Her first three fights were easy. Her opponents went down in the first five minutes, and they did not get up. Whenever her anger threatened to wind down, she thought of William manipulating her. Variable threatening her. Rover betraying her. Alex, somewhere far from where Max stood, probably crying because she was afraid.
The last one stuck in her head like dust in hot wax. She couldn’t get it out, no matter how hard she tried.
She stopped trying.
By the time she made her way to her fifth opponent, she’d developed quite the following. Forty or so people who followed her from ring to ring, watching her pummel her anger out on her opponent.
Her sixth opponent lasted only three minutes. Her seventh didn’t last half of that.
She slid out of the ring after the last match, and her breathing was heavy, but not from exertion.
She was losing it. She was losing that fine thread that she had tying her to humanity.
Variable stood at the side of the ring and handed her some water when she slid out of the ring.
“I want another match,” she said.
He looked at her doubtfully.
“Give me another match, Variable,” she said softly.
He nodded.
“Your good buddy Rover is on in ten. If you beat her, you can have your extra matches,” he said.
She gave him a dirty look, but he only grinned and walked away.
“Well, then.”
She whipped around to see William leaning against the wall and looking at her oddly.
He’d been watching her for hours. From the moment she stepped off the stairs and slid into her first ring, Will had kept his eye on Max.
She was obviously furious. Insane. She pummeled on each and every one of her opponents like he could barely believe.
It was savage. Brutal.
But among it all, she was beautiful. In a haunting way, her eyes tugged at him. They settled into her face like deep wells of gray diamonds; winking in fury and hatred.
He didn’t like the way it tugged at him.
He listened carefully, and heard Variable tell her that she needed to beat Rover to get the extra matches.
He read into that the same way that Max would.
If she didn’t beat Rover, he wouldn’t let her progress at all. She needed to beat Rover/Lowry to make it to the tournament.
“Well, then,” he said the words just loud enough for her to hear him.
She whipped around, and her eyes haunted him. They were on fire; dangerously so. As if she stood only inches away from going over the edge.
“Why are you here?” she growled as she took a few extra steps toward him.
He clicked on the pen in his pocket before he spoke.
“Checking up on you. You haven’t been in contact,” he said.
She scoffed at him as she drank from her water.
“Ever occur to you that I don’t want to talk to you?” she muttered.
“Very funny. Any progress?” he asked idly.
To any outsider, it would appear that he was flirting with her. But there wasn’t a soul within thirty feet of them, and he kept his eyes and ears peeled for evidence of someone on the balcony above them.
“I’m about two inches away from him enrolling me in the tournament. I just have to beat Rover, preferably in an extremely bloody fashion, so he knows that I have what it takes to make a show of it. It’s a test in itself. He knows that Rover and I are … were friends. He wants to see how far I’m willing to go,” she wiped at the moisture on her face.
He looked at her intently.
“Are you holding up?” he asked.
She looked at him sharply.
“What do you mean?” she asked.
“You look like you’re hanging on by a thread,” he murmured.
She looked at him as if she were surprised that he had a heart, then rubbed the back of her neck idly as she spoke.
“Usually, I balance Max and Maverick out. It’s like I’m two different people. Max is the real me, and Maverick is … Maverick is the fighter who gets the job done. Alex usually keeps me from going over the edge. She treats me like a normal person, instead of a psychopath with rage issues. It’s hard to keep balanced right now,” she shrugged.
William looked at her oddly, and resisted the urge to rub at his chest. Something panged there… Once again, he didn’t like it.
“You’d better get ready. You and Lowry are on in five minutes,” he reminded her.
“Rover,” she reminded him.
He blinked as she raised her bottle to him in a toast, then jogged off to somewhere unknown.
He realized something then. That was probably the first time she’d ever spoken to him without hostility or antagonism.
That, he rather liked.
“Fool,” Max growled at herself as she splashed water on her face.
When he asked if she was holding up okay, she'd had to resist the urge to blink like an idiot. He’d never shown the slightest bit of concern for her welfare, and that was the way she preferred it.
He asks her if she’s okay, and it affects her as much as if he’d asked her to prom.
“Fool,” she muttered again as she patted a towel to her face.
She walked back out into the warehouse and looked around. The board on the wall had Maverick and Rover on at six fifty five. The clock next to it read six fifty four.
Quickly, Max found her assigned ring and entered without hesitation.
She couldn’t see him, but she knew that Variable was watching from somewhere. He knew that this fight would be different. This fight was the one that would tell him how far she could go.
How far over the edge she’d already gone.
Rover had no clue. She jogged up to the ring and slid in, then blinked at Max in surprise.
She looked to the board, and something flickered in her eyes as she looked back to Max.
It could’ve been anything. It could have been fear, understanding. Maybe a bit of understanding.
She didn’t know. And she didn’t want to care, even though she did.
The announcer came in, and they stood in their beginning positions.
“And … Fight!” he said dramatically.
