A few movements have passed since the diamond flight test, plus a few more others, Commander Zentil has decided it was time to discuss with the Emperor what's next with my training. Though I think I may have the potential to be able to fight for him, something tells me that my training tests could not be coming to an end.
I'm on the bridge of the ship, my head bowing while Zentil stands in front of me as he orders the lieutenant to contact Zarkon. A transmission screen appears and Zentil kneels as soon as Zarkon's face appears.
"Emperor Zarkon, I am here to report that Starblaze has made improvements in her training." He reports, "She's become a faithful servant to our Empire, I believe she might be ready for the next phase of your plan."
"Take her to the main fleet and have the Druids begin the procedures of what you've collected." Zarkon's voice shivers my spine, it almost sounds like he's here, "We'll see how much it takes to harden her spirit."
Druids? I remember them, they used to do different kinds of experiments on me when I was 10 decaphoebs old. I wonder what they're planning this time.
As ordered, we head to the main fleet while I'm waiting in my cell again. When we arrive, I get an escort to a different ship, it looks a bit bigger than the one I was in. The sentries lead me to a large room about half the size of the room I trained in, where another soldier is waiting. One of the drones talks to him while I keep my head down and ignore them. If it's not me they're talking to, it's not something I should worry about.
"Eyes up, Starblaze."
I lift my head, facing the soldier as soon as I hear him speak. He glares directly into my gaze, filling the room with complete silence. I try not to look intimidated by his startling appearance.
His right eye is scarred and replaced with a red mechanical lens, and his left arm is made up of purple energy, connecting his shoulder to a giant metal hand with claws.
"Make preparations for her first trial," he orders the sentries without turning his head, "Until it's been done, have this beast sent down to the brig. Put her with the Champion."
Trial? Champion? I wonder who that could be.
They take me down to the prison bay and I can hear voices from a lot of prisoners in their cells as we walk by. I usually ignore them as well, whatever they're thinking is almost always the same thing, 'It's a dragon.' 'It's Starblaze.' 'She's a monster.' 'What are they gonna make her do to us?' 'Is she gonna kill us?'
Blah-blah, like no one knows about all that already. I don't care though, there are things the Galra have that are worse than me.
We turn down another hall and stop at the very end, one sentry opens the door in front of us. There inside, I can see a human sitting in the dark, staring at us in fear.
"Move, now." A drone directs me to the cage. I comply and step inside, before glancing back to listen to hear any instructions.
"There will be no brawling from either of you or you will have retribution. Lord Zarkon needs both of you alive for his purposes."
They then lock the door and leave us silently in the dark. I turn my attention to my new cellmate, who is still staring wide-eyed at me.
This human has light skin and black hair with a white tuft hanging over his forehead. He seems small for a sort of muscular body, but what gets me most is his entire right arm has been removed only to be replaced with Galra robotic.
This small creature is supposed to be the Champion? Even with a robot arm, he doesn't even look intimidating to me. I think I should test him, just to see what kind of gladiator he is.
So I begin with a low growl, glaring as I slowly move toward him. At this, he tries to back away, but he's already backed into the wall. As I get closer, he moves up onto his feet, putting his whole body back on the metal surface. He is almost the same height as me when I'm on all fours. I continue to approach until I can feel my snout barely even close to his face, and I can easily see how afraid he is.
I feel like crushing this guy just to put him out of his misery because I don't think he's going to last living whatever pain the Galra haven't put him through already. But the commander was very clear that we're both valuable and from what I see in his eyes, he seems to have some fight in him.
After staring eye to eye with each other for a few ticks, I lightly bare my teeth and growl, making the Champion more terrified, until I give him a big breath of a snort in his face making him flinch.
Moving to the back corner farthest away from him, I do a circle before making myself comfortable. I don't make eye contact with the human, but I feel him staring at me. I simply ignore that feeling and the dead silence in the cell allows me to drift off to sleep.
I suddenly wake up when I hear the lock on the door. I watch as it rises and reveals three sentries, I bow my head before the door fully opens. They walk in and grab the human, who tries to resist them. The drones manage to keep their grip as they drag the human out before closing the door with me alone inside.
I can't help but think about how foolish he was trying to disobey the Galra's request. Then again, he could still be new here, lots of those people are resistant.
I lay back down and continue to wait for whatever could happen next when they open the door again.
After a few Vargas of silence, the sentries are back with the Champion, only he looks more battered and bruised than before. Must've been in the arena, no one escapes a gladiator fight unscathed. I've been in battle in the arena a while back a few times and I always left them with only a few scratches.
They throw the human in and lock the door, leaving the two of us alone again. The human groans while he lifts his body from the ground and leans back against the wall. I can't help but stare at the helpless fellow. I'm surprised that he has enough fight in him to become a Champion, but who knows how much of it he has left before he finally breaks, like I did.
>>>--->
Fire stretches all over the ground, the flames rising higher than I can jump. Giant puffs of smoke are floating higher than any ceiling, bright flashing lights flickering inside them. Loud noises erupt from every direction, the painful sounds throbbing in my head.
"Reptile!" Shouts a voice.
This scares me so, I run straight into the fire through any openings that I can get to. I'm not sure what I might find through this, but I don't want to be here forever.
"Monster!" Another voice screams.
"Creature!" Then again,
"Pathetic lizard."
"Starblaze!"
I run, leap, twist, and turn, in every direction I go, but nothing changes. The fire's getting bigger, flickering lights in the smoke are becoming brighter, and the screams and shouts are getting louder. It's all overwhelming and almost too much for me to handle.
I keep running and running through every gap in the flames until I suddenly see that I'm coming to a dead end. I halt and turn to run back the other way, but the path is now gone. I'm trapped.
I begin to panic as the fires are closing in on me, I couldn't find a way out. A light flashes in my face, it almost makes me go blind.
I look up to see how close the creepy lights are, and then suddenly, my whole vision has gone bright and I hear the voice of a child screaming,
"NOOOO!!!"
I gasp as I lift my head, trying to calm myself after everything that I saw. Then I look up, the ceiling is purple and so are the walls around me.
Nightmare. I was sleeping, it was all in my head.
I breathe a sigh of relief while taking in the cold air of the cell, but then I get a weird feeling, like something or someone is looking at me.
I look back at where the Champion is sitting, only to see that he is staring right at me, the look on his face is unreadable for me to know what he's probably thinking.
I must've made a lot of noise when I was asleep. If he sees me with any fear, he'll see that I have weakness, the one thing I cannot show to anyone, ever. I glare at the human while rumbling in my throat.
"What are you looking at?" I growl.
He gasps at my remark and immediately turns his gaze away from me. I snort in approval before lying my head down again.