angry in my life. I had managed to pinpoint the exact Skaarj that killed Arielle and demanded a one on one death match from the head office, but they refused. "Dominator" as he called himself also refused to accept my challenge, stating that a one on one match would not be worth his trouble. I left the study and went to my dorm. I removed my suit and turned on my computer, and after several hours of surfing the internet and sneaking into some databases I shouldn't have been in, I found some much needed information on that monster. Dominator's birth name on his home world was Ankh'Tur. After the Skaarj wars he had brought his family to a human-run planet reserve that acted as a safe haven for Skaarj that wished to leave their old lives behind, but knew they would not be allowed to live on their home world for that. He had four wives and fifteen children… and I knew exactly where they were.

I marched into the head office, as I did every day, and pleaded my case for a one on one match against Dominator, and again I was turned down.
"You can't let this get so personal, Jordan." One of the promoters told me, little did he know that Dominator already made this personal, I was just going to take it further. This was the day I would make my choice, I knew I would get turned down again for a match, so now I had to take matters into my own hands.

I returned to the dorms and headed for Ophelia's chamber. I carried in my hand a roster photograph of that damn Dominator, I would need it… bloodhounds always need something to track. I entered Ophelia's room and walked to her wheelchair that she sat strapped into. I pulled the sedative-feeding I.V. from her arm and knelt in front of her for several minutes. Her eyes began to focus and she looked around weakly.
"Friend? Arielle?" I choked for a moment, I hate myself for what I did to her, but at the time I just didn't think.
"I'm sorry Ophelia, Arielle is dead." Ophelia sat silently and did not move, but tears formed in her eyes. I held up the picture of Dominator. "This is the beast that stole her from us." I leaned forward, putting Dominator's image right in her face. "Look at him, this is the soulless mongrel that took our friend, he doesn't deserve to live, does he?" Ophelia tilted her head weakly, like she was about to faint.
"Doesn't deserve to live."
"Look at him Ophelia, are we going to let him get away with killing Arielle? We can't! He hurt her, he cut her, he murdered her." Ophelia twitched violently, and at this moment I became something that's not even any kind of excuse for a man. I reached out and unlocked her restraints. "Kill him Ophelia. Bring him to justice, make Arielle proud." Ophelia weakly stood, I left the picture on the floor to play with her mind as I left. She would need a distraction if she were to escape, so I had to provide her with one. I called the Dark Phalanx all together for a meeting, and since Ophelia's room was unlocked, she could easily sneak out while the meeting took place. As the soldiers gathered, I looked at them and felt no remorse for what I was about to do.
"For several years we've been a great team." I began, trying to sound as positive as possible. "There's no way I can say this easily so I'll just say it. I'm disbanding the Dark Phalanx." Everyone was obviously shocked, but I didn't care. "You're all free, form a new team if you wish, become mercs, be singles competitors… do what you wish… but the Dark Phalanx is no more." Little did I know that I would have started a trend that day. That same season the Iron Guard also disbanded, and Malcolm would leave Thunder Crash to ally up with Brock and Lauren of the former Iron Guard, but that doesn't matter right now. I remember the disappointed looks on their faces, but many of them benefited greatly from it. A young Asian woman codenamed Sapphire would go on to become a great competitor down the road, and a pair of rookie twin brothers, Romulus and Remus also would take up the torch several years later as the future of the tournament. All I cared about at the time was that Ophelia escaped. I went back to her room and was pleased at the sight. There on the floor was her wheelchair on its side, the big window shattered, and the photograph of Dominator nowhere to be found.

Days later word got around that Ophelia was running rampant, offering her services as a merc in team games, but only games against the Skaarj. Now that she was free of that respirator and those sedatives, she was a flame of hate that hunted and killed more Skaarj than anyone else that season, but Dominator kept slipping out of her grasp. Head office got wise to my plan and gave me a slap on the wrist for unleashing Ophelia on the Skaarj. Dominator still would not face me one on one, not that it mattered as I was soon suspended for my plan involving Ophelia. I realized what I was doing was not enough, I needed to push the envelope more. I was now banned from sanctioned events, so if I wanted Dominator, I had to get him outside of the arenas, something that would be hard to do, unless I made him come for me.

I'm a man of many regrets, but what I did one week later is my biggest. I managed to use a few connections to get a smuggling ship to give Ophelia a ride to the planet reserve that Dominator's family was safe-guarded on. My plan was beyond sadistic, no sane man would lower himself to this. My plan was to get Ophelia on that planet, under the impression that Dominator was there. Naturally she would cause a stir, Dominator would come to protect his family and one of them would die, then all I would have to do is simply kill the other one and all my troubles were behind me. I managed to get another contact to give me a lift to that same planet, and for a few bucks extra he supplied me with munitions and a small one man fighter. I stationed myself on that rock and waited. Within a few days I began to hear reports of Ophelia running rampant throughout the camps, but she wasn't alone. She had recruited the aid of the Hellions, a faction of failed pirates turned merc, and they provided her with the manpower to overthrow the guards of the camps and slaughter the Skaarj settlers with extreme prejudice. Naturally I also made sure to hear word of when Dominator and some of his team mates would arrive to protect their families. Once I received word of Dominator's arrival though, I had to rethink my plan. Dominator had brought his entire team to watch his back, and Ophelia had the Hellions. I should have known that they both would have brought back up, but at that time I was truly mad. My contact informed me that Ophelia and the Hellions had breached the camp that Dominator's family had resided in, and had brutally murdered them. I had to act. I got into my Raptor and took to the air, punching in the coordinates of the camp. I flew over the camps, looking at the destruction and death below me, and realized what little humanity I had left was now indeed dead. I had taken this too far, an entire race was being butchered because of my lust for revenge, but even at that time I didn't care, I just wanted to sweep it all under the carpet. I found the camp and the Hellions were just about to enter a fray with Dominator's team. I flew overhead and dropped bombs repeatedly. Explosions mangled the bodies of human and Skaarj alike, and I didn't care… I just wanted it over. The few remaining settlers that hadn't been already massacred were needlessly destroyed by the firefight and my bombs, I don't think I could count the casualties if I tried. Finally once it looked safe enough, I touched down with the Raptor and surveyed the area. Ophelia was nowhere to be seen, but I found what I wanted, Dominator laying in a heap on the ground. He looked up at me as I stood over him. He snarled with anger, but his broken body could not do anything. "Was it worth it?" he growled in forced English. I stepped back in shock as this thing spoke to me. "My people… my wives… my children… all of this death just to quench your thirst. Are you satisfied?" I never had considered the Skaarj to be people, not human anyways, not like I should have been. I fell to my knees and stared into the bloody face of this large Skaarj warrior. "You've gotten your revenge, my wounds will kill me slowly and painfully. My body is too broken to ever come after you, you've won, leave me to suffer… or would you rather sit here and watch until the agony finally overcomes me?" I choked and slowly stood. I pulled an enforcer from my jacket and looked down at it. Earlier that day I would have had no problems leaving Dominator in a shattered pile to lay there for days in agony until death finally ended his torture, but now I couldn't. I lifted the gun and shot a single bullet into his head, ending his pain.


Jordan has gotten his revenge, but was it worth the cost? What will become of Jordan now? Final chapter is next.