Lila and Sonera stuck with Lunae, joining together to form a small group of safety togethor. They still didn't have the heart or courage to discuss anything with the other student's many of whom had formed circumstantial groups of their own. The only true loner seemed to be Ivy, who refused to form even the most casual relationship.
She was rather content in her isolation, sinking into her pillow as she closed her eyes. But at every turn, regardless of how weary she felt, the heiress could still see the endoskeleton, its blood-covered eyes staring deep into her soul. Ivy tried in vain to reacquaint herself with reality, pulling on her hair in frustration. She was lightyears from her father. But no matter how hard she tried, the very idea of sleep was eluding her.
"Gah!" Ivy slammed her fists onto the bedsheets, dispersing the image of the endoskeleton from her mind. "You're not my mother...just let me sleep!"
The heiress jumped down from her bed, confining herself to the cafeteria for solstice. Perhaps a cold glass of water, or a pouting session in the bathroom, could ease her mind. Such an idea, of course, became an impossibility once she laid her eyes on Lila, who was facing the far wall with her hands in her face.
"What are you doing here?!" Ivy whispered.
"Oh," Lila sniffled, picking herself off the ground as she turned to face Ivy with a sheepish look. "Hi Ivy. Nice job at the pit."
"I'm better than you. I know. But why are you blocking the bathroom?"
Lila brushed the tears away from her eyes as she spoke in a trembling voice, "Oh, I uhh...I was thinking about my mom finally. And my brother. I don't think I'm going to see them again."
Ivy rolled her eyes as a response.
"Of course. The primitive has to cry about it in the corner and make it my problem."
"Hey, what the hell is your problem?" Lila sniffled. "What did I do to you?"
Suddenly, the heiress raised her hand, striking Lila across the face.
"Who do you think you are! Don't talk back to me like we're peers. I was more than content ignoring you, but you just had to keep getting in my way. What do you think this is?" Ivy ranted, oblivious to the red mark on Lila's face. "You're a bug to Yrix. You know why? She's better. I'm better. Do you talk to her like a friend?"
Lila rubbed her left cheek, looking down at the ground as she simmered with hate.
"I bet that felt good, huh. Hitting me like your father hits you." Lila sneered. "Oh, don't think I can't tell. You're an open book, O superior one."
"H-how." Ivy stammered, her own eyes beginning to water. "How dare you!"
But instead of pursuing the matter, the heiress stormed off to the bathroom once again, leaving Lila to stew in her misery.
"Sorry, Mom," Lila frowned, speaking to herself in a hushed tone as she watched Ivy storm off. "If you're still alive...I miss you."
The lonely girl took a seat before burying her face in her hands and knees.
_____________________________________
Yrix stood impatiently, watching as the light of day crept into the bedchambers. She had, for once, miscalculated regarding human behavior. The Psion completely underestimated the girl's inability to wake without further prompting, an act of laziness that would never be accepted in her people's culture.
"Fine," Yrix muttered, snapping her fingers togethor to create an ear-shattering bang.
"Wah!" Lila woke in a fright, nearly hitting Lunae in the face. "Dang girl, what are you doing here!"
Lunae fell backwards, having apparently spent the night at Lila's side.
"I'm sorry, Lila," the blue-haired girl panted, placing a palm to her heart. "You just seemed...upset last night."
"Huh, so you're the reason I got sleep." Lila smiled. "Thanks. Is that...a new trick?"
Lunae shrugged as a response before releasing a meek giggle.
"You've got some talent, girl. And unlike someone, you're not a total prick about it."
Ivy ignored the sounds of both Yrix and her classmates, staring up at the ceiling with a frown as she lay in bed. If it weren't for her desire to show her supremacy, she might have even stared there.
"A new facility has been opened to you, past the meal room," Yrix instructed. "It should suffice for your...cleaning habits. Be back here in thirty, and don't make me wait."
Sonera was the last one to leave the room, observing both Yrix and Lunae with her typical glare. Quite like the heiress, she didn't sleep that night, preferring the oppurtunity to brood. But unlike Ivy, she displayed no signs of weariness or frustration, only the desire to claim her vengeance.
Lila, in the meantime, did her best to avoid all contact with Ivy, a mutual feeling that was returned tenfold by the heiress. They could barely even look in the other's direction. Luckily for the earthling, she had Lunae to keep her company.
"I'm going to take a wild guess and say your people don't have showers, we're there from." Lila joked as she walked alongside Lunae. "Yea?"
Lunae shrugged in response, causing Lila to laugh.
_________________________
"Now then," Yrix explained slowly, staring at her students who thankfully returned on time. "Your first trial will be far more rigorous than the simple evaluations I ran you through yesterday. The expression of Psionic potential will simply not be enough for what I have in store for you. You must fight, togethor if you so choose, to avoid extermination."
Lunae's eyes widened with fear, her hands already beginning to tremble. Once the Psion motioned for her students to follow, she felt herself nearly faint.
"You good there, Lunae?" Lila raised a helping hand. "Don't tell me I kept you up."
"No, Lila...that's not it." Lunae shook her head before walking away in shame.
"She's a coward." Sonera chimed in, speaking from behind Lila as the group trailed behind Yrix. "I know them quite well. You once gave me advice, now here's mine."
"Yrix said we can fight togethor, no?"
"Irrelevant." Sonera hissed.
Following Yrix through another set of doors, Lila became suddenly blinded by sunlight, ending her brief conversation in a flash. What she saw of the outside world had her feeling a strange variety of emotions. One hand, it was good to see the fresh air of the Aerie, whose environment and fauna were evidently similar to Earth's. But on the other hand, it was quite discouraging to see the overwhelming presence of the Consortium.
"Told you," Lila whispered to Sonera. "Our cute little rooms were just made to calm us down."
As far as the girls could tell, the Consortium had the Aerie placed in a massive cage, with high walls acting as a mountainous ravine covered in plated metal and bristling with cannons. To make matters worse, at least five warships could be seen looming overhead, their shape and size identical to what Lila had seen on Earth. And while Yrix did her best to decorate the outside courtyard with a quaint little garden, there was no way around the presence of the Consortium's soldiers.
Every last one of them was alien in origin, dwarfing the girls with their suits of armor and their painted helmets. Each guard made sure to keep a steady hand on their firearms, the barrel of which was nearly the size of Lila's head. But for all their mystique, there was an apparent attitude to them, mainly their desire to rip the students to pieces like sport.
"The most common is the Daregen," Yrix whispered into Lila's mind, reading her curiosity like an open book. "Brutish, albeit loyal shock troops who prefer to fight in a more...primative manner. Not particularly attractive or talkative under all that armor, but at least they breed like your people's rabbits."
"Why are you telling me this?" Lila asked calmly.
"Because you will be facing them soon enough, alongside many other members of the Consortium."
"No." Lila barked. "Why are you telling ME this?"
"Oh?" Yrix laughed, refusing to turn towards Lila as she continued leading the group deeper into the courtyard's winding path. "Did Ivy upset you? You seem agitated."
"I'd rather not talk about her."
"Just take the advice, little human. Daregens are easily baited into brash moves. If you can't outwit them, they'll kill you without hesitation. The same goes for your friend Ivy."
"She's not my friend."
"Well, she'll be a blood splatter if you don't help."
I'm sure she'll be fine." Lila pouted.
Yrix didn't respond, guiding the girls towards an open plot of sand decorated with a ring of stone circles. The Psion made sure to stop just before its limits, signaling for her gaurds to stand at ease. She was almost bursting with excitement when she released her next set of instructions.
"All of you...will descend into the arena of exiles. Fight alone...or togethor...but you will fight. What waits for you are the empire's castways, dishonered in battle and desperate for a chance at redemption." Yrix hissed. "Make no mistake, little girls. Scores of them await you down there. And if they kill you, I WILL pardon them."
Yrix then began to pull on each girl with her mind, directing their bodies onto a set of stone plates. She, of course, had memorized the layout of her little game and made each placement with cunning deliberance. Not a soul bothered to refuse or protest, accepting their teacher's will as law.
Sonera clenched her fist, as if eager to get it over with. But as for Lila and Lunae, they couldn't help but look at each other in disbelief, separated by Yrix's placement. Even Ivy was a bit put off, suprised yet again by Yrix's blunt cruelty.
"This is the Consortium. If you are to be a part of our empire. You will suffer here. You will kill here. And some of you...will die here." Yrix pointed a finger at Sonera. "You want freedom? Then take it. With blood."
Suddenly, the ground beneath the girls gave way, plunging them into darkness. Yrix was quick to seal the holes before pacing around her garden. While her physical eye could not witness her student's fate, her Psionic gaze was more than eager to watch the show.
"Come on now." The Psion giggled with excitement. "Show me who you really are."
- - - - - - - - - - - -
Ivy did her best to slow her descent, stumbling into a pile of sand as her heels scraped against the rocky walls. Even for someone with her skill, the sudden drop had rendered her completely off balance. She nearly swore as she brushed herself off.
"Father would like her." Ivy curled her lip. "So ravenous."
Hiding away her fear, the heiress began to stretch, taking a deep breath as she focused her Psionic energy. The absurdity of the situation kept her on edge; however, she still couldn't help but feel a weightless sensation wash over her. The heiress may have been trapped in a grueling death arena. But she was free from her father.
Her ears perked up as a loud thumping sound echoed in the distance. For now, her surroundings were rather plain, with a long series of sandstone tunnels surrounding her in the dimmest of light. Occasionally, she could spot a dangling chain or a plate of rusted metal, giving her a rather lackluster selection of weapons to lift. Thankfully, Ivy's enemies weren't getting any quieter, their thundering footsteps getting closer and closer.
"If Yrix is the sports-fiend I think she is, she wouldn't have told these disgraced soldiers where we are. She wants us to hunt each other." Ivy thought to herself. "If I were an idiot, I'd run straight at them."
Instead, Ivy raised her left hand, concentrating on the immaterial as an aura of silver energy gathered around her.
"I don't need coddling, not like that...primitive," Ivy growled, this time loudly. "Yrix may be blunt in her approach, but her lessons hide subtlety."
A slim gash of light then formed in front of Ivy, its energy temporarily splitting apart the reality she lived in. It took an immense amount of effort, but after the light faded, a single silver rod floated inches from her face. Ivy smiled proudly, opening her eyes to look at the conductor's baton she had crafted for herself. She knew full well that Yrix was capable of forming similar constructs, but refrained from showing its potential.
"Are you proud of me now?" Ivy taunted, still speaking to herself as if she had an audience.