“So, whose name do you want?” said Meno, moving along the training ground in the temple. The sun billowed in from the open roof above them, the clear air fresh but comfortable. They were alone in the training room, Angie and Paba keeping Liv busy somewhere in the Temple, which had also pulled the attention of Laken, the other Kryptea male. Archon was assigned to watch over Pac and Eher Traes, who were handling the regional heads in their apartments. So today, they knew that they would not be disturbed. 6 only seemed to speak when it was just the two of them.

  The Kryptea moved around the training ring, his eyes fixed on Meno, who smiled, knowing that 6 was enjoying this training session as much as he was. They had been going at it for nearly an hour now, and still, the Kryptea had not broken a sweat, but Meno knew that he was also getting better. He was starting to pick up his movements better, and the balance training he was receiving from 6 was helping immensely.

  “Why are you interested?” he replied in his deep but somewhat soft voice.

  “Kryptea and choices,” Meno said, stopping on the side of the mat before leaping toward the Kryptea, who steadied himself, but Meno landed his foot just before where the Kryptea could strike, stopping for just a moment, and fell under the still well-balanced thrust by 6. Meno shifted his weight and shuffled to the side delivering a flurry of blows as he shifted from foot to foot. But the Kryptea was already in position and parried all of them. Meno broke off and circled him once more.

  “Better”, said 6,

  “You never hear about a Kryptea making a choice or even deciding anything,” said Meno, continuing his conversation. He now felt more comfortable discussing topics like this with the Kryptea. Everyone always talks about the militant aspect, not the actual…people. " He was not sure if the Kryptea would consider themselves as simple as people.

  “I’m not Kryptea,” he said, his eyes once again watching Meno carefully, not responding to the latter part of what Meno said.

  “I know that you aren’t a citizen yet, but why do you always say it like that?” 6 didn't respond, “Like you aren't interested in being a Kryptea? You never say, ‘Not a Kryptea yet’” it was 6’s turn to move against Meno, and he caught the thunderous punch with his forearm and shifted the weight, readying his right hand for hook across 6’s chin, who with his left hand, pulled at Meno’s stable foot knocking him off balance. 6 then thrust a palm into Meno’s chest, pushing him back across the training ring in a cloud of dust.

  Meno looked up at the Kryptea from the floor, standing there as imposing as ever, still and rigid. His red skin gleamed in the sunlight as he looked down at Meno, who smiled up at him.

  “I think it’s because you don’t want to be one,” he said with a chuckle.

  Meno looked up at 6 from the floor in the dark hallways of the Temple of Det’em, the sunlight of that day in the training ring now feeling like a distant memory. The screams from the passageways rang through the halls of the temple once more. The sound of the blasts now dying out, as flames licked the walls of the temple from the outside, once more setting the dark skies glowing orange with the attack. The drums below from the mob continued again, and he heard the roars of the Yeleans. Some cheered for the burning of the temple, most from fear of what was happening to their planet. The hallways echoed with fear and cries for help. His breathing was heavy as the imposing Kryptea stood, a stillness and rigidity about him, as the fires flickered against his red skin.

  The hallway beneath them was buckling and warring under their feet, but 6 didn't move, maintaining perfect balance as he watched Meno, his eyes fierce and focused. Meno panted on the ground, his head splitting from being thrown against the wall. The ground opened beneath them and a jet or fire burst into the room, an intense heat hitting them, but neither reacted. Meno’s eyes strained with the light, and he wiped the sweat from his brow. Meno was near the interior wall, and the ground seemed more stable to him there.

  “Sihxhta”, said Archon, sword held to her side now, looking at 6, whose eyes were unmoving from Meno. 6 muttered something to her, not looking at her, and she gave Meno one more glance, something that made him lean his back further into the wall.

  “Zalith ulch est,” she said to 6. Then, she rushed past the Kryptea down the corridor without any regard for her fallen comrade, Laken. 6 remained standing, looking down on Meno, his face now more resembling the cold, ascetic look of the Kryptea.

  “Give me a second,” said Meno, trying to stand and feeling every bump and bruise on his body now. He stood to his full height, making sure that 6 was giving him the opportunity to get himself prepared. He stretched out his arms above his head and moved side to side. “I’ll be with you in a moment,” he said, trying to buy as much time as he could. His body felt like a wreck, but he knew what was coming. He could see that the storm that Paba was going to brew was picking up outside.

  “Why?” said 6 softly, but even in the pops and screams in the background, his voice carried over to Meno in the dark hall.

  “Why what?”

  “Why did you come back?” his voice remained low, but he had somewhat of an irritation held behind his words. It was like he was angry that Meno was standing there now.

  “They still have Angie, 6. I’m not leaving without her”, the Kryptea looked at him for a moment. Meno’s eyes glanced down to Laken, whose body lay on the ground next to 6, who didn't seem to have given him any thought. “She’s my friend” a word that didn't feel like enough at this moment.

  The storm outside was becoming more and more intense, and he was losing visibility of the city below. The winds were howling through the corridors, strangely distorting the sounds around them, making it like an echo chamber, some nightmare, with howls, blood and darkness all around them. 6 nodded as though understanding and then looked up at Meno. He wondered if the Kryptea did understand.

  “Are you prepared?” Meno cracked his knuckles and raised his fists in response to 6. He knew that this was not going to be like the training; he knew that 6 had been holding back then. This was going to be on another level. He focused on the lessons that Mr. Dimitri and Hellen had taught him all that time ago.

  ‘You need to feel it like air rushing through the body, fortifying and empowering every part, it should feel like you can push it out from every pore’ she would say,

  ‘Be prepared for anything, and be prepared to do anything. Surviving is a dirty business’ echoed Mr. Dimitri’s words.

  “Come on big man” Meno said and found himself immediately needing to jump to the side as 6 lunged forward with a foot which hit the wall with a mighty crash and shook the corridor, but Meno couldn't be complacent, he took the opportunity and readied a left hook, gathering the energy within him like Hellen had told him. He launched his fist forward but the Kryptea dodged it and tried to come up with a fist of his own. Meno spun mid-air, kicking off the wall to reposition himself in the corridor's centre. He steadied himself and saw that the Kryptea slowly made his way up. Meno took a view of what was happening outside as he smelt the petrichor and felt the chilling winds bite at his back. She was really bringing it, he thought. The flames started to be pulled back, and Meno realised that she had activated the suppression systems. The bomb wasn't meant to harm but to disrupt.

  “I know that you have orders, but…” he had to move before he could finish his sentence. He ducked to avoid the oncoming swing from 6, and he knew that his balance would be perfect, which meant that another move was coming. Meno jumped into the air, avoiding the sweeping leg of 6, and swung out his own instead, launching it toward the Kryptea’s head. It hit with a heavy thud, and Meno felt the Kryptea step backwards. He had the advantage. He stabilised himself and threw a forward kick, he would try and use the wall behind the Kryptea to pin him somehow. He could see that 6 was ready for it, though, and so at the last moment, he pulled his leg back and, moving like a pendulum, thrust his fist toward the Kryptea’s face, feeling all of the energy he had been trying to draw thrown in. It hit with a crack, and 6 was thrown against the wall, his head slamming into the stone wall behind him.

  ‘Surviving is a dirty business’ ran through his head. As he dropped to the ground, the much larger man’s torso was open, and Meno let loose a barrage of blows against him, ensuring that he used the proper form as he did so. His arms began to burn as he thrust forward again and again, only the slightest of grunts coming from 6. He could do it, he thought. He could beat him.

  Just then, he felt the Kryptea’s hands and the side of his head, and before Meno could look up properly, he saw the red forehead slam into his face. He rocked backwards, but the Kryptea grabbed him as his vision blurred and threw him against the wall again. Meno splattered out some blood, feeling like he was conscious of every bone in his body.

  6 stood over him and breathed out deeply. Stretching his body tall, he took in another deep breath. Meno took a moment to gather himself again.

  “What did she say to you?” he said through gritted teeth and pain, trying to stand again. He couldn't believe how hard 6 had thrown him against the wall, and when he looked up he saw that the stone was cracked. Meno didn't know how he survived that, but knew that he couldn't take another blow like that. 6 just looked at him, as though trying to decide whether or not he should answer.

  “Your head or mine,” he said, again his voice seemingly undisturbed by their fighting.

  “Holy shit, 6. You fight for these people?” Meno said, still leaning over, feeling his side. He hoped 6 wouldn't attack him if it looked like he was still injured. If 6 didn't kill Meno here now, she was going to kill him?

  Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

  “It is my duty”

  “Your duty…yeah,” Meno coughed up blood and wiped it from his mouth. “I bet it was your duty to take that punishment too, right? On your back, I saw them. That their way of making you loyal?” 6 didn't answer, so Meno pressed, “Did she do that?”

  “It is the Kryptea’s way” he still wasn't moving against him. Meno laughed quickly before it sent a sharp pain through his chest.

  “You said you weren’t a Kryptea?” Meno said, standing up and leaning against the corridor wall. The storm outside was now raging, but Meno could see that a barrier around the temple had been activated. He hadn't even noticed the storm die down in the corridors. He could hear people getting closer, the roars of the mob making their way up. They must have run into Archon. “You're fighting for a people you dont believe in, and if you don’t kill me, you'll die for a cause you dont have faith in” It was a gamble but Meno could see that it was having an effect on the Kryptea, who still had not readied himself against him, but Meno saw him clench his jaw.

  “I have my duty” the words seemed to be said as a reflex, not as thought. Just then, on the other side of the corridor, Meno saw a glider reach up to one of the open windows on the boundary of the temple. It just raised above their floor and hung there. It seemed 6 noticed it too, and he looked back at him. Meno exhaled hard, jerked forward and waited for the Kryptea to jump towards him, as he did Meno pulled back and gathered all the strength he could into his right hand, like the technique 6 himself had taught him in placing his energy into his legs, he brought his fist down on the Kryptea with a swiftness he didn't know he was capable of. 6 slammed against the ground, but Meno didn't wait to see if he had knocked him out or not. He jumped over 6, and he launched himself out the window, passing through the undisturbed air onto the mirrored finish of the glider, landing hard on the slick surface. His momentum carried him into a slide, his breath catching as he fought for balance on the narrow end of the ship.

  There was no wind in the defensive shield that was coming off of the temple, but he could see just outside that the storm was raging. He could hear it now, tearing through the city, a scream of its own. Outside of the shield, he saw hanging at the level of the glider he was on, watching like caged beasts with prey right in front of them, ships that must have been from the Pillar. Black, blade-like, only moving in the slightest way in the howling storm that they hovered in. There must have been more than ten of them, but he could only see the shadows of some in the dark storm, with only the slight illumination of the shield. He lifted his hand to his ear but heard Paba first,

  “Meno, what the fuck are you doing?!”

  “Get this thing to the apartment, Paba!” he said in a controlled panic, seeing that 6 was getting up in the corridor. The glider began to rise, and he saw that there were a number of them below him, he had just jumped atop the highest one. The black ships outside of the shield followed him up as he went and he felt an immense unease, like being tracked by a predator that you didn't want to break eye contact with. Behind them lurked the larger ship that the Commander had arrived on. They would need to drop the storm and get past those things when they wanted to leave, but he couldn't think about that now.

  He then heard a ship below him hit the shield, and he moved to the side of the glider that he was standing on, trying not to slip off. Only a sheer drop to the base of the temple awaited him if he did. And he saw the red skin atop a glider. 6 had jumped from the balcony and made his way onto one of the gliders below him.

  “Paba!?”

  “It’s going down!” said an exuberant voice in his head, as though voicing one of the fighting shows on the holograms.

  “Paba?”

  “Sorry, that was Hal, we’re dropping that ship,” she said frantically. Meno looked over the edge and saw the ship that 6 was on begin to drop, but the Kryptea was already running across its surface. He jumped toward the temple, landed and compressed his legs hard against the stone surface, and then launched himself upwards. If Meno did not know what the Kryptea were capable of, he wouldn't believe it possible. He stood in a daze. 6 flew through the air and landed on Meno’s glider, stabilising him for a moment as the Kryptea’s bare feet rocked the glider. All Meno could think was, fuck.

  Meno made a deep sigh and looked at the Kryptea, who stood to his full height as the glider stabilised, still making its ascent. He looked terrifying with the storm behind him, his silhouette growing in the cracking of lightning behind him.

  “Stop the glider, Paba” he heard only a momentary hesitation come over the comms, and then the ship slowed to a stop in the air. He would need to handle this now, before reaching the top. He couldn't have 6 in the apartments with him. The blade-like ships outside of the shield hovered and matched their stop with ease, lurking as though waiting for their opportunity to strike. The air around them was still, cold. They could hear the storm raging outside of them, the muffled sounds of the mob still making its way through the temple and the drums, that somehow were still being beaten even in the chaos.

  “I’m getting her, 6. I can’t let you stop me”

  “One of us will die,” he said, his voice carrying, but it sounded remorseful. Meno looked at him with regret. He had admired this man, had trained with him, learned from him. He wasn't just some mindless soldier like everyone thought he was. He had ambition. He had a name he wanted, he had wanted something for himself.

  “Come with us, help us. We can get you away from this, we can…”

  “Meno,” he said, for the first time his voice raising slightly,

  “Take your name, but on your terms 6! I know that you hate them!” he bellowed at the Kryptea who did not move at the raising of his voice. “They are willing to kill you, look at what we do for our friends! You are my friend, 6!” was Meno’s final plea. The Kryptea just looked at him, not lost in thought or transfixed, but somewhere in between.

  “Prepare yourself” were 6’s final words to Meno, who felt anger boil in him at the stupidity of it all. He sighed and crouched down, and readied himself. He didn't say anything else. There was nothing else to say. He heard Paba saying something over the comms but blocked it out. The storm was drowned out, the crowd no longer reached him, he just heard the steady beat of the drums echoing through the temple.

  6 jumped toward him, Meno launched himself too, and they met with a crash that shook the glider. They gripped each other, wrestling for superiority, but Meno would need to get out of his grip. He twisted but kept hold of the Kryptea’s arm, and he pulled at it, but he would not budge. Meno thought quickly and pulled at his jacket searching through, but knew at the same time that 6 would not rest, so he shifted to the side, releasing his arm from one of the sleeves, pulling his arm away which allowed him to move just out of reach and to throw his hand into his inner pocket. The Kryptea’s fist slammed against the top of the glider, puncturing through the metal, but it didn't affect the ship's ability to fly.

  Meno released his other arm and used the slick surface to slide after he had pulled out the grenade from his jacket, knowing that nothing else could be done now. 6 was already rushing toward him, and Meno squeezed the grenade and threw it over his shoulder behind him, then readied himself for the Kryptea. He got down low, and so did 6, ready to lift him into the air. Meno used the teachings that 6 had given him, he placed his energy into his limbs, reached out with his hand and drilled his fist into the surface of the glider, puncturing the metal just as 6 had, and he gripped down into it as 6 grabbed him by the neck in an attempt to pull him up. The grenade burst with the sound of a water droplet just off the stern of the ship, and Meno swung his leg and put his foot on the Kryptea’s chest and pushed with all of his might. He felt the grip slip around his neck. 6 was pulled off of the ship by the innie. Flying off the metallic surface, his hand still out as he lost grip of Meno.

  The glider bucked as it was pulled by the gravitational force too, but Meno held onto the punctured hole as hard as he could as he watched 6 being dragged into the gravity pocket off the ship, his arms reaching out as a last gasp attempt, but he was away from the ship now, with nothing below him. Meno watched 6 as though in slow motion as the Kryptea was dragged, feeling a hollowness in himself.

  The Kryptea dropped from sight, but Meno couldn't watch, he needed to hold on as the innie had affected the glider that he was on, and it began to tip in the air.

  “Jump, Meno! Jump!” cried Paba’s voice in his head,

  “The next glider little boy!” cried the awfully exuberant voice of what he now knew was Hal. Meno saw one of the other gliders fly below the falling one he was on. He released his hand and dropped onto the stable glider, his feet finding the slippery surface, but he dropped to his hands and knees and controlled his landing, blood from his hand smearing across the surface. He had cut his knuckles when he punched the glider and torn his palm as he had held on. He looked at the mirrored surface of the glider, his face full of panic reflecting back at him. The glider motioned safely and stabilised, and Meno pulled himself up, seeing the blade-like black ships, still looming just beyond the shield, waiting for him.

  “Take me up, Paba”, he said softly, watching the black shadows awaiting their turn. He raised his hand and held a middle finger to them as the ship started to move up. He saw two gliders move faster than his own above him, and knew that Paba was controlling them. His glider ascended up the tower, and he took a moment. “Is he dead?”

  “I lost him, Meno. I was watching you,” she said, shaken.

  “He hit a glider and used it to get back into the temple,” said Hal, no longer exuberant. It seemed he could read the situation.

  “Okay,” he said weakly, not knowing if he was feeling relief from the news that 6 had recovered himself or that he no longer needed to fight him. He pulled himself together. His hand would need to wait, he didn't have any cloth to wrap it with. He would have used his jacket, but he had lost that now. He ran his hand across his neck, which was bruised from 6’s grip. He looked up and saw the two gliders that had gone ahead and had reached the top level. They banked to the side, and Meno could immediately see that Paba was using them as a form of shield for him as his glider slowly reached the level.

  “You ready?” said Paba quietly. He took a moment before he answered, the glider slowing right before reaching the height of the patio. He ran through everything that had just happened. What he had done. August, in their escape, which he hadn't thought of until that moment with Laken. The havoc that he had caused. What it was for. He took a deep breath and said,

  “Let’s get it over and done with” and with that, the glider rose to the patio, the light from which rose along his body, and then the shining surface of the glider.

  He peered into the patio and saw that soldiers littered the room, posted all along the walls. The tables, chairs and decorations were scattered all around the room. There must have been twenty soldiers all facing their rifles at him in black exo-suits. Meno sighed a tired breath. He saw the Traes, Pac crouching over his wife who was bleeding from the stomach, Shilu Salfor just behind them with Archon, the female Kryptea standing a few meters away, looking murderously at him. Efreet, on the other side, was also flanked by guards, and in the middle, a man with an exo-suit with a white cloak over it accented with gold and with gold epaulettes though without the accompanying helmet, stood glaring at him. Standing firmly in his grip, bleeding from what seemed all over, with the commander's hand around her throat, was Angie. Meno’s breath caught as he saw her, the woman who had carried him through so much now barely standing, a single tear tracing a path down her bloodied face. His fists clenched involuntarily

  “You’ve done well, Meno of Gol,” said the Commander. Meno didn't move, he just stood atop the glider, hanging just over the balcony's edge, the two ships ahead of him hovering on their side only leaving a gap for him to see the room. He just stared into the patio, suddenly feeling his entire body ache.

  Then he saw it, just behind the commander, a black exo-suited soldier, his rifle only being held in one hand, and his other facing down, with his index and middle finger pointing down.