“I broke it, I broke it, I broke it…”
Teekay was somewhat lost, but it didn’t matter. As far as he was concerned, he was already dead. He should have run sooner. He shouldn’t have agreed to this trip. He should have just locked himself in his apartment, like he always did on diplomatic trips. How was he to have known that the Target was here?
Right now, Teekay was somewhere in the back corridors of the staff areas of the Great Arenas. he had no idea where he was going, but maybe if Teekay got completely lost, he’d buy himself some time. Not that it really mattered. The Target had seen him. The Target knew he was there. And, eventually, the Target would find him. All Teekay could do was buy himself time.
“I broke it, I broke it, I br-AAAAAAAAAH!”
Something grabbed Teekay. He screamed. He couldn’t help it. It took too long for him to stop screaming. Whatever it was, it pulled Teekay into a tiny little maintenance room. As he spotted something familiar though, Teekay calmed down, ever so slightly.
“Elkay… you… I… I saw… I broke it…”
Words were not working for Teekay. But the sight of this black-skinned, yellow-plated Skyavok was… well, not a sigh of relief, but… Teekay wasn’t sure.
“Yeah, captain, I broke it as well.”
“What are you doing here, Elkay… Sorry, I forgot you changed your name…”
Kayel sighed to himself, then pulled Teekay into a quick hug and nudged him up against the wall. Teekay noticed that Kayel was armed, but just with a small dagger.
“What do you think I’m doing here, Teekay? I work here, I’m a fricking gladiator. I thought defecting, being permanently off-planet, switching classes, I thought it’d all save me. But no, the… the Target just… He saw me. And I can’t tell my friends.”
“He saw me too…” Teekay was on the verge of tears. Sure, it was nice seeing his old friend Elkay again, but the circumstances were too dire. “The All-Ksa shouted at him, then let me run and hide. The Target isn’t supposed to be here. How are we supposed to keep our End if he can just… force us to break it?”
“That… yeah…” Kayel stuttered. “We did everything we could. I ditched my entire life and ran to the ass-end of the universe to keep my End. Yet here the Target is, forcing us to break our End, hunting us down…” Kayel sighed again. “Have you heard from Enkay lately? I heard she finally got her name change done, calling herself Kayen now.”
Teekay shook his head, then slid down against the wall, no longer trying to stop his tears. “I hope Enkay’s managed to keep out of this. She had a rough time lately, she still does patrols at Zero Zero and apparently ran into a mind-alterer…”
“Ugh… I… I met one recently…” Kayel frowned. “Well… You can keep secrets, right?”
“You, me, Enkay and the All-Ksa are the only Skyavok capable of doing so. Not that it matters. Soon it’ll just be Enkay and the All-Ksa…”
“Yeah… Well… I ran into a mind-alterer too. One that… is not awful… The Vohra here won’t help us, they don’t known us. But this guy…”
Teekay lowered his voice. “You… think we have a chance?”
“Honestly? No. He’s tasted us now. We broke our End. He’ll hunt us down forever for doing so. But we could… I don’t know how the Target’s claws are embedded in us, but Retvik’s new boyfriend, they’re… they’re an absolute freak. A shadowjumping Rethavok with telepathy. They offered to help me before but I refused because I was dumb and scared. But maybe General Kuta can remove the claws, give us a chance…”
Teekay blinked, then rubbed his eyes and stared at Kayel. “You know a shadowjumping Rethavok with telepathy who is also a General and their name is something as stupid as ‘Kuta’?”
“Yeah. They dated the Thantophor briefly, and when they got dumped, they helped repatriate Retvik and started dating him because they’re both semi-immortal.”
“You’re semi-immortal. I have no chance.”
“I have no idea how far my healing powers stretch. Sure, I took 20 bullets to the stomach, the Target specifically said he’s going to…” Kayel fell silent and shook his head, trying to clear his thoughts. “Let me call the others. Maybe Retvik can protect us, Tenuk can be a decoy and Nyssi can drive us out into the wilderness, where we’ll be harder to find. And we can arrange a meetup with Kuta, see if they can help us or something.”
After a few deep breaths, Teekay began to settle down. “Alright… We… I didn’t think we had a chance…”
“Well, it’s a slight chance…” Kayel reached for his communicator, then thought for a moment. “I… kinda have to tell my friends about this though.”
“We already broke our End, doesn’t matter any more.”
“True… I’ll call Retvik. He’ll get it. He’ll protect us. I have to tell him though…” Kayel’s hands were shaking. Sure, he had a plan, but he was still scared.
Of course, Retvik instantly answered Kayel’s call.
“Kayel, where are you? We are all looking for you!”
“I’m hiding…” Kayel did his best to explain. “This is going to sound insane, but there is someone here who is trying to kill me and my friend Teekay. And they are perfectly legally allowed to do so. Are you alone right now?”
“No. One moment.”
Kayel could hear movement on the other end, followed by a door slamming shut.
“I am alone now. What is wrong, Kayel? You sound terrified.”
“What do you know about recent Skyavok history, and the N-Class?”
“Uh…”
“Alright, to cut a long story short, when the N-Class were in charge and they were running for election against the K-Class, there was an assassination attempt on the Vice-Ksa, Ayvee-En Ksesikonos.”
There was a rather worrying grunt. “Is that the nasty Skyavok guy Tenuk and Nyssi spoke to? I did not speak to him. Something about him made me feel ill.”
“Oh fuck…” Teekay whimpered. “He already knows…”
“Maybe Retvik is still fine…” Kayel hissed. “Rethans get funny with telepaths, they instinctively know to keep away…” Kayel’s hiss turned into a sigh. “You still listening, Ret?”
“Of course.”
“Alright, basically, official story was that there were three rogue Phantasma assassins, and they were all killed by Ayvee-En and his N- and R-Class cronies. But it was all a cover-up. A false flag, to ruin the K-Class’s reputation and try and stop them from getting elected. It nearly worked, and the Phantasma were all dissolved to save face…”
Kayel took a deep breath.
“There were six assassins. We had been loaned to the R-Class, to work for them on various bits and pieces. It happened, Phantasma soldiers were loaned out to the R- and D-Classes on the regular. But on this mission, we were given bad information, we were tricked. We were told that our Target was a known drug lord embedded in the N-Class, someone we’d been hunting for years. Instead, we walked straight into a trap the Target had set for us. A wall of bullets. Psikay and Deekay died pretty much instantly. Me, Enkay, Eskay and our captain Teekay, who is with me right now, we survived.
“But rather than killing us, Ayvee-En tortured us. For hours. Eskay didn’t survive the torture. I nearly didn’t make it. You know how I said I had a run-in with a Vohra and that’s why I don’t like telepaths? That was a lie. Ayvee-En is a telepath, and he…”
Kayel fell silent, glancing at Teekay. He swallowed nervously, then continued.
“Doesn’t matter what he did. He allowed us to escape. On the condition that, if we ever came within 100m of him again, he’d finish the job, that he’d torture us and kill us. It’s why I defected and came here. I thought I’d be safe here on Portalia. But no, somehow, Ayvee-En is here. We broke our End of the Deal. Teekay and I both came within 100m of Ayvee-En, and he’s wandering around, scanning the place, looking for us, so he can kill us.”
“Where are you? I am grabbing my weapons and coming to find you right now.”
Kayel hesitated. “You’re not bothered by the fact that I actually WAS an assassin? You believe my story?”
“Of course I do. Should I bring Tenuk and Nyssi? Should I call the Raptor?”
“Ayvee-En is a telepath, he can influence anyone. If he’s already spoken to the others, then he can… It kinda… doesn’t matter. He knows where we are, he has his telepathic claws in us, he just needs to find us, and the maze-like corridors around here are the only thing keeping us safe. But if you can call Kuta, maybe your boyfriend can… I dunno, do something?”
“I will call Kuta, yes, but I need to know where you are so I can protect you.”
All of a sudden, before Kayel could say anything further, his communicator exploded, torn in half by a bullet, which also pierced Kayel’s hand. Immediately, both he and Teekay began to panic as they realized they’d been discovered.
“I have been looking forward to the moment one of you three broke your End of the deal!” Ayvee-En smiled, his words oozing with malice. The pale Skyavok with white and gold plating was heavily armed, he had obviously broken into one of the Arena armouries on the way down here. “And two of you break it, on the same day? Wonderful!”
“You MADE us break it!” Teekay tried to straighten himself out. He grabbed Kayel by the shoulder and tried to pull him through a nearby shadow, but his Phantasma powers suddenly refused to work.
“You should have been more careful then!”
Ayvee-En fired his gun again, shooting at both Teekay and Kayel. Kayel swiftly put himself between Teekay and the bullets, knowing that he’d be more likely to survive such a barrage of firepower. However, a telekinetic blast separated the two. Teekay found himself wedged in the corner, while Kayel slumped against the wall opposite.
“Hm, I forgot that you have… unnatural healing powers, on top of your blasphemous shadow abilities…” Ayvee-En tutted as he approached Kayel, kicking him to one side and pressing his gun to Kayel’s head. Kayel glanced at Teekay, silently suggesting that he make a run for it, but Ayvee-En picked up on that thought, and used a telekinetic bubble to pin Teekay further into the corner.
“Fuck off, you… you… you monster!” Kayel stuttered.
Ayvee-En simply laughed as he reloaded his gun, then pressed the still-hot barrel to the side of Kayel’s head. “Me? A monster? You Phantasma scum are the monsters. It is my duty to this universe to end as many of you unholy beasts as possible. Starting with the two I am legally allowed to kill. Who is everyone going to believe after all? The poor old Skyan who has been attacked by Phantasma assassins before? Or two murderous little traitors with blood all over their dirty claws?”
“We can’t help the fact that we were bor-” Teekay tried to argue, but he suddenly found himself bound and gagged. Clearly, Ayvee-En had planned ahead. Teekay struggled none the less, trying to shout through the rope holding his mouth shut.
“I think I’ll just fill you full of holes first, little Elkay. Your captain will bleed out before you will, but I’m going to shoot you through the head, just to see if you can survive that. Any last words, you filthy little animal?”
Kayel hissed, not really able to do much but utter one short phrase. He had no idea what to do, but he could at least manage one small act of defiance. He muttered the Phantasma prayer under his breath, before turning to Ayvee-En.
“Thanto Kat’olon, you fat fuck.”
Ayvee-En shrugged. “Your god can’t save you. What has the damned Silent Blade ever done for us?”
He tutted, then fired three shots, one into the side of Kayel’s head, and two into his neck. Kayel briefly gasped for air, then slumped forward, his eyes falling shut.
With the defector out of the way, Ayvee-En turned his attention to Teekay, who had just about managed to untie his arms, but had failed to do much else. Ayvee-En inched closer, drawing a butterfly knife, which he unfolded in the air with his mind.
“So, Teekay, tell me, which do you want to lose first, your fingers or your tongue?”
Suddenly, Ayvee-En paused. He heard something. A meow. Ayvee-En slowly turned around to face the source of the sound.
Standing in the doorway behind him was a small, black cat, and the only mortal person in this universe that Ayvee-En feared. A strange, completely black Skyavok, with red eyes.