The gong was loud. Very loud. Vriska woke up to blinding light and chains on her legs. Rubbing her eyes, she realized that she wasn't burning in the sun, and stopped worrying. Finally she looked down upon the spectacle going on around her. All of her friends and some humans she had never met were chained similarly to her on a round set of bleachers. Then she noticed the pit. In the center of the bleachers, there was a pit, about 75 yards in circumference, with a gate on either side. It had sand in some parts of the floor, and stone on the others, presumably to make terrain harder to traverse. Suddenly, the gates began to crank open. She turned her head to hear a shout from Karkat.
"WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS? SOME KIND OF FIGHTING RING?" Then Vriska saw who he was talking to. Her Imperious Condescension sat on a throne gilded with gold, with drones flanking her sides, and Meenah and Feferi chained in front of her.
"Karkat my mutant bitch, of course! It's gonna be mad sick watching you kill each other." She replied, her voice amplified by a drone's speaker. "Get our first combatants out here!"
Vriska was sickened by what she saw next. Tavros emerged from one end of the arena, obviously groggy being alive, and very confused. He saw her and called out. "vRISKA, wE'RE ALL ALIVE AGAIN, iSN'T THAT GREAT?" Vriska realized he probably only woken up just a second ago, and watched as a drone came up behind him and handed him his lance. He jumped in surprise, but took the weapon, looking rather confused on why he would need it. Then the second gate cranked up.
Equius looked out into the pit, then looked up, seeing his comrades. When he spotted Nepeta, he called out, and watched as her face turned from confusion to grief. ":33 Equius no! not you!" He wondered what she could be talking about, when he suddenly heard a booming voice telling him to "fight, bitchez." He looked across the pit he was in, and finally figured out what was happening. He was startled as a robot tapped him, and handed him a bow and quiver. He stared at Tavros, and reluctantly notched an arrow to the bow. When he pulled the string back, however, it unsurprisingly snapped. Thinking deeply about how he could not kill the lowblood, Equius strode toward Tavros. Tavros, however, not knowing that Equius was not planning to simply crack his neck, pushed the lance's hilt into his armpit, and began to charge. Immediately upon reaching him, Zahhak shot his arm up, gripping the lance, and brought it down on his knee, snapping it cleanly in half. "D Why d00 you make me d00 this, Nitram?" Equius said, pushing Tavros onto the ground. " bECAUSE, i NEED TO LIVE," The lowblood replied. Pinning Tavros' arms under his knees, Equis straddled him and raised his fist. "D I'll make this quick, friend" Just before he could deliver the culling blow, however, Nepeta cried out, and Equius looked up, letting the pressure on Tavros' arms up, and distracting him for a few seconds. By the time he looked back to the brown blooded troll, it was far too late. Equius felt the lance enter his chest, crying out STRONGLY, and falling to his back. "sORRY,"