We could hear the crowd; it took so long to get to this point. Alexander and I, we have trained together for the last 2 years, intensive, constant training. Treating every day at the gym like it's a job, every competition like I'm striving for a promotion.

This was the last promotion I needed, until I was the boss, at least in this analogy. The Olympics was the end all, be all, and we were one fight away to the Olympic qualifier, the crowd only growing louder.

I sat alone in the waiting room, feeling the rumble of all those people, they sat, stood, milled around, waiting for it to start, getting food and booze. Still 20 Minutes until I started, until I had to fight my only friend apart from Zelia.

Alexander was a fighter who mostly practiced boxing and karate, different forms but mostly complimentary. All of us at the gym practiced at least boxing, something with form that we could train our muscles with daily, then did our other training outside. I mostly focused on boxing and Judo, wanting to have something that was non-violent as well as could do some damage, knowing all the times I wanted to try to stop someone but not do them real harm, mostly unsuccessfully.

For our whole friendship we had bonded over our pasts. Theirs vastly different but also as constricting. Their parents need for them to succeed no matter the cost, something they had always lived with, the constant punishment for not being the best. Mixed martial arts fighting was something that they were genuinely good at, that we reveled in together. I know how badly they wanted to make it to the top, the many times that they came to training with new bruises, ones I didn’t cause.

The changes to the world after the Axium Accord meant that there wasn't a large amount of people with power outside Sci-Axium. It still happened though, people had so many wants and needs, despite all the baseline things being provided, and there were always people willing to provide those wants and needs. That's what Alexander's father was, a businessman, the worst kind, cold to the harsh realities of the world, uncaring to even their child's pain.

We are rats in a cage, maybe this was a chance to each make something of ourselves, if only we were not in the way of each other's dreams. I would let them have it if it didn't mean the world to me…

Alexander arrived in the room having done their warmup, still sweating, red body, white towel around their body, they hand me a bottle of water.

“Feeling nervous?” I say with a smile on my face, we know how each other move, how we think, it's going to be a tough fight, we go toe to toe in the ring at the gym but we haven't had to fight each other with so much on the line before.

They pull open the lockers and throw my helmet at me, “You wish, going to wipe the floor with you!” They smirk, always the cocky one, I sit with my legs spread, putting down my helmet at my feet and taking some sips, the cool water feeling good, the tension in the air from the crowd is pounding in my skull.

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“Do you think your dad is going to lay off you if you win?” I ask honestly, a talk we had had before, they look sullen at the floor and mutter “maybe…” I nod my head and stand up, giving them a bear hug. They were always shy for hugs, but I needed one too, they held me tight back, my friend. I wished I could give them a place away from their dad, from that abusive home, but it's not something so easily escaped.

I pat them on the back and end our embrace, “Let the best person win!”.

“Let the best person win!” I throw down the rest of my water and check the clock, 4 minutes to go, one of the judges walks through and tells us to finish getting ready. I put on my helmet, ready to go to the Olympics.

…

2 Rounds in the octagon and we were still going strong, the crowd was going crazy, there was so much ducking and weaving, constant moving, always moving. I started to feel… dizzy? Like a gauze has been put over the world, clouded, muddled.

The lights overhead stinging in my eyes, like I just woke up from a long sleep and the sun was already up to greet me. That tiredness in my bones that screamed for me to just stop, although I haven't even hit close to my level of exhaustion. I know 2 rounds is nothing, Childs play.

My name is yelled, one that doesn't feel like mine but I know it is, again and again, I'm still in the octagon right?

The air feels humid, water going into my lungs with every breath, I step back slightly and look to the side, Zelia is there, she sees the look in my eyes, the panic, I'm not okay but I can't process why, She looks like she's screaming for it to stop.

Something makes direct contact with my chin protector, I spin slightly, feeling the impact with my whole skull, my brain rattling around like the last peanut in a plastic jar.

My chin protector comes off with one hit, the strap snapping with barely any give, the rest of the helmet flying off with it.

Another fist makes contact with my temple, but not before I look into the eyes of my friend, Alexander, pupils the size of pin-pricks, so full of hatred and anger.

Their fist, veiny and throbbing on impact. They get ready to punch down again, maybe hoping to shatter my brain. I hit the ground before they can get me. Was it the crowd, Zelia or me that's screaming? My head connects to the ground.

At least the noise has stopped.