Gods of Arena
Stopping Time

He turned his head slightly and his eyes caught an image in the shadow. It was her. She was standing outside the hall, probably avoiding the light, but he was sure it was her. Kang walked to the tap and filled his bottle, ignoring her. He definitely didn't want to do that but she didn't seem much of a safe option to him anymore.

"Kang?.... Kang?!", She called and stepped closer, almost walking through the passage.

Kang looked at her. Her face was just as red as it was the previous night. They stared into each other's eyes for seconds. He kept his face blank. She looked helpless. "What do you want?"

Her eyes twitched. "King sent me to you", she said, with a frown. She was definitely clouding her emotion with the look. He knew it and it made him smile.

But he wasn't going to fall for that deception. Jin probably fell for it. "Alright. What does he want from me?"

"Crane is now considered a threat to the Arena. King wants you to kill him"

Kang stared back expressionlessly. "I'm sorry?"

"I'm just here delivering his message"

"Yea- a message you all agreed on. What did you even expect me to do? You thought I would just say alright and go in there and stab him?"

"I didn't agree to this, Kang", Ana cut in. Her eyes darted at the stairs, as she almost caught a glimpse of a shadow. Kang also glanced back. There was no one there. "You don't believe I have a say in most of these decisions, do you?" "Right now, I don't know. One thing I know is you had a say in Jin's death", Kang blurted, staring directly in her eyes. "You killed him, Ana! But guess what? Does it really matter? He was made in a lab, right?"

"I didn't kill Jin", she muttered, as tears rolled down her eyes. "I swear I didn't have anything to do with it"

"You told King about Dea's secret, didn't you? She killed Jin because she believed he was the one who spilled the secret. You knew all of that.... But your side of the story spares you of the blame" "I'm sorry, Kang", she said and sniffed.

"You will say sorry to someone else when you get me killed too", Kang said and turned. "If you don't mind, we have to celebrate"

"You are different, Kang... I will never do that to you"

"But you want to do that to Crane... someone who claimed to love you"

"You don't know anything about me", she muttered.

Kang scoffed and looked at her. She stared back at him with tearful confident eyes.

"You probably think we are equal up there... but I'm not so different from you. I don't want Crane to die or anyone at all but I have delivered the message", she said and walked away.

She drifted along the narrow path, barely seeing the way. Her vision was literally clouded by the tears in her eyes. With her left hand over her forehead, she hid her face. She exhaled, swiftly brushing past a soldier. The soldier stopped and looked back, as she increased her pace. He could tell something was wrong. She didn't need to look back to know the soldier suspected she was crying. She took a sharp turning and rushed into a lab, slamming the door behind her. She dropped her hands, leaning on the door and whimpering. The room was dark. It seemed empty enough so she sobbed loudly, banging the door gently with her hands. 'I keep messing everything up. It's always my fault', she thought. Her eyes opened, widely. 'I guess I've made the right decision after all'

Countless flashlights appeared suddenly, shining directly on her face. She raised an arm, covering her face from the ray immediately. She stood still, breathing heavily. It was too sudden. She wasn't expecting anyone to be in the lab.... Or she just didn't think about it. They couldn't have been anywhere else. 'Did they see me crying?', she thought and wiped the tears off her face, as she straightened up.

"Ana? What's wrong, dear?", Fred asked, walking towards her. "Stop pointing the torches, alright?! Put the blue light on"

They switched off their torches and a blue bulb lightened up at the top. "It's nothing", she sniffed in and faked a smile. "I'm totally alright"

"Guys? Can you give me the room, please?", Fred requested, loudly. "Just for two minutes. I will call you back in. Thank you"

They walked out of the lab slowly, leaving the two of them together. "That was needless", she muttered. "I am alright"

"Not with the tears in your eyes, you are not alright", Fred retorted, as she sat down. He moved closer and lowered his voice. "We weren't the only ones that came here but we are the only ones here. We are all we have for each other so you have to tell me everything"

"Then why are we still here?", she retorted. "This place is hell, Fred! You claim to care about what happens to me but all you do is bury my head in your chest and let it go! You never do anything to get us out of this hellhole!" "Don't shout, Ana"

"They can't hear us", she said and folded her arms. "It's just everyone I go close to is always taken away from me by him. They all turn against me and, now, I'm the enemy"

"This is not about one of the fighters again. Is it?"

She glanced at him and their eyes met. He got the hint. It was tattooed all over her silence. "He's taking me as an enemy", she said, trying to hold back her tears again. Fred pulled her up from where she sat and hugged her tightly. "Please, let's go home"

"Home is greater hell, Ana", Fred muttered back in her ears, staring at a CCTV monitor. "We can't go back there"

He let go of her, slowly, walking towards the monitor like he had seen something. "What is that?"

"That is Crane. He is out of the hall", Fred replied. "We have to stop him"

"Wherever he's going, just let him. If he gets caught, King will order his execution"

"I know that but King is down the tunnel with some soldiers"

"And he will get caught anyway. He is your creation. Don't be the reason he dies"

Fred ran his hand through his hair. "I created him and that's why I know him more", he replied. "King and those soldiers can't stop him. He will kill all of them and bring down the Arena's defense"

"I don't understand you. How is that a bad thing?", Ana asked, staring widely. She didn't believe they didn't want the same thing.

"You can't understand till it happens, Ana.... And trust me, you don't want it to happen", he said and glanced at the monitor again. Crane was getting closer to King and the soldiers. They would turn against him and he wouldn't give in to them. "Every Arena out there is an enemy to us. Be it Grimm, Imperia-"

"And Addax?"

"Yes, Ana. Addax is an enemy to us. I told you to always cover the locator on your wrist, for a reason. There are only two possible results if you keep mentioning Addax. It's either King gets to know we are not from here and we get executed or we finally get back to Addax and we get tortured to death", Fred replied and faced the monitor again. They were wasting more time as they spoke but he was actively thinking of a way to stop Crane. "Let's stop this, Ana... and make this place home"

"Why can't the soldiers stop him? They have the guns", Ana said. She finally yielded. That was the only relative she had, anyway. If he didn't have her back, then she would have nothing.

"Apart from centrally manipulating time, he can control technology... like he did in the Arena"

Ana's eyes opened wide. "All this while, it's been Crane"

"No time to get amazed. Someone has to get through to him. We can't win him in a fight"

"I can't go to him.... Kang has probably told him about my involvement"

"Involvement? What does that mean?"

"Well, Kang thinks we are all equal and in control. He believes I'm in support of Crane's ordered execution"

Fred exhaled. "You've gone too far across the borderline, Ana", he muttered. "Kang will have to do the job then"

"He won't"

"Someone has to convince him"

"That can't be me"

****

Kang sprung up, immediately he heard the knock. They were probably there to get Crane. He fixed his look, concocting a lie to buy Crane some more time. "Who's there?"

The door opened and a man walked in. It was Fred. "Hi... I believe you are Kang", he said and sat on Crane's bed, directly in front of Kang. "I need your help"

"I am not going to kill my friend for you. Do whatever you wish"

"I like you", Fred said, smiling. "You have a good heart... but they might want you to kill your friend. I don't"

"What do you want?"

"Crane is running towards a dead end... it's not going to beat dead end for him but if he is not stopped, he will make it our end"

"What do you mean by that?", Kang asked, staring in disbelief. Apart from his admiration for the charismatic man before him, he didn't think he could sit in front of a Larger Figure and communicate this way.

"I created him" "You are her uncle"

He sighed. "Yes, I'm Fred", he replied. "King and some soldiers are waiting at the end of the path he is taking. If they meet, he will kill them and destroy the Arena's defense. The moment he does that, the other Arenas will be on their way here to claim the land and they will kill everyone. They will kill the Larger Figures and they will kill the fighters... You don't want so many innocent souls to die, do you?"

"No one here is innocent", Kang muttered. "The fighters have to kill to live and you Larger Figures... You are all the same."

"We are not, Kang.... Ana and I are not from here... but we choose to stay here because everywhere out there is hell. Now, no one else must know we are foreigners" "King doesn't know?"

"King knows but no one is spreading the news. King does a lot of horrible things to us but we can't fight back.... He let my father have a home here when we were doomed so we owe him that much. Ana is just like you here. He does whatever he wants to us"

"What do you want me to do? If the soldiers can't stop him, what am I supposed to do?"

"I'm not asking you to kill him"

"If I capture him, they will kill him anyway. Won't they?", Kang asked and stood up.

"Don't capture him", Fred said and stood up too. "If he is heading out of the Arena, then he has a plan to survive. You just have to speak to him. He has to leave the Arena without causing any harm to King or the Arena"

Kang stared into his eyes for many seconds. There was no point in doing that. He couldn't tell if a person was lying but he hoped to find trustworthiness in those eyes. "How much time do we have?"

"I hope we have more than a few seconds", Fred said and held out a gold strap to him.

Kang smiled and pulled out his gold strap from his pocket, wearing it on his wrist. "Alright", he turned and pulled the door open.

"Kang. You are basically going to stop a time manipulator. Don't get caight in his sorcery", Fred called him, wearing a confident smile. "Thank you. I see why Ana likes you"