When she came to, the first thing Codi felt was the searing, hammer-blunt pain that ripped through her torso. She sucked in a sharp, hissing breath, but that only made it worse as the fire spread to her lungs. For a moment she couldn't even open her eyes, reflexively screwing them shut against the pain. Seconds passed. The pain subsided into a steady ache, radiating from her ribs and outward to push agonizing tendrils into her limbs. Eventually, she managed to force her eyes open.
The white glare of the lights dazzled her momentarily and she flinched, raising a hand to shield her eyes. She blinked; held her hand in that position for a moment until her vision adjusted to the glare. When she eventually parted her fingers she found herself looking at one of the grey-overalled Gauntlet medical specialists – a dark-skinned young man with piercing sea-green eyes. A dat-pad was clasped in gentle, well-manicured fingers and he looked at it for a moment, as though unaware of her.
Then he looked up; smiled. "Welcome back, Codi." His voice floated across the space between them like a cloud. "How are you feeling?"
"I've been better," she murmured. "How long...?"
"Three hours."
Relief flooded through her. She hadn't missed much. She dimly remembered Thradd telling her that she'd won the match, but beyond that everything faded into an unimportant muck. She tried to sit up but the pain flared through her chest and a gasp slipped unbidden from her lips.
"Try not to move," the medical tech advised her gently. "You broke three ribs, cracked two and punctured a lung. There is a setting frame in place and nanomeds are working to repair the damaged tissue but it will work faster if you stay still."
"How long will it take?"
"For a full recovery? At least two weeks."
Codi felt ash in her mouth. "But the final..."
"That's something you'll have to discuss with your coaches," he interrupted, raising a hand. "I just work here. Now, in my professional opinion, it's theoretically possible to have you ready to fight in time for the final match, but I would strongly advise against it. Whether or not you take that advice ... well that's for you and Battlecast to decide."
She nodded, not sure what to think. There was no way she would agree to sit out of the title match, but if she was physically incapable of it, and her coaches forbade her from taking part she didn't know if there was anything she could do. The final of the singles match was scheduled five days after the second semi-final, which took place tomorrow. That gave her six days, not even half what the medic advised.
Her fingers fidgeted, rasping against the coarse fibre of the medical centre blanket. She brushed fingertips down her right side and felt the faint, unmistakable bumps of the setter rig that had been locked around her ribcage.
This couldn't be the end of her competition – not like this. Fighting back tears of helplessness that threatened to surge forth, she pressed her lips together hard; closed her eyes for a moment.
"Your coach is outside," the medic told her. "If you feel up to it, I'll show her in."
"Yes." Codi sighed, a rippled of pain passing through her lungs as she did. The medic slipped out of the room and a moment later Bronagh Llewellyn strode in, closely followed by Thradd. Both of them wore grim expressions, enough to fill Codi with worry. She tried to smile, putting on her bravest face.
"Hell of a fight," Thradd said ruefully, folding his arms and sitting down in a chair beside the bed. "How you holding up?"
"I feel like someone dropped a building on me," she laughed weakly. "Other than that, can't complain."
Bronagh gave her a sad smile. "The doctors filled us in on your condition, Codi. We have to be realistic about this. It's not good."
"Are you saying that because you think I don't know?" Codi shook her head. "The guy already told me. He doesn't think I should fight in the final."
"As much as it pains me to say it, I have to agree with him," Bronagh told her.
She felt her chest tighten at that, a well of helplessness building up. Was everything she'd worked for about to be snatched away?
"Even if you can be cleared, you will not be at your fittest," the head instructor continued. "And fighting in a Gauntlet final in that condition could be incredibly dangerous."
With an effort, Codi controlled herself, keeping her voice level. "If I can't fight in the final, what happens then?"
"You will forfeit," Bronagh explained. "At which point the losers of the semi-finals will have a deciding fight to see who is able to challenge for the title."
"So even though I beat Dustin he could still walk away with the trophy?" Codi couldn't believe her ears. "How the hell is that fair?!"
"An unfortunate quirk of the contest, Codi." Bronagh shrugged unhappily. "There has to be a final. The fans will demand it, and the organisers will never disappoint them."
"Then I'm fighting," Codi snapped, ignoring the surge of pain in her chest. "I don't care how dangerous it is. This is my final. I earned this."
"No-one's saying you didn't," Thradd rumbled. "But you'll have other chances, kid. There's no shame in pulling out to keep yourself in one piece. It sucks, but it's better than getting crippled and not being able to come back."
"I'm not forfeiting."
"Codi, you've got to think this through-,"
"Did I or did I not sign those wavers accepting liability for any injuries?" Codi interrupted icily. "Well?"
Bronagh's face twisted with unease. "You did."
"Then it's not up to you. If the medics clear me I'm fighting. End of discussion." And with that she settled back against the bed cushion and closed her eyes. A moment of silence simmered in the air between them before she heard the two coaches shuffle out of the room. She seriously doubted that would be the end of the discussion, but for now she'd made her point. Codi James would not be backing down, not if there was even the slightest chance she could fight for the title.
*
No amount of resolve could speed up the machines of the Gauntlet med-techs, so Codi remained stuck in the infirmary for the next five days. In that time she was forced to watch, confined to a hospital bed, as Keefer Darkwood eliminated Ripple from the competition.
It was a close run thing, even with his overpowered exoskeleton, but in the end it looked like Black Horizon had rigged things in their favour just enough to get past the toughest tests. All Ripple's grace and calm wasn't enough to overcome the swinging behemoth as he bulldozed into the final, unstoppable as a lava flow. She'd watched it all, squirming with impotent rage, swearing to herself that Keefer Darkwood would not win this tournament.
But on that fifth day, she had two visitors, the two people she'd been waiting to see since she'd been confined.
With Kye close behind, Rokki Thakkar came swaggering through the doors in his casual red tracksuit, tossing a cheeky wink to a young blond-haired nurse in the ward beyond as he went. The doors closed on her indignant face, leaving the three of them with a measure of privacy.
"Dang, girl," Rokki chuckled as he saw her lying in the bed. "Looks like big Dusty did a real number on ya."
"Laugh it up," she shot back, swinging her legs off the side of the bed and standing up. She winced as pain lanced through her ribs, but it was far less savage than those first couple of days. Although the medics still had her confined, she could move around well enough, and her breathing was returning to normal as the puncture in her lung was knitted back together by the nanomeds.
"Hey, I ain't knockin' ya for it." Rokki grinned. "You mighta got laid up here, but you're in the final. He's not."
"And that's the bottom line. Speaking of the final ... did you guys ...?"
"We did," Kye interjected. "Our shady friend here busted the locks on Black Horizon's personal affects and we found what we needed."
"So you were right?"
"Looks like. He's using short-wave transmitter to trigger the sensors. It's a low level signal, well under the radar. Bastard's sitting in the freaking stands setting this thing off and nobody's any the wiser."
Codi's jaw tightened angrily. "Can you stop it?"
"Yeah, I'm pretty sure we're there," Kye agreed, nodding to Rokki. "After a bit of digging I found the command frequency that they're using to trigger the exoskeleton subroutine. The coach had the packet on his dat-pad. Now that I know what I'm looking for I should be able to send a signal on the same frequency but out of phase – it'll cancel it out. We just need to wait for the fight to start."
Codi nodded. "I'll take your word on that."
"But what about you?"
"What about me?"
Kye frowned. "How are you doing? I mean, you're still stuck here so I'm guessing it's not all roses."
"Not yet, but I'll be cleared in time."
"How can you be so sure?"
"The medic said I'd be ready." She shrugged. "He said they wouldn't advise me to fight, but it's not up to them. It's not up to anybody but me." Walking past him, she exhaled a long a breath, turning her eyes skyward.
"Look, Codi, just because we've figured this out, it doesn't mean you've got to go out there. You've got nothing to prove – not to me."
"Nothing?" she scoffed. "I might not have to prove anything to you, Kye, but there are a lot of other people out there. I'm here to prove I'm a champion. That means beating Keefer Darkwood so that's exactly what I'm doing, injured or not."
"Codi, damn it, stop and think for a second!" Kye exclaimed. "You can't fight him like this. He'll tear you to pieces."
"Oh, you think so?" she snarled through gritted teeth, rounding on him. "I'm not walking away from this, Kye, and I sure as hell don't need your permission!" He recoiled in surprise at the venom in her voice, but she wasn't finished. "You think I'm going to just withdraw; let someone else try and stop that cheating little scud? Not on your life!"
"What in the hell is so important about this?" he demanded. "Battlecast's already going home with the flag trophy, and Chris and Ripple are a sure thing for the pairs, so what is it? Even if this works, you're not even close to a hundred percent! You're not invincible, Codi, and this isn't a fight you can win."
She'd never truly felt anger towards Kye until that moment. Now, listening to him telling her that she couldn't win – that she should just give up – she could have beaten him senseless right there in the infirmary.
"I didn't come this far just to give up!" she yelled. "Can't you understand that? This is all I've got. I couldn't make it last year, and now that I'm here people are telling me I've just got to back off – sit on the sidelines and let someone else do it for me; to let someone else take what I've been fighting for? No. NO, NO, NO!"
The last word came out as a hoarse scream and she kicked a nearby anti-grav medical cradle, flinging it into the wall with a crash and sending medical equipment scattering in all directions. Tears welled up and this time she couldn't stop them spilling out and down her cheeks.
"I've got nothing else," she sobbed quietly, unable to look at him.
"I'll ... I'll give you guys a minute," Rokki said, his voice uncharacteristically subdued, and the Firequake fighter slipped out of the room, the door sliding shut behind him.
They stood there for what felt like forever. Codi kept her eyes downcast, painfully aware of the hot tears rolling down her cheeks but unable to stop them. Rubbing her eyes, she dragged herself back to the bed and sat down on it, staring at the floor. She sniffed, emotions boiling in a conflicting soup in her stomach.
After a moment she felt the mattress shift as Kye came and sat down beside her. He didn't say anything at first. He just shuffled closer and placed a gentle arm around her. Letting out a shuddering breath, Codi leaned her head on his shoulder.
"Sorry," she breathed. "I didn't mean..."
"It's okay," he replied softly, fingers tracing gentle lines down the side of her face. "So am I. I guess I didn't quite realise how much this means to you."
"I know it seems stupid." Codi lifted her head, taking his arm from around her shoulders and holding his hand in her lap, tracing gentle patterns on his palm, still not willing to look him in the eye. "The Gauntlet's the only thing I've ever been good at. It's the only place I belong. I can't just give up."
"I know that. I just don't want to see you get hurt. Well ... more than you already did." He chuckled.
"I get that."
"So you're dead set on doing this?"
"You know I am." She looked up at last, staring into his gleaming brown eyes. "So ... do you still want to help?"
He slipped a hand around the back of her neck and gently drew her forward into a kiss. When he pulled away, the mischievous smile she knew so well back on his lips again. She'd never been happier to see it.
"You know, sometimes I wonder what the hell you see in me," she laughed, wiping the tears from her eyes.
Kye winked. "I see your heart."