Jesse didn't move a muscle, staring at Hadrian with wide eyes. She looked like a (very timid) wild ocelot, measuring against an opponent before deciding to either A) run the heck away or B) fight this guy.

Petra saved her from having to make that decision.

With a furious scream of anger, Petra unsheathed her sword. The sword glinted in the light, she was already leaping forward to strike at him-

Hadrian blocked.

Somehow, in a display of the quickest reflexes anyone (maybe minus Mevia and Harper) in that room had ever seen before, Hadrian had managed to draw his sword, block Petra's sweeping blade, and shut the infirmary door behind him, the latch making a soft click as the door's latch engaged.

Blocking off the exit.

They were trapped.

No way out.

For a moment, there was an impasse as Petra refused to slide the blade away, glaring at Hadrian. He glared right back, his own blade pressing up against Petra's with enough force that the two swords were trembling.

And then that moment passed.

Petra angled the blade slightly and let Hadrian's sword skid off, before doubling back forward and swinging her sword in a rough overhand blow at Hadrian's head.

Ivor grabbed Jesse by the shoulders and yanked her back to a safe distance as Hadrian managed to dodge the blow, Petra's sword cutting into the wall and sticking, refusing to budge from where it was now very much stuck.

Petra gave it an experimental yank, trying to tug it out of the wall, before ducking as Hadrian lunged forward and stabbed the sword through where Petra's head had been, the blade clipping off about half a centimeter of hair.

"You're a lot faster than I thought you'd be," Petra muttered from where she'd ducked under the stab, before grabbing the purple-clothed man's sword with her gloved hand (everyone in the room instantly understood the reason that her gloves were made of leather and why she wore them ALL THE TIME) and shoving it aside, making Hadrian stumble off-balance in surprise.

The redhead took the opportunity to seize the hilt of her own sword, squeezing it tightly and giving it another heave. This time, the sword jerked out of the wall, momentarily knocking Petra off balance, but she used the momentum to whirl herself around to face Hadrian, raise her blade-

And promptly block a side cut that Hadrian had lashed out with, metal clanging on metal and making a jarring ringing sound.

"I've had some practice," the older man muttered back, dark eyes darkening even further- even more dangerously- than before, before he lunged back as Petra flicked her sword at his head, barely avoiding getting an ear sliced off in a single move.

Everyone was totally frozen in place as they watched the two fighting- Petra with her rougher, quick yet more forceful style, Hadrian with his precise, sharp movements that were almost quicker than Petra's.

Ivor's fingers were digging into Jesse's shoulders, Harper's fingers were twitching as if she wanted to intervene but was holding back, Mevia had tried to jump out and help Petra but ended up kneeling on the floor and trying not to vomit up every single last thing in her stomach, Lukas was frozen where he was still trying to ice his ankle, Olivia's eyes were flickering from Petra to Hadrian and back, Axel was half out of his chair, and Jace was doing a very good imitation of Lukas.

Part of the problem was that the people who wanted to fight were indisposed. Ivor was trying to keep Jesse out of harm's way, Mevia was still dealing with the effects of the poison, Lukas's ankle was twisted, and Olivia's ribs were wrapped. Even the people who COULD fight either didn't have the right equipment (Axel), didn't actually know if they should intervene (Harper), or was just completely frozen (Jace).

Jesse looked like she wanted to get past them, open the door, get out of there, but Hadrian was standing right in front of the door and every couple of seconds there was a violent flurry of metal against metal and trying to get past those would be like trying to dodge blender blades.

The fighting slowly grew sloppier and more violent. Hadrian nearly stabbed his blade through Petra's eye with Petra barely lunging out of the way in the nick of time to only receive a scratch to the cheek, Hadrian's sleeve got torn when he ducked under Petra's sweeping blade, opening a tiny cut on his shoulder, the older man narrowly missed getting his head lopped straight off by the younger redhead.

Mevia could see Hadrian's face and he was tiring. Not as quickly as Petra might've been, because her motions were less controlled and more wild, but enough that a single mistake could really cost him.

"Look out!" Jace suddenly screamed.

Hadrian's blade had just been diverted to the floor, but now it was sweeping up at Petra's ribs in a dangerous upwards-swinging cut-

Petra managed to flick her blade into a clumsy block thanks to Jace's warning, but she was already off-balance from a previous attack and the alarmed scream and she was jarred backwards, stepping backwards to try to compensate for her lost balance-

Hadrian lashed out again. Petra staggered back, throwing up her sword purely defensively, and his clashed against hers in a way that made Petra's teeth clack together- she stepped back again-

Another sweeping blow, and Petra's sword went flying out of her hand and embedded itself in the wall next to Olivia's head, the other girl flinching with a yelp and then wincing as her ribs screamed in pain. The redhead's back slammed into the wall as she was knocked back from Hadrian's attack, letting out a grunt as all the breath was knocked clean away.

"Petra!" Lukas leapt to his feet to help Petra, but only managed to make it a step forward before his twisted ankle gave out beneath him and dumped him onto the ground, knee cracking as it struck the wood. He gritted his teeth with a repressed sound, hand reflexively squeezing at his ankle.

"Lukas!" Jesse managed to wrench her shoulder out of Ivor's grip, the black-haired man letting out a shout at his adopted daughter as she tried to move to help Lukas-

A hand closed on her arm and jerked her back, slamming her into Hadrian's chest and then jerking her off of her feet, a hand pressing against her throat to keep her suspended in the air before she felt something cold press against her neck.

"Don't come any closer."

Jesse would've protested at having Hadrian's voice being inches from her ear, but she was now trying to focus on not choking to death. The way Hadrian was keeping her in front of him, sword touching her throat and hand keeping her trapped in place right on her throat, her feet were hanging inches off of the floor and she couldn't breathe, not without the air swirling and pressing desperately against the barrier Hadrian had just put in place.

Jesse made a little gasping sound, trying to pull Hadrian's arm off of her throat, but he was pressing so hard that she would've had better luck getting a building off of her. Thankfully, she could still breathe a little bit, or the odds were that she'd end up choking to death, but still- her lungs were protesting vocally at the air she was receiving, or more accurately the LACK of air she was receiving.

Mevia, now that she had her stomach under control, glanced up at Hadrian, trying to blink the green film that had started tainting everything out of her eyes.

Ivor was frozen mid-movement to grab Jesse away from Hadrian, hand twitching as if he was debating between yanking Jesse away from Hadrian right now or just leaving it be until Jesse choked to death. Lukas had leapt to his feet again and ended up crumpled at Petra's feet, the redhead gaping in dismay at where Jesse was being pretty much strangled to death. Even with the little air that was she was currently able to breathe, if nobody did anything soon, if Hadrian didn't slit her throat, she'd die from asphyxiation.

Ivor finally gritted his teeth, taking a reluctant step back. His eyes were locked on Jesse, who was weakly trying to pull Hadrian off of her and clawing at his arm frailly. Harper was frozen behind Ivor, eyes flickering from Hadrian to Jesse to Ivor and back to Hadrian again.

"... you little bi-" And now everyone was learning exactly how many swear words Ivor knew, because he was swearing in about twenty different languages at the moment, with an occasional English cuss word thrown in for good measure. Most of them sounded French or Spanish though. (Although Petra swore he spoke in Cantonese at some point.) He actually sounded remarkably like Cassie Rose at that moment.

Hadrian's eyebrow went up. He hadn't realized Ivor knew that many swears.

"What the hell are you doing this for- why the hell are you doing this?!" the potionologist barked, dark blue eyes blazing with fury. "It's not like she did anything to you-"

"The Games."

Everyone glanced at Mevia, who'd finally regained control of her body and stood back up, one hand hovering a few inches away from her mouth. She seemed to be preparing herself to vomit. "He's- he thinks Jesse's a threat to the Games."

"The what?" Olivia exclaimed, but Harper's mouth had dropped into a little 'o' of understanding, and Hadrian's eyes had darkened even further.

"The Games are-" Abruptly, another wave of nausea hit Mevia, and she automatically clapped her hand to her stomach with a little gag, trying to force the bile rising back down her throat so she didn't just vomit.

Jesse managed to gurgle something through the chokehold she was being held in. Hadrian glanced down at Jesse, eyebrow going up. He seemed to be wondering whether or not it was worth letting her down to figure out what she was saying, or just keep her in the chokehold.

He finally loosened his grip slightly, allowing Jesse's feet to barely touch the ground. "What?" he asked.

"Are the games... whatever they are... really that important? For you to kill me over it?" Jesse managed, in between desperate little gasps for air. Her hands were still tugging at his arms in an attempt to pull him off, but it seemed more hesitant now.

He scowled at the girl, hand tightening again. "You wouldn't understand."

"Of course I wouldn't, you haven't explained anything." If this had been anyone else, the comment would probably have sounded flippant or annoyed, but Jesse just sounded bemused. And a little strangled, since Hadrian was starting to choke her again.

Hadrian's eyes glinted with a darkness that Mevia had only seen once or twice before, and his teeth gritted slightly. "Alright, you little brat-" Hadrian backed up two steps, jerking Jesse along with him, so that he was almost pressing his back into the door and Jesse was yanked off of her feet yet again. Ivor's hands twitched, but he could only stand and watch helplessly. "You want me to explain, then by all means, I'll explain.

"Do you know what it's like to watch people do the same things over, and over, and over without ever changing? Without ever having a different response to anything? Watch people make the same mistakes hundreds of times and never change? It gets boring. It gets so boring to watch people make the same actions, do the same things, end up with the same damn result every time. It was fun at first, but after the three hundredth time of watching people do the same stupid sh*t over and over again, well... I'm sorry. It collectively kills everybody's brain cells."

Hadrian's expression was darkening even further, an icy chill taking ahold of his eyes. "Everything became so boring. Same books. Same people. Same conversations. Same everything. Over and over and over again, basically wash, rinse, repeat for about two f*cking hundred years."

His words were coming out bitter, cold, venomous. He was practically spitting each word out, grip tightening on Jesse to the point where everyone in the room was starting to worry that Jesse was just going to get strangled to death, never mind getting asphyxiated or stabbed.

"The Games is literally one of the only things keeping me from getting so bored that I snap-" His grip tightened so much that it forced a gasp out of Jesse as he crushed the air out of her lungs. "And I'll be damned if a kid, if a little girl is going to take away one of the only things that's keeping me sane."

Jesse choked something out, something totally unidentifiable because the Old Build- Ancient Architect was crushing her vocal cords and her throat and there was no way she could eke it out past that.

Hadrian rolled his eyes with a sigh and let his grip slacken dramatically, Jesse heaving in a lungful of air so fast that it was a wonder that such a small body (and therefore, a small pair of lungs) could actually suck in that much air. "What?" he snapped.

"Well, if you're really that-" Jesse coughed a little, rubbing their throat slightly to try to alleviate the strangled feeling that you get when someone blocks off your air flow. "That bored, why don't you just do something else?"

He sneered at her sarcastically. "Oh wow, why didn't I think of that? You're a f*cking genius. You don't think I've tried to do other sh*t, bucko?" He spit out the pet name so vehemently that Jesse flinched. "Because believe me, I have. It just ends up all blurring together and becomes just as boring as every other f*cking thing in the universe."

Jesse blinked at him, still being held in a chokehold (though thankfully, it was much looser than it had been before, so there wasn't too much threat to her dying via strangulation or asphyxiation).

"Why do you think I'd be a threat to the Games?"

Hadrian blinked as well, the topic having done a total 180. "What?"

"Why do you think I'd be a threat to the Games? If anything, all I've done is stop things that seem to be bad, like the Witherstorm, Aiden going crazy, Cassie's, um, murder attempts, PAMA, so... are the Games bad? Is there something wrong with them?" Jesse asked, simply.

Harper was the one to reply to this, surprisingly enough. "It's... it's not right. The participants of the Games are forced to be there." She sent Mevia and Hadrian a surprisingly cold look. "Hadrian and Mevia started pitting people against each other just for sport."

Jesse made a soft humming sound of comprehension, thinking for a moment.

Then she started speaking, facing away from Hadrian but directing her words towards him carefully, with a softness to them that made it clear just how delicately she was treading. She was practically walking on eggshells right now.

"If you think I'm that much of a threat to the Games, even before I knew anything about it, then that says something about how good you think it is." Jesse frowned slightly, voice still oddly quiet and a little choked from his grip on her. "And if something that's not very good is the only thing keeping you sane, then maybe you're not actually sane anymore. You just think you are."

Hadrian's grip loosened a little more.

Jesse kept talking, still with that carefulness, crafting every word and weighing it before letting it slip out of her mouth. "I think you're trying too hard to be sane. And I think that you putting so much effort into it might actually be making you go crazy." Jesse turned their head to try to meet his eyes, hesitant because she was scared. She wasn't afraid to admit it; she was terrified that she'd look at him, meet his eyes, and see something there she didn't want to see.

But she tried anyway.

"But I don't think insanity is the problem."

Hadrian didn't say anything. He didn't try to meet their eyes. He was looking at Jesse, but his gaze was far away, and he didn't seem to be actually seeing the petite girl in front of him.

"I think the problem is that insane people are the people who break. They end up broken, and go totally crazy, and yet they still think that they're sane. They still think they're... normal."

Jesse's head tilted forward as they slowly considered their words. "So then the question here isn't if I'm going to mess up the only thing keeping you 'sane'. I think the real question is... what makes you think you're still not broken? What makes you think you're still sane?"

"And if you take that away, then what does that leave you with?"

The air itself was frozen perfectly still. Nobody wanted to say a single word for fear that something would go wrong.

Hadrian's face was totally blank.

His hands slowly dropped away, the sword dropping to his side before his fingers stopped strangling the hilt. The echo of metal on the floor clanging solidly filled the room.

Jesse stayed still, not daring to turn and look at Hadrian.

The door unlatched.

The latch reengaged a moment later.

After a few more moments of that crushing, suspense-filled silence, Jesse slowly turned to look behind her.

Hadrian was gone.

Slowly, Jesse turned back to face the rest of the people in the room.

"What just happened?"


A/N: Yes I know I've been AWOL for about a month; I'm really sorry about that aaaah

I'll try to get back into a regular update schedule, but because of something that I'm working on, this might end up being a little difficult. So because, I've got a question for you all:

Would you rather have updates whenever I can have them out, or a scheduled update every once a week? (And if you prefer the second option, what day of the week would you prefer?)

Wow, only about a month left until school's out for me! That means things'll get busy, so. xD Yay xD

Responses to reviews!

Destroyer: xD Probably no need to kill Hadrian. Probably. I'm not entirely sure what just happened.

Kairi4ever15: Pffft xD I've got my handcuffs right here!

Pogi22609: He didn't... kill them, so that's something. xD

KaosRuin: Things happened! Nobody died! Hadrian... did something (I'm not totally sure what happened honestly xD)

Emily The Avenger: Yes ma'am

SiSiren: Here you go! About a month late xD

AquaK13: Same, fam. Same xD / Hehe, yes she did xD / Oh wow. I didn't start using curse words until high school xD / Well, nobody got... killed? I guess xD

Princess of Muffins: Yes, it has been a while. Wonder when the next one will show up, hmm x3

LunarTheMooncake: I do not know, Lunar x3 / Pfffft. Craziness is great in small amounts. xD

ShiningHopeBeast: Bleeeh. xD / Yeah, I'm good at schedules. xD

SoundMusician60: I get to keep my glorious crown as the queen of Cliffhangers xD / Ye :3

ChocoDrake: By... doing something xD / No. No death. xD

Mikaza1498: Pfffttt, I'm glad that it got everyone fired up. xD / No killing, thank you xD / Exciting is putting it rather mildly, I think xD

FallenAngle928: Ah, I'm not sure that'll be necessary...

Toni42: Heehee x3 / It was my type of cliffhanger xD

Savannah-the-Caracal: Oh boy. That's a lotta rereading xD

RavenBlaze4850: Fair enough, dude. xD / Smiting him with his traps is fair xD / Indeed xD / Yes, very much so. Elimination and roundabout methods are great. xD / PFFFFT XD / I did shock my beloved with this chapter xD

Rabbits rule: You and everyone else, I think. xD

Darkbeast Dend: (thumbs up)

homeworkoverload: Lol xD / Ooh, I did something! xD

Shadow: Uhhh, I don't think we've gotta... do that now...

NoItsBecky: I do not have a chainsaw; I apologize xD

ZenSpider: She has no idea that this is going on, so while it is, she wouldn't get here in time. But it's okay, 'cause Jesse... handled it. Sort of. xD / When did this happen?! xD / Yeah, Danganronpa is great x3

Well, that's it for now! See ya, so long, and g'bye!

x.X. A.L. X.x