Forgiveness? (part 2)

Crystal's P.o.v

I awoke, laying on a sun-bleached dirt ground instead of the cold metal floor from before. My eyes squint, not being used to sunlight yet, wait sun?!. I jolted up, having blurred vision. I appeared to be in some kind of arena. My limps felt stiff as I recalled what I remembered that would lead me to be where I am.

'That bastard' I thought, with venom. I came to my feet, reluctantly, taking further investigation of the things around. There were cages along the walls, all symmetric and completely pity dark inside. But I could, sort of, make out silhouettes of someone or something. Looking above, there was a rounded ceiling made out of glass and a balcony of some sort that held seating. 'Is this entertainment for these people? A stranger, in a blocked in area, fighting against something where they could potentially die. These people are sick!'. I looked further on and I noticed that there was a figure sitting in one of the aisles 'who the hell was that?' I thought narrowing my gaze, the sun being to bright for my eyes. "Who the hell are you?! And why are you here?!" I shouted voicing my thoughts. The figure stood from their sit, coming closer to the edge of the balcony.

"Wow you really are helpless, it's almost too much"

"What?"

They laughed, such a sickening and horrible laugh.

"We're not going to play that game again sweetheart, you know who I am"

The figure pulled back their hoodie. And it indeed was Malcolm, that bastard. In reality I should've recognize him instantly, but my brain isn't really into rationalizing things currently. "What kind of twisted game are you planning Malcolm?!" I yelled to him, my blood boiling. He laughed in spite of my anger, "it's quite simple, I'm going to have you fight for your freedom. And if you lose, or if you don't comply, than I'm going to kill your wife and daughter in front of you" he said with a sickening grin. Shocked, still feeling the anger I had but now being mixed with fear. 'Was he serious? I don't want to follow him but if I don't then he's going to hurt them' I thought. I sighed loudly, pinching the bridge of my nose. "Fine I'll do it" I say clearly frustrated. "Excellent choice, not like you had much of one" he smirked, "well…" he continued. "It's not like I don't believe you, but I don't. So to make sure you keep to your word I have a little surprise for you, John get them" he gestured to a curtained door, 'get who?' I thought. A men, who I assumed was John, retreated back inside the doorway with another fellow. As the two males slowly reappeared infront of the doorway, moving the curtains out of their way, I felt my eyes widened and my jaw become unhinged. Chest tightening as my eyes laid upon Grace and Jasmine, Grace viciously struggling against the man who held her by her wrists firmly. And Jazz, my poor sweet angel, stayed as still as a rock staring at the ground below her. Her eyes seemed clouded over, even from the distance I was seeing from."Malcolm let them! I'll do what you want, just let my family go!" I screamed like banshee towards him,'how could he?! How could a individual have the heart to do such a thing?!' I thought. My heart ached as it was pure torture to see my family in such pain, I wanted to hold them, comfort them, anything! But I couldn't. I had to save my strength to fight, I couldn't waste it, every ounce of energy I have needed to be preserved. Malcolm thought for a moment "I'll let your family go, if...". I hung on every word he said, I was desperate, I just wanted my family. "You fight in the area against every creature we have. If you do that, then I'll let you and your family go" he continued.

"Deal?"

"Deal."

The first cage opened as Malcolm and his men took their seats, I prepared myself for impact. "Anything goes right?" I asked, as I keep my eyes on the cage, "that's right" he replied. 'Good, just how I like it' I thought smirking.

·

With every end of a round, I become more and more out of breathe. I stayed away from spells that took big amounts of energy, and used mostly melee attacks but it was still very tiring.

"Round 15! Crystal vs. subject 6!"

"Ready...set...FIGHT!"

I observed subject 6, trying to find a weak point. It had bulky shoulders so charging forward wouldn't do any good, it had wide paw pads for extra absorption for any ground attacks and mostly likely had good grip as well. It had big long horns infront of their face for knocking things out of the way. 'If I were to launch myself off of those and fling myself behind it..I would have enough time to attack it, it seems to be weaker it it's back legs and it's very slow turning itself around..' I thought.

'Only one way to find out'

I vaulted over the subject 6's horns and landed behind it like I had planned. I noticed it has a weak point in it's right leg from a past injury. I pulled my arm back and clutched my fist close, centering my focus and power in it for the upcoming impact. I set my gaze on the weak point and punched, the force made the beast cripple in pain on the ground. Luckily for me, defending an opponent mostly didn't require me to leave any real damage. I just have to hinder the creature so it's not inflicting any damage towards me. I may have been trained to be a vicious fighter but I really am a pacifist and prefer to not fight anyone.

I never always was this way. For a period of my youth I used to get satisfaction from killing and hurting others, hurting people who didn't agree with the Elders. I was the Elders strongest weapon, I was just an object to use to make things easier for them. Lessen the hassle of warfare. I was trained to kill, I was motivated to kill, I wanted to kill people! I don't know why it felt good to hurt others. They were just people, why did I want to hurt them? They didn't do anything to me. I felt that way for years.

Until, I was reacquainted with Grace. Grace was in a different regiment then me, I was in the battle regiment and she was put in the medic regiment. All guardian were trained to know basic first aid (I almost failed my first aid course) but medic Guardians were trained for more serious injuries, like amnesia, shattered bones or regeneration limps or eyesight.

--

A few more rounds pass and I defeat every beast the throw at me, but eventually I started to become exhausted.

"How many more rounds are you going to make me do!" I shouted, holding myself up with my hands on my thighs.  "Only one" Malcolm spoke, having a mischievous smile on his face. I wiped sweat from my forehead and stood up straight, holding my arms up to block incoming attacks "bring it on."

He laughed maniacally, staring down at me as if I was never more than an ant. "Your finally opponent…" he began.

"Is me."

He had launched himself from the seating area in the arena and landed little ways infront of me, he shrugged off the coat he was wearing and tossed it off to the side.

"Alright." I deadpanned, Malcolm looked taken aback by this.

His mouth gapped open in surprised. "Whaddya mean alright I'm about to fucking fight you!" He shouted towards me, throwing a bit of a tantrum. I shrugged, lowering my fists a tad "I'm just saying it was a little obvious that's all"

He growled, clinched his fists tightly closed at his sides. "I'll show you.." he grumbled out before speeding towards me, sending dust to fly in the air from the sheer momentum. I blocked just in time as we clashed into each other, I kneed him in the stomach causing he to be pushed back. He skidded to a stop as glared up at me. He made glowing discs appear and started throwing them at me, I dodged them without getting hit once. I huffed as I brought both my hands infront of me, I made a conscious effort to relax my hands. The ground began to shaken beneath us, causing Malcolm to lose his balance. I shot both my arms over my head quickly and three large chunks of earth lifted from the ground. I hopped up and kicked the chunks of earth towards my rival, one ended up hitting him and causing him to crash into one of the walls of the arena.

Malcolm punched the chunk of earth making it crumple into heaps of rubble at his feet, he rubbed at his knuckles as it had a few scratches from punching basically a boulder. My hands began to glow and starting shooting green projectiles at him, it being his turn to dodge. I missed every shot.

I was at one end of the arena and he was at the other, we both glared dangers into each other as we lapped forward. We met in the middle and the both of us took a few punches and kicks at one another, some hitting others not. After some time he managed to pin me down against the ground. He laughed "gotten soft huh?" Malcolm held me by my throat, restricting any air to enter.

"Fuck off dipshit- ahhguh!"

He grinned a toothy grin "still got your old snap though" he stated, gripping my neck even harder. I grunted "do whatever the hell you want to me! Just let. My. Family. Go" I managed to spat out harshly. He gave me a crazed look that sent a shiver up my spine, "you actually believe me when I promise you that earlier? My god! You really have gone soft Chrissy!" I shouted out in disbelief and amusement as he started laughing uncontrollable. Once his laughter subsided,  "oh honey.. I'm never letting you go, ANY of you" he emphasized the word 'any' as he spoke. "B-bu-but-" I sputtered.

"B-bu-but but nothing sweetheart! You, and your family, are never leaving."

I heard a man scream come from behind Malcolm, he turned his head and we could see Jasmine digging her teeth very deep into the arm of the tall man who was holding her captive. "That's my girl!" I thought to myself proudly.

"Looks like we are leaving." I remarked slyly with a cleared smirk, I took the opportunity while he was still turned away to kick him off of me. I pinned him down with my knee on his back so he wouldn't be able to get away.

I looked up to see my wife elbow the man holding her arm firmly in the gut, he doubled over she wrapped an arm around his throat and snapped his neck with one movement. "That's my wife!" I thought just as proud sounding as I was with my daughter.

"She's scary when she's this pissed.."

The two of them hopped down and walked over to me. Once they were close enough, I ruffled my daughter's hair lightly and gave my wife a quick kiss on the lips. "That definitely made up for being captured" Grace remarked as she smiled up at me.

My daughter stared down at the man underneath me with a very confused expression on her face, "mommy? Mom? What are we going to do with him?" The girl asked as she pointed down towards Malcolm. Grace and I looked down at him angerly, he nervously laughed "forgiveness?"

"Not a chance buddy."