ty

by freesayan

ty

1. Chapter 3

CHAPTER 6

"With the signing of the New London Treaties, greater conflict as a whole was largely abolished within the boundaries of the freshly-formed ISC. In an ideal world, this would have documented the start of an era of bliss and ease for all, a time in our history marked as the beginning of long- lasting peace. One could even say it did mark such a moment, if only on the surface.

To those in the know, however, it is apparent that humankind simply found another way to wage its wars amongst itself, with bloodless battles now carried amongst the shadows and privilege of the elite..."

- "A History of the Collective" Gilbert France, M.S., Ph.D. Distributed by Central Command, Earth

As the door to the flyer finally closed behind them, cutting off the wicked bite of the wind and snow outside, Jasper had to stop herself from cursing in every language she knew. Despite whatever her trimmed, confident appearance might say to the contrary, it was work to pull off the look she liked for in-person jobs like this, and anything that messed with that effort could fall to the archons for all she cared. Still, as much as Jasper would have liked to scream profanity at the frost-crusted window in French, German, English, and Japanese most fluently, she kept her poise, choosing instead to brush the snow from her jacket shoulders and hair delicately before scooting back further into the luxury leather of the personal transport's wide seats.

Her self-control was made much easier by the sense of triumph that had been burning in her cheeks from the moment she'd realized Reidon Ward wouldn't be signing that day.

"Lose the smirk if you please, Jasper," her companion said, his voice distorted and mechanical through his helmet. "I will admit it. You were correct."

With a smile—a real, true smile, rather than the perfected mask of one very few people could tell from the other—Jasper looked around from the full-frame window to the figure sitting across from her, facing the back of the flyer. She could see her own reflection in the clean black of the glass that obscured the man's features, distorted and made ugly by the curve and spattering of melting snow that peppered the otherwise-smooth surface.

"Oh? Not even going to let me get in an 'I told you so', then?"

In answer, the man sighed in tired exasperation, reaching up as he did to finally release the hermetic seal of the helmet along the line of his jaw before pulling it carefully free of his head even as the flyer started to lift beneath them with a quiet whir.

Doctor Kamiya Hiroto had been a handsome man for all of the nearly 3 decades Jasper had known him. Even now, at just over 70, the CEO of the Kamiya Corporation cut a notable figure, his slate-grey eyes and long, white-streaked black hair sharp alongside the dark uniform whose skin-tight underlayers reached all the way up his neck to the edges of his thinly- bearded chin. It was a strange look to sport for someone she had only ever rarely seen out of either custom-tailored suits or a karate gi, but it worked well for the man.

Maybe because—as an A8-Ranked User and a former Global-level fighter on Earth—even in his advancing age Kamiya Hiroto could have

trounced the vast majority of the innumerable guards his company actually employed to wear that uniform.

"No matter how many years pass, your sass never does cease to amaze me." The man shook his head as he set the now-empty helmet on the seat beside him, leaving one hand atop it to keep it from sliding to the cabin floor as the flyer tilted slightly in their ascent. "Interesting way to treat your former teacher, I must say."

"My apologies, sensei," Jasper responded with a laugh. "Very well. I shall graciously elect not to bask in my righteous vindication, just as I shall graciously elect not to point out that that meeting went exactly—exactly— as I said it would."

"How noble of you to spare me," Hiroto answered darkly. Jasper only grinned wider.
Then, though, she felt the smile slip.
"So... What did you think?"

For a long time Hiroto sat in silence, seeming to contemplate the question.

"... I think... 'unsettling' is the right word," he finally answered just as the flyer started to level out a couple thousand feet above the ground, slipping into the snow-obscured traffic of the skylanes flawlessly. "He is at once nothing like what I expected, and yet everything I could have hoped for..."

Jasper nodded slowly. "I can see that. I wasn't kidding. The kid took me by surprise. We knew he was smart—his Assignment Exam scores said as much, even the lowered one he thinks he got—and there's obviously something going on with that CAD of his that's going to have the SCT world buzzing soon enough. But he's more than that. He's clever, too. Saw right through us."

"Just like you said he would..." the doctor gave a muttered admittance, turning to scowl out the window, fingers starting to drum at the top of the helmet still sitting beside him in what was usually a telling sign of either deep thought or frustration.

In this particular case, Jasper suspected it might be both.

"Yes," she answered simply, careful to keep her voice level. "I did tell you we were coming on too strong, and you know I wouldn't say that lightly. It's not like you to go diving in full-bore like this. You know money can't solve everything, better than anyone. I've poached enough assets for Kamiya—for you—to know you give people what they need, not what someone else thinks they need. People like Abigail Smith don't simply work for whoever offers the highest bid on their talents. The best need more than that."

"Reidon's file suggested that—"

"Reidon's file is shit, Hiroto. I told you that, too. What little we managed to get out of our combined contacts at Central isn't enough to give a clear picture of the kid. Like I suggested, we should have waited, or at least approached this another way."

"What way?" Hiroto snorted, though Jasper knew the anger that tinged the man's voice as he continued wasn't directed at her. "What other way did we have?"

"I don't know," Jasper admitted placatingly. "But if you'd given me more time, I could have figured it out. We only just got his exam results. If we'd waited, I could have found a way in through his friends, or maybe that foster house that took care of him, the Estoran Center. Those kinds of places are usually tight on funds. If we'd applied the right pressure—"

"No."

The single, ringing word instinctively had Jasper sitting up straight in her seat, and she knew she had, for once, actually taken it a step too far. Hiroto was looking at her directly now, and though there was no glimmer of color in his eyes, the sheer force of his resolution was enough to make her swallow.

"Of course. I'm sorry, I just—"

"You are very dear to me, Jasper," the doctor cut her off, voice as cool as it was calm. "As a former student and friend both, and you have proven time and time again to have no limit of value to my company and personal estate alike. For these reasons I overlook the tactics you stoop to with your other employers. However—" the black of Hiroto's disguising uniform seemed to be drawing in the light, somehow, tricking Jasper into feeling like the cabin was shrinking and darkening around them "—I will not tolerate such suggestions when it comes to my own interests. Is that understood?"

"Yes, sensei."

The response was so automatic, ingrained in her from over 20 years of instruction under the man, that Jasper didn't even realize she'd slipped into their shared native tongue. Hiroto, for his part, watched her a moment more, clearly intent to drive his point home.

When he looked away at last, eyes shifting to the looming forms of Castalon's skyscrapers they could just make out as shadows through the blizzard, the day seemed to brighten, and Jasper let go of the breath she'd been holding.

"So... What do we do now? Do we come at him a different way, as you suggested?"

The question came calmer, bringing Jasper back to herself a bit as she blinked. With a cough to help steady her shaken composure she folded her

hands over her lap, forcing herself not to look away from her employer—a difficult feat in that moment even despite his averted gaze.

"No. We don't. We've swung this door open too wide and too loudly. It's clear that Reidon was already put on edge by our offer. If he gets so much as a whiff that we are coming at him from another angle as well, those walls are only going to get higher. Given the situation..." Jasper paused, choosing to give herself a moment to pick her words carefully "...I don't think you want to make any more hurdles for this endeavor than there already are..."

Before her the doctor made a rare face at that, one lip curling up in an expression lingering somewhere between disgust and annoyance. He muttered something in Japanese, of which Jasper only caught "fool of a son..." before the man spoke more clearly.

"So, what? We wait? For him to come to us?"

"It's not without its risks, but... yes..." Jasper nodded, feeling her usual confidence and pep returning steadily. "The money may have been too far a swing, but you were smarter with the rest of the offer. There are opportunities in there that Reidon will likely have great use for, if our deductions regarding his abilities are correct." She hesitated. "There is, however... a risk to that."

Hiroto nodded knowingly, still looking out the window as hundreds of other transports zipped over and around them in every direction. "A more enticing offer."

"Or even just a more appropriate one," Jasper said. "It doesn't have to be better, at this point—let's be honest, how could it get better?—it just has to be... real."

"Because how could ours have been, yes..." Hiroto muttered at the glass, his eyes narrowing at his own reflection. "Yes... I do see it now... I

suppose I let my desire for forgiveness cloud my better judgment, didn't I?" "Just a little..." Jasper answered carefully.
The doctor didn't respond for a long moment, clearly contemplating

the issue. After nearly a minute, he at last gave another sigh—one more resigned, this time—and turned to face her once again.

"I'm starting to think it might have been better off just introducing myself directly. Face to face. None of this sneaking around." He looked suddenly annoyed. "I often wish you hadn't dissuaded me from that."

"You needed a softer entry, Hiroto. You still need one. What we do know about Reidon isn't much, sure, but..." Jasper offered him as sympathetic a look as she could muster "... Keiji and Samantha... They all but left him to die, Hiroto. And the life he's lived since... The surgeries. The pain. The stunted growth. I can't even find any real evidence of friends other than this 'Viviana Arada' before he came to Galens..." She shook her head. "I'm sorry, I don't care how strong the boy is and how steadfast his spirit seems. You don't just hammer down the doors on a history like that. You can't. You just can't."

Hiroto grimaced again, though Jasper didn't miss the tension that had snapped into place at the mention of the man's son and daughter-in-law.

"I need a softer entry," he echoed. "Yes... I suppose you're right..."

Another pause, and Jasper got the impression the man was steeling himself for something.

Sure enough, when he looked around at her again at last, his face was stony.

"I can provide the circumstances by which Reidon isn't offered another sponsorship opportunity. At least not anytime soon. You're confident that he'll come around to us, if I do so?"

"I am." Jasper smiled, feeling wholly herself again at long last. "He has to. If he continues on the trajectory he's headed, Galens can only provide him so many opportunities. Eventually he'll need more, and the choices won't be many."

Hiroto nodded yet again, slower this time.
Then his hands, still gloved, balled into fists.
"If I had just been there," he growled. "If I'd just prioritized him over

the damn company. After Sarah was born, though, I thought it was fine. I thought I could meet him a few days later, and it would be fine..."

Jasper offered him a sadder smile, now. "Hiroto... everyone makes mistakes. Hell, look at me." She indicated herself with both hands even as she batted her eyelashes dramatically. "The doctors told my parents I was a boy when I was born. Just because of some silly thing between my legs. See how that turned out?"

Hiroto, though, wasn't in the mood to be appeased.

"You had a supportive family and access to the best medical therapies and doctors money could buy, Jasper. If anything, you are the antithesis of Reidon's circumstances."

Jasper waved away the man's foul mood. "Fine. You don't want to be cheered up. I get it. In that case, we move forward." She dropped her hands back into her lap to watch the doctor seriously. "If you can make it so that he has little choice but to turn to us, I assure you he will. That being said— and I'm a little afraid to know the answer to this—how you are going to do that?"

It took a moment, but Hiroto's expression changed, then. From a quiet, still anger he rose, mouth twisting slowly upwards at the question. Then he was grinning darkly, the ugly smile making Jasper think of a man enjoying his last meal.

It terrified her in an entirely different way, and she knew the answer even before he opened his mouth.

"Simple enough. You will make Kamiya's interest in Reidon known. You will make it known—through the right channels, of course—and you will make it clear that any party who attempts to join us on this dance floor will find themselves cut off from every product Kamiya might be providing them, now and forever. If they aren't already a customer, then their partners will be cut off, and so on, and so forth."

Even though she'd seen it coming, Jasper's hands went numb.

"Hiroto... That's barely a short step from economic suicide... You might lose clients—hundreds of clients, even—just for making that threat. ATTALIS, Wyre Industries, maybe even the likes of Veragoth... Every one of your competitors will flock to fill that void!"

The doctor nodded briefly, as though this were hardly a passing concern. "I'm aware of that. But we deal in tech, Jasper, not canned food and vacuums. The contract negotiations for a changeover like that would cost any company weeks of time and revenue, and that's on top of the months lost to fully adapt and update hardware and software both."

Jasper pushed harder. "You would trash your reputation. You would trash every ounce of good will you've built, not to mention your mother and grandfather and every other member of your family before you."

Hiroto did wince at that—as she suspected he might—but didn't otherwise budge. "So be it. Reputation can be salvaged. All of it—money, clientele, contracts—all of it can be salvaged."

Jasper could only stare at the man, dumbstruck for the first time in what had to have been years. She thought she had seen it all, in her 2 decades working in the back alleys of industry plots and politics. She had seen the greatest rise and fall, had seen those with the most potential cut off

at the knees by those with the least merit, and those with the lowest chance lifted by titans who had already made it.

But she had never—never—seen a man with as much to lose as Kamiya Hiroto look into the abyss of destruction, laugh, and begin to juggle everything he had while standing on one foot at its very edge.

"You would burn it all down?" she asked quietly, as horrified as she was awestruck. "You would burn it all down? Just for him?"

Without so much as moment's hesitation, Hiroto nodded. Outside, the storm seemed to have redoubled, the raging bellow of the wind through the monoliths of Castalon like a scream made by the universe in an attempt to drown out his answer.

"Of course. How could I not, when those that should have been his family already tried to throw him into the flames?"

CHAPTER 7

"Friendship is the hardest thing in the world to explain. It's not something you learn in school. But if you haven't learned the meaning of friendship, you really haven't learned anything."

-Muhammad Ali Pre-ISC athlete and philosopher c.1980

It was Viv who found Rei first.

It had been a gamble, but she wasn't completely surprised when it paid off. Four and a half years spent mostly glued at the hip was enough time to get a good sense of where his head would be at depending on how the mysterious meeting with Administration went, and an hour's wait after breakfast turned into 2, then started threatening to encroach on the lunch break before afternoon training.

That was when Viv suspected something had gone sideways.

Well that and the fact that not even Aria had heard from Rei yet, which was way more alarming.

Eventually even Cashe had started to voice some concern over the low audio of the SCT recordings the 5 remaining members of the squad had decided to review in their morning free time, which had finally had Viv getting to her feet.

"Idiot's probably in a huff somewhere," she'd grumbled over her shoulder as she made for the door of the Tactical Studies classroom they'd commandeered for their study session. "Aria, can you check 304? It's the most likely place he's at. Catcher, you and Cashe look around East Center. He might be blowing off steam for some reason. Or maybe the mess hall?

Grant—" she was careful to use Logan's last name, partially not to give their familiarity away and partially to let the boy know she wasn't anywhere near over her morning's irritation "—can you spin by the Hospital, please? Just in case."

To his credit—even if the others were more enthusiastic in their agreement and hurrying to follow after her—Logan nodded at once even as he shoved himself up from his chair a row back from where the rest of them had been seated. They were down two floors and outside in short order, the blizzard that had made their way to and from breakfast earlier hell having fortunately abated somewhat, and all split off at once to check their designated area. Viv lingered a moment, feeling a little bad as Aria in particular took off at a faster clip than most patrolling staff officers might have approved of.

Even if it had been with good intentions, she was pretty sure she'd lied...

Turning west, Viv hurried through snow, ignoring the cold with nothing more than a glower into the still-blasting winds. It wasn't long before she'd passed the Arena, then the second- and third-year dorms, ignoring them all. Instead she made a beeline around Vellus—the towering third-year residence—the moment she could, aiming for the handsome, oversized three-story building some 50 yards from the frosted Institute wall. Maybe it was because its location made it more frequently used by the school's upperclassmen, but the West Center was both a larger and more- polished training facility than East, where all of them—except Cashe— were more accustomed to spending their additional conditioning and combat hours. Though she'd rarely been inside, Viv could have known at a glance that the floors were taller, which granted the fields inside a healthier gap between projection plating and ceiling. Made sense. While it was

unlikely any of the first-years—with the exception of one white-haired dummy, maybe—would develop enough Speed or Strength to need more than the 10 yards of vertical clearance East Center offered anytime soon, Viv knew for a fact there were a good number of third-years who could have easily topped out that kind of height from a standstill, and probably some second-years who could have managed it with a running start. On top of that, the walls of the West Center were less stone and more glass, offering wide, sweeping views into the training rooms along the bottom floor of the facility, or at least into those whose occupants hadn't decided to turn their walls opaque for privacy. One of the chambers closest to the double doors of the entrance was largely whited out, allowing only sneaking hints of blistering colors that told Viv it definitely wasn't Vademe's or Martin's squad in the middle of training, while in the far corner what looked to be two of the second-year squads seemed to be taking turns sparring in groups. Viv had to stop herself from pausing to watch, momentarily distracted as she noted several Duelists she'd cheered for during the Intra- Schools taking to the field, and cursed Rei for his bullheadedness as she headed inside.

The doors opened for her with a hiss of air, then shut again the moment she was in the warmth of the facility. As she'd recalled, the polished stone of the ceiling above was indeed at least 15 yards over her head, and the inside of the space was as clean and spartan as any other building on the Galens grounds, all white marble, steel, and smart-glass. Looking around, a blue holo sign that showed stairs at the far end of the hall blinked against her frame, and Viv made a line for it at once, working hard again not to look to her left as she passed the opaque room where she was almost positive several groups of third-years were in the middle of mock combat. It was harder than it should have been, thanks to the screaming sounds of the

clash combined with the shouted feedback of onlookers ringing clear through the door that looked to have been propped open as a source of fresh air.

Viv almost leapt clean out of her boots, therefore, when a familiar voice caught her off guard as she passed.

"Arada?"

Something almost like fear prickled up Viv's spine, and she whirled even as she snapped into a salute. It was more of a habit than anything, particularly since the person who'd stepped out of the blocked-out training room as she'd passed was an ISCM cadet just like her, and therefore didn't technically warrant the formal greeting.

Protocol only went so far, though, when it came to the dark-skinned young man standing before her now, looking at her with a sort of perplexed interest.

Christopher "Lasher" Lennon cut a strange figure for a User. He was small compared to other male CAD wielders, standing at maybe 5'9", which actually put him a good 2 inches shorter than Viv. His face, too, was soft, stubbornly holding onto a bit more of the fat that most other cadets burned off within a few months of arriving at school, if they'd had any left to shed in the first place. His skin was pocked with sweat where his body wasn't covered with his red-on-blue combat suit, and his sky-hued eyes were watching Viv curiously from under short, grey dreads.

Despite all that, however, it was well known that Christopher Lennon was a favorite to bring home the collegiate Intersystem Champion title that year, and it had been some time since Viv had been able to see the shorter boy as anything other than the beast he was.

"Sir!" Viv offered a sharp greeting to him, still saluting. "Sorry to distract. I didn't expect to run into anyone."

She could almost see Lennon working hard at not rolling his eyes, the mix of exasperation and amusement cutting across his features in sharp contrast to the cool, cold soldier Viv was more used to seeing him as. Valera Dent—apparently as a reward for the extra effort Viv, Rei, Aria, and Catcher had been putting in since the start of the school year—had hooked the four of them up with more than a half-dozen training sessions with the third-year midway through the fall quarter of the previous term. It might have been strange from the outside, a cadet training cadets, but the Lasher was no common student. His A8 ranking made him one of the strongest Users in the school, counting even the former front-line fighters and retired SCTs competitors that made up their CAD-Type sub-instructors.

It had made those instructional evenings invaluable to all of them.

"Put your hand down, Arada," Lennon told her with a snort, stepping barefoot a little further into the hall and half-closing the door to the training room behind him. "If all of you are going to salute me every time we cross paths, it's going to make for an uncomfortable rest of the year for everyone."

"Uh... Yes, sir..." Viv answered, dropping her hand as instructed and deciding not to voice that doing so felt about as awkward as casually addressing Rama Guest.

"Lose the 'sir', too. I'm a cadet, like you. You want to call me that on the training field, fine, but not outside of that."

Viv relaxed a little at this, even managing not to slip into the at ease position.

Lennon didn't miss the shift, and nodded in approval. "Good. Now... What are you doing here? I thought the first-year squads had their afternoon squad format training in an hour? Don't tell me you guys have taken to skipping lunch for extra combat hours..."

There was something almost like a threat in the boy's voice, and Viv had to swallow nervously as his eyes bore into her with a lethal edge. It was familiar, of course. It was the same way the Lasher had taken them all in whenever he'd been acting as their instructor, those seven Friday evenings the captain had cobbled together for them. Fortunately, the look no longer stole Viv's tongue.

At least not completely.

"I'm looking for Rei, actually," she admitted, glancing around at the other fields she could see from where she stood, all empty aside from the second-years going at it on the other side of the hall. "He was in training this morning, but got called to Administration after. We thought we'd see him at breakfast, but he never showed..."

Anyone else might not have gotten the full and honest story, but Lennon had earned Viv's respect—as well as that of the rest of them—in more ways than one over the course of the last quarter. Aside from the sessions he'd promised through Dent, the Lasher had also taken it on himself to see Rei pushed to the limits in the final days before his last match of the Intra-School, where he'd faced off with Logan. Rei himself had said more than once—on the increasingly-rare occasions when it was just the four of them again—that the third-year was the sole reason he'd won that match, and probably developed Type Shift to boot.

While Viv had found herself a little torn on the outcome of that last bout at the time, Lennon had at least cemented himself in her esteem that day.

"Ward got called to Admin?" the Lasher asked with a frown. "Why?"

"No idea. That's kind of the reason we're worried. We thought someone from higher up in the ISCM was looking for a word with him, but that was hours ago. Even if he got breakfast after, it wasn't with us."

The frown deepened. The third-year didn't ask why an ISCM officer from outside the school might want a talk with a first-year cadet. Lennon knew better than most that Rei was special, even if he'd never asked— under threat of Dent's wrath, apparently—about the specifics of the circumstances. That made the young man's concern genuine, though, and he'd just opened his mouth to ask something else when a tall, slender girl with silver-black hair and olive skin popped through the narrow gap of the still-ajar door.

"Chris, you coming? Yuji says he wants to try and—Oh. Hello?"

The newcomer's smile was bright under dark eyes as she caught sight of Viv, turning her attention from Lennon, who she was clearly familiar with enough to address more casually than Viv suspected she'd ever personally have the balls to try. She was a stunning beauty in her third-year combat suit, even for a designed child of the modern age, with the genetic correction offered by her CAD having rendered her features into a perfect symmetry not even every User was blessed with. Viv had the impression, for a moment, that she was looking into the sun as the girl beamed at her, and had to blink away her surprise to return the greeting.

"Uh... Hello." She tried to return the smile, feeling like a clay doll in the face of the third-year.

Fortunately, Lennon didn't leave her hanging.

"Dice, this is Viviana Arada," he introduced Viv promptly, waving at her as the girl stepped up to stand beside him in the hall. "She's one of those first-years I was working with last semester."

"Oh!" the girl—"Dice"?—exclaimed again, looking excited now. "Another one? Cool!" She offered Viv a mock scowl, then. "I'll have you know I didn't appreciate you all stealing him every Friday night for two months. Not cool."

Unsure how to answer this, Viv had opened her mouth to offer an automatic apology, but the Lasher saved her again.

"Don't tease. I made it up to you." He was grinning—another new expression—when he turned back to Viv. "Arada, this is Candice Meyer, my girlfriend. She's also a third-year Sectionals qualifier, which means she's coming to Kenneth Academy and Ganos with us. So you probably shouldn't piss her off."

"Who's teasing now?" the girl retorted at once, glaring sidelong at Lennon even as she addressed Viv. "Call me Dice. I hate Candice. And between you and me—" she leaned in with one hand to her mouth as though passing along some great secret "—I only qualified on a squad invite. And not even his." She pointed through her palm to Lennon, who actually rolled his eyes this time.

"You know Dent and the colonel would have thrown me through a wall if I'd invited you onto my team," the Lasher snorted. "That'd be blatant favoritism. And I knew you'd be fine. If Ivanov or Esku didn't pull you onto their squads, I would have punched them."

Dice looked at Lennon flatly. "And that's not favoritism?"
"Different kind. That's allowed."
"How convenient for you."
Viv was, for a moment, reminded of Rei and Aria as the pair began to

bicker good-naturedly in front of her, but the thought only brought her back to the reason she was standing there in the West Center in the first place.

"Sorry," she said quickly, looking to Dice as she cut across the couple's banter. "Did you say 'another one'? Have you seen anyone else from my group today?"

"Hmm?" the girl asked like she didn't follow. Then she brightened, catching on. "Oh! Yeah! The white-haired one. Ward, right? He was

walking in when I was heading back from the bathroom. Were you two not meeting up? I just assumed."

A touch of relief—flavored with just the smallest hint of pride—had Viv letting out a huff. "We are, he just doesn't know it. Can you tell me which way he went? Do you know if he's still here?"

"He was headed towards the stairs when I saw him. That was a couple hours ago, though, so I don't know if he's still here..."

"He is."

Viv and Lennon said it together, and the Lasher offered her a smirk as he continued.

"He is. That guy's got a pigheaded streak wider than Astra-3."

"More like the entire star system," Viv corrected, starting to turn away from the pair of them with a wave to Dice. "Thanks. At least there's a silver lining to him being recognized on sight, now."

"Sure thing," Dice answered with another smile, obviously pleased to have been able to help. "Although that kid's been pretty noticeable from day one, not gonna lie..."

"Fair enough," Viv answered with a laugh.

Before she could step away, though, Lennon fixed her with another of his sharp looks.

"Arada. Keep me apprised, if I can help. Knowing Ward, if he's avoiding you lot... There's a good reason. Or at least what he thinks is a good reason."

Viv grimaced, but nodded. "Yeah... That's what I thought too. Will do."

Then she was off, jogging now as she left the two third-years behind, making once again for the holo-sign that indicated the stairwell at the back of the building.

True to his nature, Rei didn't make himself easy to find even after Dice's help. Viv almost didn't bother searching the second floor, but thought better of it when she imagined missing him by coincidence if he happened to decide lunch wasn't worth skipping. As suspected, though, he wasn't there, and it was a couple minutes later that she stepped onto the third-floor landing and immediately made out the distant thuds and grunts of what sounded like a single person in intense combat. Following the sounds, Viv found herself in the very back corner of the training center, facing another opaque wall. Through it, she could just barely see the flash and pulse of dark blue light, the lines of familiar vysetrium all that hinted at the figure inside.

For safety reasons, while the students who booked the training rooms could block out the chambers for privacy, they couldn't lock the doors, so it was with nothing more than a glance over her shoulder to see if anyone else had happened to join her on the otherwise empty third floor that Viv slipped inside without a sound. Sure enough, there was Rei, his back to the room entrance, Shido's innate Brawler Mode called around his arms, legs, and face as he fought alone on a raised, sterile white floor that only hinted at the outline of the hexagonal pillars that made up every variation of the Neutral Zone.

Well... Almost alone.

Viv held back an impressed whistle as she crossed her arms and leaned up against the inside of the smart-glass door, catching sight of the solid grey form of Rei's sparring partner. The figure was female, but her expression was as blank as her lack of color, the only details across her entire body forming as the mock outline of a Galens combat suit and the digits on her back that spelled out "B0" Viv only caught when the solid projection whipped a spinning front kick at Rei's chest.

B0? Viv thought as she watched her friend slam the offending leg aside with a parrying arm before countering with a flurry of blows with Shido's claws. That's brave even for him...

Which, she decided at once, didn't bode well...

Viv forced herself to wait, though, forced herself not to call out to Rei as he fought. The B0 figure was unarmored, so their back-and-forth was pretty linear for about 30 seconds longer, the pair of them slipping up and down the field as they each gave as good as they got. That was impressive enough even with the sparring dummy not having a weapon, because Viv was pretty sure Rei's own specs couldn't have actually averaged higher than C2 or C3 by now. As it was he was obviously having to focus with all his might, having to zero in on his opponent's every move, drowning out all other distraction.

Then again, Viv suspected drowning everything else out was exactly the point...

It also ended up being the reason for Rei's abrupt and brutal loss, the moment he finally caught sight of her.

After dipping and dodging through a series of quick jabs that had been aimed at his face and shoulders, Rei dropped to kick at the B0's ankles with a sweeping leg. She leapt back deftly, but immediately snapped forward again, bringing a diving punch downward at Rei that was probably backed by enough force to shatter the floor if it connected. Capitalizing on his Speed, though, Rei planted both feet again and launched himself into a low roll by the woman, coming up again behind her with hands up, ready to take whatever the hologram would throw at him next.

That, of course, was when he saw Viv, and the obvious surprise in his eyes—the only part of his face exposed between the metal-plated band

around his forehead and the half-mask that covered his nose and mouth— was enough to have her grin and start to lift a hand in greeting.

She hadn't even gotten it all the way up when the B0 took advantage of Rei's unfortunate moment of diversion to rush him like a cannonball, a flying knee catching him so hard in the gut that Viv winced as she heard the impact of it.

WHAM!

The force of the blow—hitting him full-on since he hadn't even had the presence of mind to throw up a block—sent Rei rocketing backwards so hard that gravity hadn't quite taken hold of him by the time he slammed into the invisible barrier that marked the edge of the training field. There was an ugly thud of flesh and steel hitting solidified light, coupled with a brief, rippling disruption in the hologram, and for a second his impetus had Rei sticking to the flickering wall like a limp starfish.

Then, slowly peeling off the hologram with an "Urghh...", he tumbled to the floor to hug at his gut and gasp for air as the Arena made the expected announcement.

"Fatal Damage Accrued."

Immediately the B0 sparring partner froze, then turned and started walking back to the center of the field, taking up a passive position there where she would wait for additional instruction. Feeling a little bad, Viv pushed herself off the door and started walking around the white edge of the field, the solid-form simulation of the floor raised a yard off the ground. Reaching Rei in brief order, she stood outside the wall, over his curled form for a few seconds, watching his continued fight to reclaim the breath the finishing blow had very obviously stolen from him.

"If I could give some unsolicited, super high-level feedback, bud... Not getting hit is a really good strategy."

Rei's answer only came as a single wheezing laugh, which had Viv feeling a drop of relief. Whatever had happened, it wasn't enough to blacken the boy's mood completely.

The again, she was pretty sure Rei could have had the building collapse on him and still manage to laugh it off most days...

It was another 10 seconds or so before Shido and its neuroline finally managed to help him get control of what had to have been a spasming diaphragm, then another 15 before Rei was able to push himself up onto his knees. He didn't look around at her, though, and Viv watched as he took a few more slow breaths, eyes closed before finally speaking.

"Recall."

In a blur Shido vanished from around his scarred limbs, condensing into the familiar loops of the white-and-black CAD bands around his wrists, blue vysetrium gems glimmering with light. At the same time, Rei must have canceled the field projection, because the transparent Neutral Zone he'd been fighting in began to depixilate, lowering him the 3 feet down to the black projected plating that was exposed, and the hologram steadily faded. Only after he touched down on the actual floor of the room did Rei finally climb to his feet, turning to Viv at last, red in the face from exertion.

"How'd you find me?"
Viv smirked. "Seriously?"
Rei only stared back, and after a second she sighed, then summarized

in quick succession.
"Mystery meeting with Administration. Likelihood of it going

sideways: non-zero. You not showing up at breakfast: either it went long, or it went sideways. You not showing up and not letting even Aria know what

was going on: it went sideways, and probably badly." Viv lifted her hands to indicate the training chamber. "You probably wanted to vent, and you probably wanted to do it alone. That means a fight, and that means not East Center. So... voila."

Rei snorted. "You're a pain in the ass, you know that?" "Yeah, but at least I'm cute."
"Is that what your parents tell you?"
Viv grinned.

Then, though, she felt the smile tense on her face as she looked him up and down.

Aside from the flush of effort that still lingered in his cheeks and neck, Rei was drenched in sweat. His white hair—long enough again now that it needed to be tied into a ponytail behind his head—was sticking to his ears and forehead where strands had slipped out. What was more, there were pressure lines across his nose, arms, and legs where Shido's presence had pushed into his skin, which—given the surgically-perfect fit of the CADs— only happened with extended exposure.

"You've been here a while, huh?" Viv asked at last, eyeing in particular the redness over her friend's knuckles, where hitting whatever multitude of enemies he'd thrown himself at had even left long-formed calluses a little bloody.

Rei hesitated, then nodded, looking away from her. "How long?"
"...What time is it?"
"Noonish."

"... Little under three hours?"
That caught Viv by surprise.
"Since 0900? Seriously? How long were you at Administration for?"

"Half hour. If that."

As confused as she was worried, now, Viv stared at Rei. "Half an hour? We thought you'd gotten stuck there."

Rei shook his head, lifting a hand so he, too, could take in his raw knuckles. "Nope. In and out."

Viv waited for more, but the silence only stretched on. It lasted so long, in fact, that her concern started to deepen by the second. This was... weird. Really weird. Rei had always carried his own problems, sure, but even when he'd been at his lowest he'd been energized, been loud and proud and ready to move forward. Viv had seen him carted in and out of major surgeries with a thumbs up, had seen him bullied and beaten and bloodied, only to rise above it all. He'd weathered the abuses of Dyrk Reese and his puppets for half a year, and eventually given them all the middle finger by coming out of his last Intra-School fight standing over Logan's prone form.

But now... Now, something was missing.

Now it was like some little piece of the light that had always made Rei shine had dimmed inside of him...

"Rei... What the hell happened?" Viv finally asked quietly.

For a long few seconds he didn't answer, still studying the weeping skin of his knuckles. He seemed to be contemplating, seemed to be debating how best to say what he wanted to, or maybe if he wanted to say anything at all.

"I'm... not really sure," he got out after a bit. "Honestly, that's the only real truth I can give you..."

Viv narrowed her eyes at that. "Oookay... Well that's not gonna fly. I sent Aria and the others off on a wild goose chase because we didn't hear from you. Even Lo—even Grant's checking the Hospital to make sure you didn't slip and break your neck on the ice or something. We were worried."

"Yeah... I'm sorry." Rei was quicker with a response this time, and he finally dropped his hand to look back at her, expression a little pained. "I should have said something, I just..." He trailed off again, and Viv, watching him carefully, suddenly realized what was so out of place.

Rei looked... lost.

For as long as she'd known him, for as many hoops as he'd had to jump through and hurdles he'd had to clear, Rei had never—not once— looked lost.

Viv was in front of Rei in a heartbeat, both hands on his shoulders. With all her Strength she pushed him down, dropping too even as his legs— not expecting the pressure—gave under him as he let out a "Woah!" of surprise. In an instant they were seated in front of each other at the edge of the training field, Viv not letting go of him as the wind they could still hear outside echoed dimly in the expansive emptiness of the chamber.

"Reidon Ward, you're going to sit there, and you're going to tell me what's going on." She glared at him intently, hoping to convey that she meant every word. "Exactly what's going on, you hear? No lies, no beating around the bush. You don't get to leave until you do."

"Oh yeah?" Rei countered, trying and failing at a laugh. "You said it's noon? We've got training in an hour. Maybe I'll just sit here in silence until we have to go."

"Then we're both getting brigged for missing team training, and Aria will kick your teeth in herself when she finds out why," Viv answered promptly, finally dropping her hands from his shoulders to sit up straight and cross her arms in resolution. "Like I said, you're not leaving until you tell me what's going on."

Rei grew serious, at that. "You're one to talk. Weren't you just saying this morning there are some things best left alone?"

"Sure." Viv was already ready for this argument. "But my problems I can carry around without vanishing for hours only to turn up looking like my soul got sucked out of my ears."

"That's a bit dramatic..."

"Dude... You look like you could practically play an extra in one of those old zombie movies..."

Rei tried one final time to deflect.

"Fine, but if I talk about it, you have to tell me what going on with you and Gr—"

"Not a chance," Viv cut him off. "Teenage drama does not trump whatever the hell is going on with you. Now... Spill."

Another silence, this time with Rei spent staring at her, partly in surprise, partly in disbelief. Eventually, though, he seemed to understand that Viv wasn't going to let go of this bone, so he settled down slowly, frowning at her as he did.

Only when she'd stared him down in silence for another solid 10 seconds more did he finally open his mouth.

"What if I don't have anything to tell you?"
"You obviously do."
"No, I mean... What if I don't have anything true to tell you? What if I

don't know what's true?"
"What do you mean?"
Rei made a face. "That is what I mean: I'm not sure. I don't actually

know." He looked to be chewing on his words again, but the pause was brief this time before he spoke in a slow, uncertain tone. "I think someone might be messing with me... And if they're not, well... That might be a lot worse."

Viv relaxed a little, then, seeing the walls beginning to come down a little.

"Rei..." she started more gently this time. "You have to start from the top. I'm not following... What happened at Administration?"

Rei nodded unsteadily, looking away again. "Yeah... Yeah... Of course... It's just... It's a lot, Viv..."

"We've handled wor—"
"No. If I'm right... we definitely haven't."
Viv tensed at the words. Rei had S-Ranked CAD Growth. S-Ranked.

The only cadet in the history of the ISCM to be granted an S-Ranked spec on assignment in any category, much less in Growth. And Viv had been the first person he'd told.

And yet that had taken less to get out of him than this...
"Rei... Just tell me what's go—"
Once more, though, Rei interrupted her, but this time it was by meeting

her eyes again, NOED alive with blue light flashing script across his grey irises.

There was ding in the corner of her own frame, and Viv saw that he'd sent her something. With a mix of fear and anticipation she selected the alert at once to find a single document, opening it even before she'd finished reading the title of the file out loud.

"'Offer of Sponsorship by the Kamiya C—'?"

Then, though, the wall of text was scrolling upwards before her eyes, and Viv couldn't believe what she was seeing.

"Oh... Oh holy, holy shit..."

Her muttered curse didn't even begin to address her astonishment. She knew what this was, had known what it was the moment her brain had

registered the name of the doc. Now, though, seeing the lines on lines of legalese flow by in a steady stream, the impact of it rocked her.

A sponsorship offer? A sponsorship?
"For a first-year?" she demanded aloud.
"Yeah..." Rei answered her slowly. "Yeah... My thoughts exactly." "Rei, this is insane!" Viv finally looked through the contract at him

again, vision partially obscured even as the text went out of focus. "Insane! You got an offer! As a first-year! How does that even happen? Who is this from?" Bringing the contract forward again she snapped to the top of the text with a quick command. "The 'Kamiya Corporation'? Who even is that? I've never heard of them!"

"Me neither," Rei assured her, watching Viv steadily. "At least not before this morning. That's not even half of it, though, Viv. Look at how much they're offering..."

"Oh man..." Viv hissed again, starting to scroll through once more in search of the "Compensation" clause header she'd thought she'd seen somewhere. "Don't tell me it's—"

Then she froze, finding the number.

"Yeah..." Rei acknowledged her silent astonishment. "Yeah... How 'bout that?"

Viv had no words for a long time, staring at the number—the million credit number—in utter shock. She wasn't as familiar as Rei was when it came to the details of SCTs—who was really?—but she knew enough to be aware that the promised value floating there before her wasn't just high.

It was staggeringly so.

"What the...?" she breathed, forcing herself to tear her eyes from the number, reading more carefully now through the other, smaller paragraphs underneath it, her shock only increasing with every sentence.

The promised credits weren't the only incredible aspect of the offer, it transpired. Kamiya—whoever they were—were promising Rei things Viv doubted a lot of Users got to see in writing before they became System-level competitors at least, and maybe even higher. There were guarantees of housing as needed, both permanent residency for the duration of the contract and temporary for competitions. Expense coverage was promised —because Rei would obviously be needing more than a million credits a year, why not?—as well as access to rehab and medical facilities stated to outclass even the ISCM's, in case of any potential injury recovery. There was language about marketing deals, promotional events, even merchandise lines?

The big one, though, the really big one was—

"Trainers," Viv whispered, reading a clause that had been entirely bolded, as though the drafter of the contract had known this would be an area of particular interest. "Rei, there are guarantees in here about getting you private trainers. A- and S-Class. They're even promising to find Atypicals..."

"Yeah... I know... I read it all, on the way over here. Twice."

"But..." Viv was having trouble finding the words to voice her disbelief even as she continued to read. "But why? I mean I get it, to a degree. It's pretty obvious you've got something special going on, but this is nuts. That's way more than any pro Sectional-level fighter I know of makes, and promising S-Ranked trainers? My parents looked into that when they hired my instructors over the summer, and it was so expensive."

"It would cost more than the compensation they're offering," Rei said with a nod. "Probably a couple times more, if they hired for any kind of extended period."

"For a first-year?"

"Yeah... That was what made me suspicious..."

At last, at long last, Viv's managed to pull her focus from the contract again to take in her best friend. He hadn't looked away again, but that lack of light was more obvious than ever, a sort of hollowness behind Rei's eyes that was more alarming than anything else he'd shown her thus far. It had Viv closing out of the text immediately, studying him intently as she asked the obvious question.

"Suspicious about... what?"

Rei, though, hesitated again. Viv let him take his pause, this time, guessing they'd finally gotten to whatever it was that had her friend secluding himself in the furthest corner of campus that would still let him punch something. The contract was insane, sure, but Viv didn't for a second think the unprecedented nature of it was enough to warrant this strange theft of his usual energy. He was unprecedented, after all, as was his CAD. Someone was bound to have noticed eventually, right?

And yet...
"Do you know what my name means, Viv?"
Viv blinked at that, not having expected this particular question. It was

especially strange given she was sure Rei already knew the answer.
"... Yeah?" she answered tentatively. "Of course? It's an identifier. Marks you as a 'ward of the state'. Or it did before you emancipated

yourself and got into Grandcr—"
"No," Rei interrupted with a dark laugh. "Not my last name. My first

name. Do you know what my first name means?"
"Oh..." If anything, this was even more confusing. "I think you

explained it to me, once. Something about an old god from Earth, or something...?"

Rei nodded. "Yeah. Pretty much. 'Raijin', or 'Raiden'. Ancient Japanese god of lighting, thunder, and storms."

"Oookay...?" Viv intoned, not sure what she was supposed to make of this.

"And how about 'Shido'? Do you know what that means?"

Abruptly, Viv started to see where Rei was going, the pieces clicking together.

"No," she answered after a second. "But I'm going to assume it's something in Japanese..."

"You got it. 'Seed'. 'Shido' means 'seed'..."

Ordinary Viv might have been surprised that she hadn't been aware of this, but any such considerations were swept away as her theory solidified.

"And let me guess... 'Kamiya' is Japanese too, isn't it...?"

"Full marks. Nice job. I don't even think the colonel or Maddison Kent put that together."

Viv stared at Rei, forcing herself to skate by the fact that both Rama Guest and his chief assistant had apparently sat in on the meeting. Alarm was the first thing that registered, shifting quickly into worry, then disbelief.

Then, though, came the anger.
"No. No way. There's no way. It's got to be a coincidence."
Rei shook his head. "That's what I thought, too. At first."
"At first?!" Viv demanded, feeling the heat of building fury start to

burn in her gut. "What do you mean, 'at first'?! Rei, if you're saying what I think you're saying...!"

She didn't finish the sentence, almost afraid to voice the words out loud. She understood, now. She understood what it was that had robbed Rei of his light, that had sent him into a spiral that he was obviously having trouble escaping. There was only one thing she could ever imagine that

might shake Reidon Ward—the very aptly-called 'Iron Prince of Galens', even if he'd never admit it—to his core so thoroughly.

"No way..." she hissed again, feeling the anger pulse.

"Way," Rei answered simply, his NOED alive again. "Kamiya's not a known name way out here away from Sol, but it's big. Really big. Took me all of five seconds to pull it up on the feeds. About the same to find the leadership team profiles. They're nice enough to be pretty transparent about their head honchos."

There was another ping to her frame, and this time Viv opened up the notification to find a feed link. Following it, she found herself looking at a brief list of biographies, complete with modest, circular headshots of what were obviously the executives of the Kamiya Corporation. There were a good eight or so just in her frame now, with more half-visible to be scrolled through at the bottom of the page, but Viv didn't have to look past the very first face and name before every muscle in her body stiffened.

Dr. Kamiya Hiroto, the profile read, listing the man as the CEO and president of the Corporation. There was a sparing of other information as well set in a brief profile, but it was the image of the man that Viv couldn't look away from. Kamiya Hiroto was handsome for his age—some sixty or seventy years old, by the looks of his face—but there was something about the fall of his straight, white-streaked black hair and the angle of his jaw. His nose and mouth were different, as was the more-distinct slant of his eyes, but those features were all cast aside in favor of one thing.

"Grey..." Viv managed to get out. "Rei..."

"Yeah..." Rei answered quietly. "You've said it yourself, haven't you? That I'm not exactly 'all-natural', just like the rest of you." He pointed at his face, indicating his own eyes.

His own slate-grey eyes, whose shade could have been plucked from the picture of Kamiya Hiroto Viv still had floating before her.

"Pretty sure my family has finally decided to acknowledge I exist, Viv..."

CHAPTER 8

"Control. Control is a factor too often neglected when it comes to assessing the effectiveness of a soldier, much less a User specifically. Without control—without the ability to manage yourself, your strengths, your emotions—what are you left with? What do you become?

I'll give you the answer... You become dangerous."

-Captain Elean Samsus Combat Theory Department Head at the Galens Institute Lecture on squad coordination and communication

"Arada! Ward! You're late!"

Lieutenant Catori Imala's annoyed bark nearly brought Rei and Viv up short as they bolted barefooted onto the main floor of the Arena together, already breathless from having risked booking it at a full sprint from West Center all the way to the middle of campus, then getting Viv changed in a hurry. The Phalanx sub-instructor—a tall, narrow-shouldered woman with a tanned complexion and pale, orangish hair that hung in a tight braid down to her waist—had caught sight of them the moment they'd run up the ramp and through the double doors that were one of the many entrances that led onto the field from the underworks, and her shout had the attention of everyone present turning on them.

Most unfortunately, this included Valera Dent's, the chief combat instructor looking like she'd been in the middle of lecturing the other 16 squad members only to have the conversation interrupted by the two's tardy arrival.

Bracing himself for a thorough berating, Rei didn't look at Viv as they closed the gap a little slower now, working just as hard not to meet Aria or Catcher's gazes as they did Dent's or Imala's. When they were within the circle of waiting cadets, they finally pulled up into a salute.

"Reporting for training, ma'am," Rei addressed Dent quickly, not trusting Viv to keep her tone level if she'd spoken first. "Apologies for running late."

"Apologies don't cut it, cadet." Imala was the one to answer, stare fierce as she stepped by the captain to stand before them, cutting a frightening figure in her red-on-white combat suit. "You better have a damn good reason for why you almost left your teammates hanging dry for the first match, or you're both going to be running laps around this field until your feet are—"

"Lieutenant, I've been informed Ward may have special circumstances. Take over the discussion for me, if you please."

If Imala was surprised by Dent's calmer interruption, the A9 Phalanx didn't show it. Instead she spun to give the older woman her own brief salute, then moved forward smartly to pick up what sounded like a lecture on some minor reoccurring issues the different squads had been demonstrating.

As she did, Dent turned and moved smoothly by Rei and Viv, motioning them to follow her. Complying, the two fell in step behind the tall woman until she faced them a dozen yards from the others, eyes steady over the black line of her prosthetic lower face.

"I understand you had an interesting meeting this morning, Ward. Is that correct?"

The question came quietly despite their distance from Imala and the rest of the first-years, the Bishop obviously not wanting anyone else to

overhear. It said something about her awareness of his and Viv's relationship, too, given she hadn't bothered to separate them. It was one of the many reasons he wasn't remotely surprised the woman had clearly been read in on the situation.

Or at least what aspects of the situation Galens was aware of.

"Yes, ma'am," he answered simply, not trusting himself to keep an even tone, either, if he'd elaborated.

Dent nodded, the gold brim of her black cap glinting in the Arena's lights. "And is that the reason for your tardiness?"

Rei hesitated, unsure of how best to answer this question. In the end, he and Viv had actually ended up skipping lunch, but that was fine. Neither of them harbored much of an appetite after the rest of their pre-training hour was spent half with Rei talking his best friend off from marching out to light the Administration building on fire, half with both of them trying to disprove his theory about the Kamiya Corporation's intentions and—more distressingly—motivations. In the end, they'd done just the opposite, with Rei having grown more and more convinced of his suspicions until he'd realized they'd completely lost track of time and flown from the West Center for the Arena, praying that the wind and snow would discourage any patrolling officers from shouting after them to slow down.

They'd also, in the end, completely failed to message either Aria or Catcher, which Rei suspected was why he thought he could feel at least one pair of eyes—probably emerald-green, if he had to guess—staring daggers at his back.

"We—I lost track of time discussing the meeting, ma'am." He decided sticking as close to the truth as he dared was the best answer to Dent's question, in the end. "It was... a lot. Viv was helping me get a handle on it. It's my fault we're late. I should have kept an eye on the clock."

Dent looked to Viv, at this.
"That so, Arada?"
In the corner of his vision, Rei saw Viv jaw clench as she offered a

very stiff "It's both our fault, ma'am" through half-gritted teeth.
It was strange, in a way. Rei had left Administration that morning feeling... empty. The moment he'd been excused after the "conversation" with Rama Guest—which had largely amounted to a string of subtle threats on Rei's life, limb, and future in the ISCM if he so much as harmed a hair on Aria's head—he'd chased down his suspicions about Kamiya, and found his evidence without much effort. It had stolen something from him, in that moment. Rei wasn't sure how—though maybe he understood why a little better—but looking into the still face of Kamiya Hiroto and seeing what could have been his own eyes staring back at him had stolen something. He'd been left hollow, the emptiness only filled by an anger he hadn't felt in a long, long time. Years, even. It had demanded an outlet, demanded an exodus. His fight with training simulations had helped a little, to that extent. But not half as much as Viv's lingering fury on his behalf, her wrath palpable even now, standing there with the Iron Bishop herself staring them

both down.
Dent, too, seemed to sense something in Viv's hard tone, because the

captain was suddenly studying the girl a bit more carefully. After a moment she looked back to Rei, and he could have sworn the woman was about to ask him something, her expression briefly slipping into what might almost have been genuine concern.

The calm, intent mask of the chief combat instructor of the Galens Institute was back up as quickly as it had gone, though, and Dent lifted one black-gloved hand to point towards the edge of the Arena floor.

"I'll allow some leniency given the circumstances, but you're still not excused for nearly leaving your squamates in a bad spot. You two are going to run laps around the Wargames field until your first fight is up, and you're going to hold a C0 Speed pace at minimum. We're practicing Team Battles this afternoon, so I'll keep Laurent and the rest of your squad back from the first round. Is that understood?"

"Yes ma'am!" Rei and Viv answered together. It was definitely a forgiving punishment by any account. Aside from the fact that the captain would have been well within her right to brig the pair of them for a night, they shared speed specs above C5, if equally lagging Endurance. A C0 pace for what was likely to be 15 to 20 minutes would be uncomfortable, but it wouldn't leave them totally spent for their first match.

"Good. Get to it. And if you're late again I will ensure that Hadish Barnes hosts the both of you for an overnight stay. Without training privileges."

With another mirrored acknowledgement, they took off at once, Rei experiencing a twinge of guilt at the relief he felt that he wouldn't have to face the others just yet. Sure enough, as they reached the open 5-yard-wide track that encircled every Arena and started to speed up—in silence despite running side-by-side, as was mandated for such disciplinary action—he didn't miss not only Aria and Catcher's eyes following them around the closest edge of the field, but Cashe and Logan's almost as intently.

Yeah... He definitely still needed a minute to prep for that face to face...

In the end, Rei suspected Dent—maybe in full awareness of the fact, knowing the captain—had done him and Viv a favor. While their talk in the West Center definitely got him feeling better than he had when his hollow rage convinced him to call up a B0 training partner to spar with—a combat

level that was yet a bit beyond his ability—the fury had still very much been there as the two of them bolted for the Arena. He suspected it would be there for some time, too, but as they ran in silence—the wind rushing by as the C0 pace carried them around the Arena at a speed the Olympic sprinters of centuries past would have fainted to see—Rei got the chance to breathe. He was forced back into the moment, forced back into the present. He'd been lost, for a second there. He'd been lost right up until Viv had shoved him down and all-but-headbutted him into telling her what was going on. He wasn't completely back, yet, sure, but he wasn't gone either, and with every loop around the field Rei was reminded of where he was, and why he was there.

Why he was there...

With a quick series of eye commands, Rei pulled up a specification request, feeling his resolution solidify as Shido's stats scripted out across his vision in rapid lines.

Specifications Request acknowledged.

Combat Assistance Device: Shido. User identification... Accepted. Type: A-TYPE
Rank: C6

Identifying Preferred Mode.
Preferred Mode identified as: BRAWLER

User Attributes:
- Strength: C1
- Endurance: C0

- Speed: C6
- Cognition: C6

CAD Specifications:
- Offense: C3
- Defense: C1
- Growth: S

Display Additional Modes? YES/NO

Not for the first time Rei's eyes lingered on these final two lines of the request. His stomach had finally stopped doing a flip every time he read them or the "Identifying Preferred Mode" code higher up, but he still wasn't used to seeing any of it. They were a new addition to the script, one he was pretty sure was as unique to him as Type Shift itself, which had Rei doubting he would ever completely get accustomed to the presence of the words.

Still, it wasn't his Ability he was interested in the moment. At least not entirely.

His Offense was up to C3 since the weekend, and Strength had just ticked up to C1 after his 2-plus hours of training against the simulations that morning. While Rei's meteoric growth had certainly slowed down ever since his specs had all broken into the Cs, the fact that he could still generally rely on three or four of them ranking up every week was incredible, and that was putting it very mildly. While his average stats were still lower than his overall C6 CAD level thanks to his Growth, he was on pace to break away from Aria before Sectionals and officially become the

highest-ranked of the freshmen cadets at Galens. The first—and only—time the two of them had faced off on an official field had been when Rei had excitedly—or stupidly, depending on who you asked—offered himself up as a partner for the Commencement exposition match, where he'd promptly gotten himself skewered for his trouble. He'd been an E-Ranked nothing then, though, all those months ago. The next time they went head to head— which was very likely sooner than either of them had admitted to themselves yet, given the circumstances—they would be much more evenly matched.

And Rei knew he had earned this strength. Even if he might never admit it out loud, with literal blood and sweat—and the endless help of friends who were too good for him—he had earned it. F8 to C6, he had risen since assignment.

By the end of Sectionals, Rei knew there was a chance he was going to have clawed his way three full tiers up from the bottom of the barrel to a place very few first-year Users were ever fortunate enough to see...

Rei's jaw clenched at the thought, and he closed the spec request with a blink before dropping his head and picking up speed a little, pushing his pace to C1, then C2, earning himself a grunt of annoyance from Viv as she moved to match him. The slap of their bare feet over the cool metal was soon a rapid-fire song, but Rei barely heard it, too focused was he on his one conclusion.

Whatever happened, whatever came of the next days and weeks, he wasn't about to let "Kamiya"—and whatever that name might mean to him beyond just the title of a company—be anything more than just another reason to push himself further and faster than he had yesterday.

After 5 minutes of running and with their breath finally starting to come harder, Rei and Viv heard the first match of the afternoon get

announced throughout the Arena, and taking a loop along the south end of the floor the two of them saw a variation of "Cliffs" rise into being above the 30-yard diameter of the north Team Battle area. Not 30 seconds later the empty expanse of the stands was filled with the sounds of fighting and shouts of coordination happening as Vademe's and Martin's teams went head to head in an Elimination bout, the 6v6 fight escalating rapidly into an all-out brawl across the simulation of stone and dust and mountain vegetation. It wasn't long, in fact, before the winner was announced as Vademe's squad—who'd been heralding the Red Team colors—and the zone dissipated to bring both the victors and their fallen opponents back to the ground. Rei and Viv watched more intently, now, while the two squads converged on the spot where Aria, Catcher, Cashe, and Logan had been looking on, with Dent and Imala descending from observation to give feedback.

Then, after nearly 20 minutes of running and the burn very real in both their legs, the Lieutenant's blessed shout finally reached them.

"Arada! Ward! Get over here! You're up!"

Neither of them being dumb enough to slow down, Rei and Viv shifted course and were in front of Imala and Dent again in barely more than a heartbeat, standing beside Aria and the others, who collectively only cast one or two sidelong glances their way. Still not meeting anyone's eyes, though, the pair of them waited at ease expectantly.

"Cadets, enter the field. We're going to give Vademe's group a bit to recoup, then they'll join you. I want to see every effort, even if a couple of you are worn out." Imala's eyes were as sharp as knives as she glared at Rei and Viv pointedly, who both had the sense not to do more than join the other four in shouting a collective "Yes, ma'am!" before dispersing towards the Team Battle zone.

The moment they crossed the silver line that marked the edge of it— spreading out a bit as they headed for the far end of the 30-yard circle and the scattered line of six distinct starting rings waiting for them there—a notification popped up across Rei's frame, bright in the red text that only displayed in combat circumstances.

Team communications established.

Though he'd expected it, Rei couldn't help but wince as Aria's voice— as concerned as it was angry—immediately rang clear over his NOED.

"I'm assuming I don't need to ask for an explanation."
Rei almost sighed as they crossed the halfway mark of the field.
"We'll talk about it later," he answered, knowing Shido would pick up

the words even when it wasn't called. "We should just focus on the match right now."

Unsurprisingly, that didn't go over so well.

"Oh no you don't. You skip breakfast, go missing for the better part of the morning without a word, then Viv sends us all off looking for you only to go AWOL too. An hour later here you both are, together and late. Again: I'm assuming I don't need to ask for an explanation."

Rei did sigh this time, making sure to bring two fingers up to press to the spot where his neuro-optic was implanted as he did.

"Muting yourself won't help, Rei. I'm looking at you."

Wincing again, Rei glanced to his left sheepishly. Sure enough Aria was glaring lightning at him from a few yards away, making for her usual flanking position that was the southmost of the starting circles. They had a set order to their initial places for Team Battle, having quickly deduced how best to take advantage of their various capabilities within a few days of the

first week of training. While Aria and Cashe held their edges—their spears' reaches provide the best opening defense for most object-based formats— Viv and Grant comprised the center to form an ideal piercing point of speed and power if they needed to rush for Elimination or any capture-themed fight. That left Rei and Catcher—the most versatile of the six of them—to take up the spots between Aria and Viv and Cashe and Grant respectively, providing adaptable support for whoever needed it.

It was unfortunate when that all went out the window for the Wargames matches that often scattered them across a broader map, but they had to start somewhere.

"Aria, I promise we'll talk about it later," Rei swore, finally meeting the girl's fiery gaze in the hopes that she would see that he genuinely meant every word of it. "I promise. But now's not the time."

"Dude, you get dragged off to a mystery meeting with who-knows- who, then go totally radio silent on us." Catcher, for once, sounded almost as angry as Aria. "Can you blame us for being a little peeved?"

"Both of you, shut up."

The harsh words came hard just as they reached their starting points, and each of them—include Cashe and Grant—turned inward to blink with some alarm at Viv. She, for her part, had her eyes set across the empty field from them, having reached her circle first and whirled to set her feet and wait, arms crossed rigidly over her chest.

It was hard to tell, but Rei was pretty sure he could literally see Gemela's twin bands shaking around her trembling wrists.

"...Viv?" Aria asked, her anger suddenly replaced by concern.

She didn't get an answer, however, and Rei's earlier appreciation for his best friend's empathetic fury suddenly turned into his own worry.

"Viv, take a breath..." he told her evenly. "It's not worth it."

Viv responded by turning slowly towards him, eyes wide with anger. "Not worth—Are you kidding me, Rei?!"
"Guys, what the hell is going on?!" Catcher's demand was wholly

unsubtle now as he bent to look around Grant at the three of them.
"I said shut up, Catcher!" Viv snarled in answer, spinning on him

without leaving her spot. "Rei said we'll talk about it later, so we'll—!" "All of you. Shut. Up."
Grant's voice, a heavy, dark rumble, carried like a threat over the coms,

and the boy's powerful presence as he turned black-red eyes on each of them over their heads in turn had everyone stopping short.

"You want to fight? Fine," he continued, his stare lingering on Viv in warning. "Do it. But how about after the match, and after your coms can't be overheard by the instructors?"

Rei started, and he heard Aria take in a quick gasp from his left as she, too, saw their stupidity. Sure enough, looking across the field again Rei found Lieutenant Imala staring at all six of them in silence, clearly having been waiting for them to make the realization. Behind her, Dent too was frowning in their direction, having half-turned away from Laquita Martin, who she seemed to have just been talking to.

"Are you all finished?" Imala snarled after they were finally quiet for a moment, ice-cold words ringing as clear through their NOEDs as they might had the tall woman been standing next to each of them. When no one was dumb enough to answer, she nodded slowly. "Good. Clearly you lot haven't gotten the message that your whole team is already on very thin ice thanks to Ward and Arada, so let me make it crystal clear for every one of you. If the captain or I hear another peep out of your squad that isn't related to this match, you'll be dismissed from today's training. You two in

particular." Even standing so far away, Rei could tell she was glaring between him and Viv again. "Understood?"

"Yes, ma'am!" the collective answer rang out at once, and Rei decided he would make sure that was the last time he got chewed out that day.

Without so much as acknowledging their agreement, Imala turned away again, and for a bit they all stood there silently. Viv, Catcher, and Grant kept staring sullenly forward as Cashe occasionally glanced nervously around at them all from the far end of the line, while Rei had to work himself not to look at Aria.

Fortunately, a message notification hit his frame just before he was about to cave.

Are you okay?

It was like magic. As he read the question, a weight lifted off Rei's shoulders, some of the building tension in his back releasing. He was worried about Viv, still, but it seemed like her temper had cooled enough of Aria's own irritation to have concern rise predominant again.

Thinking that responding by hand might push Imala's buttons too much if she caught him, he took the extra time to answer in-frame.

Yeah, he spelled out with his eyes. I've got a handle on it. The meeting was with your uncle and some civilians. Corporate reps. Maddison Kent was there too.

The brief delay in answer told him Aria also wasn't foolish enough to give them away by using the projected keyboards that would have been preferable in most any other situation.

Corporate reps?

I'll tell you later. You and Catcher both. Trust me, it's not something we should get into right now.

Rei, what happened? Aria. Later. Please.

The delay in response was longer this time, and Rei finally gave in to glance around at her briefly. Aria didn't notice, too busy was she frowning into empty space, focus clearly on the conversation he could barely make out across her NOED. After a good few seconds, he saw her eyes start to move again, and only then did the message finally come.

But you're okay?

Rei wasn't sure why—maybe it was the insistence of the repeated question, or maybe that he just hadn't really registered what the words meant to him—but he felt a familiar emotion squeeze at his chest, reading the words again. He smiled. The first real smile he thought he'd managed to put on since before meeting Ueno Jasper's sharp eyes that morning.

Yes, he responded more firmly this time. Viv got me out of the rut. He paused, unsure of himself for a moment before adding: Seeing you helped a lot, too. I'm sorry I worried you.

He sent the message, and couldn't stop himself from watching and waiting. Sure enough, Aria's eyes snapped forward the moment she received it, only barely moving as she read his answer.

Then, like clockwork, she stiffened as her cheeks went a touch pink, snapping out of her frame to briefly shoot him a glare that somehow seemed all at once annoyed, embarrassed, and pleased.

Chuckling to himself, Rei turned his gaze forward again, indeed feeling much, much better than he might have thought he could have not an hour or so before.

It wasn't 5 minutes later that the Lieutenant's distant call had Vademe and Kay's group getting to their feet from where they'd been taking a well- deserved break on the cool steel of the projection plating just outside the Team Battle ring. Soon the half-dozen of them, too, were stepping onto the field, splitting off until they formed a mirrored line across the circle, all standing tall to face off with Rei and the others. Unlike them, Vademe's six hadn't yet settled on a specific starting formation, usually changing it up a little every time they fought, which had its own advantages. This time— perhaps in a bit of an echo to Aria and Cashe—Vademe and Kay had picked flanking positions, with Jiang, Ranjha, Tethers, and Phillips between them. Once they'd settled, the twelve first-years stood at the ready, Rei nodding politely to Vademe as he caught the Lancer's eye, thinking he saw Aria, Catcher, and Cashe do the same to some other member of the opposing team on either side of him. Grant, of course, didn't so much as twitch, and Rei couldn't pretend he was surprised when he stole a quick look to his left to see Viv staring across the projection plating with murder in her eyes.

Uh oh, he had just enough time to think, wondering if it was worth trying to get the girl's attention again to make another attempt at calming her down, only to be interrupted as the ground around them suddenly changed to a light, bluish hue, and several voices rang clear in his head as calls immediately started getting made.

"Volcanic Slopes?" Cashe asked in a rush from the far end of the line as the familiar sensation of being lifted from the floor took hold of them, the Arena bringing them up while it drew whatever field Dent and Imala had selected for them into steady being.

"No. Desert."

It was Catcher who called it before they were even a yard in the air, the ground around them indeed turning to uneven sand under their still-bare feet. Rei agreed, but kept the coms deliberately clear, just like they'd practiced a hundred times before. He decided to trust that Viv wouldn't do anything stupid. She could leash her temper, when she had to.

... Couldn't she?

"Desert," Aria confirmed, and at once started giving commands even as the field took form before them, rising rapidly before their eyes to swiftly hide Vademe and the others from view even as the stands faded into darkness. "Looks like a dune-heavy variation. Nighttime. I'll call north or south as soon as we get a clear idea of obstacles. Catcher, you and Cashe take the lead and be ready to go on defense. Rei, Viv, and Grant will take middle, and I'll watch our rear. We'll adapt based on the scenario selection."

There was a chorus of agreement from everyone but Viv, which didn't make Rei feel any better. He grew more nervous even as they climbed higher, the interlocking plates of the Arena's closed-off ceiling indeed disappearing into a dark emptiness of a brilliant night sky as the temperature around them plummeted. The field itself was plain, the sand reflecting a pale blue in the bright light of a single full moon hanging over the northern horizon they couldn't see, the rising and falling appearance of stars above their heads marking the tops of towering dunes that would make mobility complicated.

"Field: Desert," the Arena announced as anticipated.

"Come on, Viv..." Rei muttered to himself under his breath, low enough not to get picked up by their coms. "Come on..."

Their ascent finally halted, starting positions having shifted only slightly so that they found themselves in a deep valley between two steep, sandy slopes ahead and behind them. Rei looked around, making the deduction even as Aria's callout echoed his thoughts.

"South," she said simply. "Clearer path. Too much possible obstruction to the north."

Six bodies immediately shifted to the right, tense and ready. The Arena didn't keep them waiting long.

"The Galens Institute: Red Team versus the Galens Institute: Blue Team." The clear voice spoke out of the dark. "Elimination Bout. Combatants... Call."

"Call," Rei and five other voices commanded, and the night was suddenly ablaze with crimson light.

Shido, just like each of his squadmates' other CADs, had adapted to their team-assigned colors. Instead of the familiar deep blue Rei was accustomed to, the vysetrium that lined his Brawler Mode claws and the armor plating of his arms, legs, and half-mask glowed a shifting red, the Stryon particles within the Device's crystalline vysetrium making the light swim and shift within. Before him, Aria's typical green was gone as well, and over his shoulder he knew each of the other four would be similarly matched. It was always strange to see, with Rei only just getting a little

used to the change after months of Team Battle exposure they'd started in the second quarter of the school year, but the momentary adjustment was worth being able to tell the difference between friend and foe in nothing but a glance.

Devices, after all, cut down allies just as well as they did enemies when such unfortunate events became relevant.

On cue, more red script appeared in the top left corner of Rei's vision, starting off what would be his in-action combat log.

Field presence detected. CAD-call detected. Reprioritizing all processing to combat functionalities.

"Elimination," Aria repeated in the bare seconds they had between announcements. "No orders. Stick together. You all know what to do."

Any other day, Rei would have agreed with her wholeheartedly.
As it was, though...
But then the Arena spoke again, and Rei could only hope against hope

that he was worrying for no reason.

"Combatants... Fight."

The starting circles blinked out, and five of them started southward, intending to collapse as Aria had ordered. In a blaze, however, someone bolted by Rei at breakneck speed, lithe form leaving trails of red across his vision against the night.

He didn't need Catcher's curse, nor Aria's shout of alarm, to know who it had been.

"Oh shit!"

"Viv! No!"

Dammit, Rei thought before abandoning the formation himself, flying after the faint glow that was all that was left of his best friend, the girl having already turned a corner in the sandy valley they'd been aiming for.

"I'll try to catch her!" he shouted over the coms as he tore away from the others. "I'm the only one fast enough! Collapse on us when you can!"

"She's going to get herself killed!" Catcher yelled after him.

As he ran, though, leaving the four of them in the dust in less than 2 seconds, Rei wasn't so sure he agreed. He'd caught a glimpse of the look in Viv's eyes as she ripped by, just caught a hint of the anger that blazed there...

If Catcher wanted to be worried about anyone, Vademe and the others might be more worth his thoughts, in that moment...

There were only two times in her life Viv could recall ever feeling this angry. As she ran, as she kicked up a spray of sand with every nimble step while the artificial red of Gemela's glow cast weird shadows on the inclines of the dunes around her, she couldn't help but think of those times, think about those moments. The first had been during her and Rei's first year at Grandcrest Prep, a burning indignation fueled by her own mother and father's dismissal of the boy who had quickly become her best friend, the only time she had ever hung up on her parents as she'd told them to get on board or not bother calling her again.

The second had been more recent, standing over Rei and looking down at his nearly-unrecognizable face, taking in a body so bruised and

battered he could barely lift his head from the hospital bed to try to explain what happened.

They don't get to do this, was all Viv could think, pushing her legs to even further speed despite them not having quite recovered from the disciplinary laps. They shouldn't get to do this!

Her fury, though, had nowhere to go, no place by which to escape. Rei was no help. After their talk he'd mostly come back to himself, and Viv had watched as they'd done their punishment run in silence, witnessed as his unyielding spirit had worked its magic behind his grey eyes like it always did. She'd seen the change, as subtle as it was, seen the conviction settle back into place, seen the light come back. It had made her feel a little better in the moment, but before long it had only infuriated her further.

What he'd taken back should never have been stolen. What he'd reclaimed should never have had to be chased down.

They don't get to do this!

The desert valley before her blurred oddly, and Viv blinked to clear her vision. She was seeing red, she knew that. She wasn't an idiot—no one at Galens, student, staff, or otherwise, was an idiot—so she knew she was seeing red. It didn't matter, though. Nothing mattered. Viv felt like a bomb was going off in her chest, felt like an eruption was building up between her lungs. Logan being an idiot. Imala yelling at them. Aria and Catcher not taking the damn hint. All of it added to the blossoming fire of anger that was all Viv felt, and she didn't care about the lingering shouts of her friends as she bolted away, nor the sound of someone who could only have been Rei himself giving chase barely 20 steps behind her.

She needed to let it out. She needed to find a way to let it all out, or it was going to swallow her whole.

Fortunately, the faintest hint of blue light ahead—barely teased around a corner in the valley some 5 or 6 yards from her—let her know she'd have her chance soon enough.

Without pausing Viv planted a foot to shift her angle of approach abruptly, pushing her Strength to its limits through the carbonized purple- and-yellow steel of Gemela's boots. The slope of the dune to her left was loose and steep, sure, but she took it at such a speed that her momentum was only barely cut as her metal-clad toes hammered deep into the incline with every step, finding their grip in the cold, harder packing beneath the unsteady top layers. Down to her right, now, the blue light was strengthening, assuring her that what she needed was indeed on the other side of the dune she was sprinting up, her approach muffled by the sand. Viv's vision blurred again as she reached the apex, but she ignored it this time, too focused on what came next.

With a shove and grunt of effort, she leapt, clearing the top of the hill by 10 feet, soaring into the chill of the night as a new, frigid wind caught in her hair.

She didn't feel it. She didn't feel the thrill of the leap, nor the instinctive pitch of her gut as she crested, then started to fall the 30 feet or so earthward. She didn't even feel the elation she might have any other day, seeing that she'd calculated her attack exactly right. None of it mattered.

Not when all six of Vademe's Blue Team were set up in a perfect line there below her, their shared attention in all directions but straight up as she rolled Gemela's blades through her fingers to guide the Device's points down through the drop.

WHAM!

Not a one among the first-year Sectional qualifiers was underserving. Even if they weren't there individually, there was a reason they'd been

hand-picked by Aria, Martin, or Vademe to be a part of their respective squads. Indeed, as they moved they were vigilant, having clearly been carefully instructed to keep eyes peeled. Unfortunately for them, though, none of six seemed to have thought to be wary of an attack from above, so Viv hit them so hard and fast she might as well have been a mortar shell.

The Phalanx Xander Phillips went down first, the longer blade of Gemela's sword taking him through the unprotected space between his shoulder and neck, the Arena registering a severed windpipe and punctured lungs before the boy could even think to scream. Less-fortunate was poor Jasmine Ranjha who'd been standing next to him, the Mauler dropping her two-handed hammer to clutch with a scream at where Viv's parrying dagger sliced a clean line across her face, likely blinding her. Hitting the sandy ground, Viv didn't hesitate to pull the "dying" Phillips down with her as her armor-reinforced legs easily accepted the weight of the 3-story drop, wrenching her sword free of his body as she rolled forward onto her feet again. There was a shout of alarm, but even with Lena Jiang—the fastest Saber of the first-years—among the surviving four, the shock of the attack gave Viv the moment she needed to whirl and gather her bearings, to register Vademe, Kay, and Jiang on her left, with Hannah Tethers alone on her right, split from the others by the fall of her two squadmates.

Viv was on the Lancer in a blink, uncaring about her own open back as she flew at the poor girl with blades flashing.

Tethers, to be fair, had not only qualified for Sectionals individually, but also been among the privileged few who'd gotten to attend Galens exclusive training program the highest-ranked incoming cadets had been invited to the summer before. She was good—very good—and she responded exactly as she was supposed to in the given situation, flinging herself backwards even she swept her spear horizontally in an attempt to

dissuade Viv's approach and maintain the open space between them. Regrettably for her, though, Viv was too quick by half, ducking under the CAD's glowing blue blade even as she closed the distance. Her sword flashed at the girl's gut, but the Lancer twisted her haft in and down to deflect the blade, spinning to her left as she did. Had Viv had any sense of self-preservation, the move would have worked since it offered the chance to slip by and put Tethers between her and the other three Blue Team members still left standing. Viv had already downed two without so much as a scratch. Any other time she would have taken the offered chance to dash by and vanish into the dunes again to regroup with Rei and the others.

Instead, Viv twisted with the parry, bringing one knee up to catch the Lancer clean in the side with all the force of the rush.

As a Duelist Viv was lighter and faster than any of the other CAD- Types, even the Brawlers. That, though, only detracted so far from her Device-boosted Strength, letting the blow land with the impact of a half- dozen sledge-hammers. Tether's reactive shielding was all that kept her ribs —and probably her spine—intact, and the girl was slammed sideways, losing her footing at once to fall and slide across the loose sand with a cry of pain as the Arena undoubtedly registered significant internal injuries. Still blind to everything else, Viv lunged at her fallen opponent, fully expecting to feel three blades take her through the back at any moment.

It was unexpected, therefore, when her sword fell unhindered, and Tethers' whole body went limp as her head was "severed" from her shoulders.

Breathing hard—half out of effort and half of the continued rage that hadn't yet dissipated—Viv whirled, blades at the ready for the inevitable attack. She could feel her neuro-line whirring as her Cognition took in the

scene in a heartbeat, every muscle in her body taut and prepped to defend herself.

Instead, however, all she found was 5 yards of empty space between her and the spot where Rahnja's painful writhing in the sand was starting to diminish, the Mauler still clutching at her maimed face.

Viv blinked, not understanding for the briefest of instances. She'd been wide open. Even in her blind rage, she'd known that she'd been wide open. And while she suspected she was probably good enough to take on Lena Jiang, now, Viv wasn't so brazen as to think she was better than Vademe or Kay, much less both of them at the same time or—MIND forbid —all three.

Then she registered the blazing roar of red through mirrored flashes of blue, and made out the slight form who'd apparently arrived just in time to occupy the rest of the enemy squad.

It was over as quickly as Viv's own fight had been, if not faster. Lena Jiang was already face-down in the sand, looking like she'd been hit from behind just after she'd spun inward when Viv had struck their middle. Kay and Vademe, meanwhile, were still up, but Kay's left arm was limp at the shoulder, and even two-on-one the pair had already lost the key advantage of their Type's superior reach.

Well inside their guard, Rei ripped through them like black-and-red lightning.

Deflecting a one-handed strike from Kay with an easy swipe of Shido's crimson claws, Rei twisted to let by a plunging thrust from Vademe. The spin turned into a flying elbow aimed at the Blue Team leader's temple, succeeding in its intent even when the boy jerked so that the blow only glanced off his head. Vademe staggered, throwing one last desperate slash sideways as he did, but the attack was as weak as the follow-up from Kay

that came from the other direction. Instead of dodging, Rei's hands flashed up to catch the hafts of both spears, stopping the strikes dead and promptly hauling the weapons inward. As was the instinct of almost every User, the two injured Lancers held tight to their Devices, both stumbling forward under the strength of Rei's pull.

It made it simple for him to jump 5 feet in the air and—with terrifying precision—deliver a split kick that caught both of his opponents in the side of the head with mirrored thuds.

Viv—who hadn't even had enough time to take more than a single step towards the fight—didn't need the Arena's announcement a moment later to know Vademe and Kay had been FDAed, the two of them tumbling limply to ground on either side of Rei like a pair of felled trees as he landed again, all the while still holding tight to their now-loose spears, one in each hand.

"All Blue Team combatants eliminated. Winner: Red Team."

Ranjha, apparently, had succumbed to her head wound just as Kay and Vademe dropped, because with the match call the field began to dissolve. Light flooded the dunes briefly when the night above them faded first, then the sands too started to dissipate as Viv felt herself start to descend. While she did, though, she didn't look away from Rei, didn't look away from her best friend even when she saw him turn to her just before he, too, started to drop, lips moving to form her name.

They shouldn't get to do this...

As the field fell away, Aria and the others came into view, having apparently only been around the corner in the valley when the fight ended. In the corner of her vision Viv saw their normal CAD colors return, saw

Devices vanish in a whir of metal and light, and muscle memory had her mumbling "Recall" even as she still didn't look away from Rei.

They don't get to do this...

Then, at last, she touched down, and the cold steel of the projection plating hitting her once-again-bare feet was enough to jolt Viv back into the present.

"Viv! Viv!"

Viv started, realizing suddenly that she was surrounded. She'd somehow missed her squad closing in on her, with only Logan—very possibly looking more openly worried than Viv had ever seen from him— lingering a step back as Aria, Catcher, and Cashe all came to stand before her. Their expressions were mixed and muddled, partially because her vision was still blurring for some reason again, and partially because none of them looked to be able to decide if they were angry or worried.

Worried...?
"Viv... Come here."
As Viv saw Rei offering hands to help both Vademe and Kay from the

floor beyond her friends, Aria reached up and took hold of her face gently, running thumbs carefully under her eyes once, then twice. Viv blinked, not sure what was happening but also somehow unable to form the words to protest. The anger was still there, still lingering, but instead of an eruptive force it felt more like a black hole now, like it was draining everything she had from the inside out.

Then, though, Aria brought a hand back down to wipe off against the side of her combat suit, leaving a damp smudge of wet black on the grey fabric.

Only then, at last, did Viv realize that she was crying...

"Viv..." Catcher seemed to have officially settled on worried at the sight of her tears, his yellowish eyes wide as he took her in. "What the hell is going on...?"

Viv, though, couldn't answer, too surprised at herself to voice anything as she stared at the smudge of what had to be running mascara on Aria's suit.

Fortunately for her, the four standing before her turned out not to be the only ones alarmed by her state.

"Aria, we need to sit out the next round."

Rei joined them, coming to stand beside Aria, but as he spoke his grey eyes were only for Viv, and it was to her that he spoke next.

"Viv... I'm sorry. I didn't realize... If I'd known it would upset you this much, I wouldn't have—"

"No."

Viv found her voice at last, and she was relieved to hear it come strong and firm despite her unbidden tears.

"No," she said again, bringing up her own hands to wipe at her cheeks, letting out only a small sniffle. When she pulled them away, she indeed saw much of the rest of her makeup coming off on her fingers. "Don't be an idiot, Rei. What were you gonna do? Sit on it?"

"I should have—"

"You should have done jack shit, bud," Viv got out with a dark laugh, using the back of her wrist to rub at her eyes, now. "You would have locked yourself in West Center until you passed out if I hadn't found your sorry ass, and you know it."

Rei apparently had no answer to this, only frowning at her before turning to Aria again. "We have to sit the next fight out," he repeated. "We need to talk."

"Yeah, we do," Catcher answered, gaping at Rei now. "If whatever going on is enough to send Viv on a rampage, we really do. Still, do you think Imala and Dent will let us take a break from the next—"

"Oh, that won't be an issue, Catchwick."

Even Viv, numb as she was, felt a tingle crawl up her spine at the hard, cold words, and all six of them turned with a thrill to see the observation platform falling quickly in their direction. When it was still 20 feet above the ground Catori Imala dropped down to the plating to storm towards them, apparently too furious to wait. She looked livid, teeth half-bared as her long braid swung behind her with every step, and inside of 2 seconds she towered before them, the whole squad having long since snapped to attention.

"Not in my damn life have I seen a group of cadets so apparently dead- set on pissing me off," she hissed in their faces, fiery gaze flicking between all six of them in turn. "I tell you to get your act together, and you allow all hell to break loose." Her eyes fell on Viv, then, mouth open in apparent readiness to chew her out with particular venom. She paused, though, and even not looking into the Phalanx sub-instructor's face Viv knew Imala was taking in what undoubtedly had to be wet cheeks and streaked mascara.

Apparently, it was enough to earn her a little pity at least, because Imala's next words came a little more steadily.

"Arada, if that assault had been planned, I would be singing your praises right now. Fast, hard, and totally by surprise. Under normal circumstances that kind of attack would be commendable, as would Ward's quick backup. The two of you took out Blue Team within 20 seconds of the match starting, all by yourselves. Unfortunately, all I can do is express my extreme disappointment in your apparent inability to keep your emotions in check. Not only did you put yourself in an unnecessarily one-sided combat

situation, you blatantly ignored your team leader's instructions and put your squad at risk of disadvantage had your rush not worked out. It was rash, it was stupid, and it was damn selfish."

Viv swallowed, every word hitting her hard. "Yes, ma'am," was all she managed to get out. "I'm sorry, ma'am."

But Imala seemed to have run short on mercy.

"I already told you once today that apologies don't cut it," the Lieutenant continued coolly. "You've already had your warning. So—" she looked to Rei and Catcher "—Ward, Catchwick, you two wanted to sit out the next match? You got it. In fact, take the rest of the afternoon. You're all dismissed from training. Use the time to get your heads on straight."

Viv's stomach dropped like a stone.

"Ma'am!" she got out in a rush, even daring to look Imala in the eye in her desperation. "Please don't punish the team for me being an idiot! I'll sit out the rest of the day if—!"

"Keep talking, Arada, and I'll ban your squad from training tomorrow as well."

That shut Viv up, and beside her she saw Rei, Aria, Catcher, and Cashe's mouth's all snap shut at the same time, each of them clearly having been about to voice their own protests.

"Your selfishness is only the straw that broke the camel's back," the sub-instructor continued, glaring at her. "I said you were all on thin ice. I warned you. You reap what you sow. And no—" she lifted her fingers to snap in front of Viv's face, bringing her eyes back to the sub-instructor from where they'd instinctively started to move beyond Imala to the figure standing impassively behind the woman "—the captain isn't going to pull your ass out of the fire on this. This is her directive as much as mine."

Despite herself, Viv did end up looking by the Lieutenant, and sure enough Dent's gaze was only disappointed as she met it. This beyond anything had Viv—and everyone else, she suspected—understanding that their fate was sealed, because not a word seemed left to be argued with from any of them.

After several seconds of silence, Imala grunted in irritated satisfaction. "Finally nothing else to say? Good. Only smart decision I've seen from most of you today. Now get out of my sight."

With that the sub-instructor turned away from them and made for where Vademe, Kay, and the rest of the former Blue Team had been standing nearby, every one of them looking on with the same shocked expression Martin's squad, too, was taking them all in with from the eastern sidelines. Her departure left Dent's presence unobstructed, but the captain maintained her stony silence, brown eyes unflinching while she stood with arms crossed where the observation platform had deposited her, not having taken so much as a step in their direction.

This is the bed you made, her stare seemed to say, and Viv suddenly thought she might start crying again, if for an entirely different reason.

What an idiot. What an idiot, she'd been.
Still...
They shouldn't get to do this...
Someone, maybe Aria, was tugging at the back of her combat suit, but

Viv barely felt it. She couldn't look away from Dent, couldn't look away from the steady displeasure in the captain's gaze that was unlike anything she'd ever seen. She wanted to shout, wanted to scream that she had reason, that she had a reason and wasn't a loose cannon, but her words seem to fail her again. Even as Rei and Catcher both called her name quietly from behind her, she couldn't look away.

At least not until a different, larger hand came down to take her gently by the shoulder, pulling her around with a firm, steady strength.

"Come on, Viv." Logan's voice—usually so harsh—was soft as he turned her away from Dent to face the others, everyone else having already taken a morose step towards the nearest passage down into the underworks.

Only then, at last, did Viv let herself be guided away, numb except for the hole in her chest now, absent even the anger that had carved it out in the first place.

Avoiding the eyes of the other squads, the six of them made the walk of shame from the Arena floor ploddingly, like they all wanted to be free of the scrutiny of the others, but didn't want to seem like they were fleeing. Even Viv, shaken as she was, felt a tension lift from her throat as she passed into the passage that led down from the main floor, and she thought she audibly heard Logan let loose the smallest breath of relief from where he still stood beside her, never having let his wide hand fall from her shoulder.

Down the ramp they went, the double doors they had to pass through sealing shut behind them as they reached the landing that split north and south into the main hall of the underworks to loop the entirety of the Arena. There the six of them all stopped, as though collectively knowing that was the place the dam would finally break.

It didn't take long.

"Ooookay... I want someone to tell me what the hell is going on. Now."

It was Cashe who spoke first, and Viv supposed she couldn't blame the Lancer from letting a little anger finally seep into her voice. Of all of them, she was the only one without some small fault for what had just happened— direct or otherwise—and therefore had the greatest reason to resent being denied most of an afternoon of squad training. Their team might have been

head and shoulders above Vademe and Martin's—and therefore likely most any other first-year group in their Section—but every opportunity to get an edge mattered in the world of CAD combat. They all knew that, with Cashe happening to be particularly aware of this truth...

Thankfully, it was quickly apparent Viv wasn't the only one thinking the girl deserved some kind of explanation.

"I can't tell you everything." Rei's voice was calm as he turned to face them all. "I really can't. But... I was offered a sponsorship this morning."

There was moment of stunned silence. Even Logan went still, his arm tensing ever so slightly around Viv's upper back.

"What?" It was Aria who found her voice first. "Rei... That's amazing! Who offered you a—?"

"It's not all sunshine and rainbows," Rei interrupted with a shake of his head, reaching up to tuck a few strands of white hair that had come loose of their tail behind one ear. "Not even a little. Like I said, I can't tell you everything, but there are some... some conditions to the contract."

"Conditions like what?" Cashe apparently couldn't help herself from asking, looking nothing short of shocked as she took Rei in. "And are you serious? Ward... That's nuts. I've never heard of a first-year getting offered a sponsorship."

"Because it's never happened before."

At last Logan's hand fell from her shoulder, and Viv looked around to find the tall boy watching Rei with eyes sharpened by something between alarm and suspicion.

"It's never happened," he said again. "I know. I looked into it."
"You did?" Catcher asked, sounding a little surprised at this. "Why?" "Personal reasons," Logan answered briefly without looking around at

the Saber. "But I'm sure it's never happened before, at least that I could

find."
"And I think you're right," Rei agreed with a nod. "I haven't actually

checked into it, but some things were said in the meeting that make me believe that's true..."

"But then... Why?" Cashe's perplexion seemed only to be deepening. "Like... I get you're a freak of nature, Ward—and I mean that in the most positive way you can imagine, I hope you know—but isn't that insane of them?"

"I think 'insane' is kind of a theme for the day, honestly, Cashe," Rei said with a sigh. Then he glanced at Viv as he continued. "Sorry, but that's honestly all I can tell you. Anything else could be... problematic."

"Another gag order?" the Lancer asked with a frown. "You guys have talked about how you were under one when you first developed Type Shift, right?"

Rei suddenly looked a little uncomfortable. "Uh... Not... Not exactly..."

"It's not a gag order," Logan grunted. "If it was, we wouldn't be in this mess."

Silence followed this, all of them—perhaps to spare Viv's feelings— unwilling to acknowledge that he was right. If Rei hadn't confided in her— if he hadn't said anything—she wouldn't have ruined the afternoon for them.

She simultaneously appreciated their restraint and hated herself all the more for it.

"Which means—" Logan kept on after the silence held for a few seconds, not having looked away from Rei "—that it's not that you can't tell 'us'." He indicated the group as a whole. "It's that you can't tell us." He

pointed between himself and Cashe, who raised an eyebrow at this. "Am I right, Ward?"

Rei looked a little uncomfortable, but didn't bother to deny it.

"Yeah... I'm sorry." He sounded like he meant it, but he only looked at Cashe as he spoke, maybe not able to bring himself to apologize to Logan's face. "I wish it wasn't the case, but there's... some stuff going on with me. Stuff I can't tell many people about, even if I want to."

"Reeeeally? Nooo shit?" Cashe's answer dripped with sarcasm. "You climb three tiers through the ranks in the same amount of time it took everyone else to climb only most of one, and you say there's 'some stuff going on with you'? Color me soooo shocked." She stared at him flatly.

Rei just barely managed to crack a smile at that. "Yeah... I know... Still, I'm sorry. Maybe one day."

"Sooner would be better than later, Ward." Viv looked around to find Logan scowling, now. "In case you hadn't noticed, keeping stuff from the squad isn't exactly good for our performance."

Instantly Viv bristled, some of her irritation at the boy from early that morning rising quickly. She half-turned on him beside her, intent on letting him have it for the second time that day, but for once Catcher beat her to it.

"Rich coming from you, Grant," the Saber snarled. "Care to elaborate on what the hell you've done recently that's been so great for team bonding?"

Beside her, Logan's entire form went still, and his face hardened into a familiar, unyielding mask. Viv opened her mouth, about to snap that he could keep whatever snide vitriol he was coming up with to himself, when the impossible happened.

Logan let out a breath through clenched teeth, his body relaxing ever so slightly, and he nodded.

"Fair enough," he acknowledged, if a little stiffly. "In fact..." He hesitated, then looked at Rei again. "Ward. About this morning. In training..." He paused again, and looked to be chewing on his tongue, like biting it off might have been easier than getting out what he had to say.

Rei, for his part, looked on warily, Catcher doing much the same as Aria and Cashe exchanged a confused look.

Finally, though, Logan spoke with deliberate steadiness.
"I'm sorry."
If anything could have surprised Viv more in that moment, she doubted

she would have been able to think of it. She gaped at Logan, utterly unconvinced that she had heard him say the words. Not only say them, but say them there, in front of everyone. She obviously wasn't the only one, because when she finally tore her eyes from the hulking boy she saw Catcher mouthing at the air like a landed fish, while Aria was staring at Logan with genuine concern, probably worried his 6'7" frame had led him to hit his head on a tunnel overhang or something.

Most surprised of all, though, looked to be Rei, his eyes so wide he might have just seen Logan explode into a cloud of confetti.

"Uh... Thanks, man," he almost stammered after a moment, clearly as unsure as Viv was if he'd just heard right. "It's... all good, I guess?"

Beside her, Logan nodded curtly, and when she turned to him again Viv couldn't believe her eyes.

Was Logan—Logan Grant—red in the face?

Before she could make sure she'd seen right, though, he turned away and started making down the south hall, muttering back to her as he did.

"Viv, come on. You too, Cashe." He motioned for the Lancer to follow as he passed her. "If we can't train with other squads, we might as well hit East Center."

"Wait, what?" Cashe asked, turning to watch him go with surprise. "Why just me and Viv?"

Logan barely glanced over his shoulder as he answered. "'Cause Ward's got something to talk about with Laurent and Catchwick that isn't our business, apparently. Isn't that right, Ward?"

Once again, Viv only just heard Rei as he answered with an uncertain "Uh... Yeah... Thanks...". For a few seconds more she stood there, taking in the departing outline of Logan's broad back.

Then, finally, she shook herself free of the confusing mix of feelings she felt in that moment, turning only briefly to tell Rei, Aria, and Catcher that she would catch them later before hurrying after the boy and a still- protesting Cashe.

In the end, maybe it hadn't been such a totally worthless day, after all...