The second the girl was out of sight, Seven-A whirled and kicked Sasha off his leg. Sasha rolled across the floor, found his feet, and jumped up. A fist filled his vision. Sasha threw himself backwards. Seven-A’s punch smashed into the floor, strong enough he felt the vibrations through his feet. Unrelenting, Seven-A whipped a kick at Sasha.

A flick of his wrist. Sasha summoned a second blade and met the kick with a slash. Seven-A grinned, ever so slightly. Sasha’s brows furrowed. At the last second, snatched the blades out of the path of the kick. Nearly at that moment, Seven-A’s legs deformed. Metal blades flashed out of Seven-A’s shins from knee to ankle, tearing through fabric, and scythed through where his hands had been.

“Saved your knives, and your wrists,” Seven-A gloated. The blades swished back out of sight. Ragged rents in Seven-A’s pants were the only sign they’d existed at all.

Sasha leaped back. With a few quick motions, he clambered up a pile of boxes and scurried on top of a cabinet. His weight crushed the cardboard as he passed. The cabinet creaked, but held his weight. Coiled like a cat, he stared down at Seven-A. The same brilliant light that shone in Seven-A’s eyes sparkled in his, a distant constellation in the depths of his irises. He blinked and frowned, swallowing against the faint heat in his chest.

Rather than chase, Seven-A watched him climb. Their eyes met, and Seven-A smiled. “Let the light take you. It’s been so long since I had a good fight.”

Sasha leaped at him from the cabinet, feet first. Seven-A sidestepped. Sasha thumped to the ground and chased Seven-A. Bored, Seven-A backed up, deflecting his blows. He yawned.

Sasha glared. The light welled up inside him, burning hotter and hotter. His vision reddened, darkening everything but Seven-A. It hurts. It’s hot. I want to fight. Every beat of his heart urged him on, raging faster, faster. I have to let it out. I have to fight. Unconsciously, he stepped toward Seven-A. His hands tightened on the daggers.

I don’t want to. Not now. I still have to kill Laredo.

He squeezed his eyes shut. His eyelids trembled, and his brows furrowed. Sasha backed away, raising his hands to his face. He shook his head. Hold on. Not now. Not yet.

Sasha braced himself for a blow, but none came. Seven-A drew to a halt. “Why are you fighting it? You can’t beat me without it.”

Ragged breaths. Air seared through his chest. His skin seared red-hot. His chest boiled with feverish heat, aching hot. Hot, so hot. I can’t breathe. I’m going to burn to death. If he gave in and fought Seven-A, it would stop. There would be no more pain, just joy. The rush of battle and blood. He lowered his hands from his face, unable to stop himself, but refused to open his eyes. Slowly, he settled into a fighting stance. Eyes screwed shut, he faced the sound of Seven-A’s steady breathing.

“You still can’t control it? No wonder they threw you away. Trash.” Seven-A scoffed.

Soft footsteps drew close. Sasha shuddered, but didn’t dare move. His breath came short and quick. The daggers trembled in his hands. The song of battle surged in his ears. His heart raced. A twitch, a single motion, and he wouldn’t be able to stop.

“I want a fight. Or would you rather die?”

“Never,” Sasha growled.

A hand landed heavily on his head. “Choose. Now.”

Sasha flinched away. Not fast enough. Seven-A clawed into his hair. There was a rush of cloth, and a knee smashed into his stomach. He coughed and almost vomited, but barely swallowed it down. Seven-A spun and dealt a roundhouse kick to his hips. “Come on. I’m bored.”

Sasha fell. He rolled over the ground and slammed into glass. A jolt of pain rolled down his backbone. His eyelids twitched. The flame in his chest leaped. Sasha barely reined it in, holding on with all his might. I can still hold on. I can still kill Laredo.

Fingers curled into his hair. Seven-A dragged him upright. Sasha struggled, but it only made the fire in his chest grow hotter. He grabbed onto the hand that held him and pulled, relieving the strain on his scalp.

“Death it is.” Seven-A slammed his head into glass. Cool glass and sharp pain snapped down his skull. His head swam. Stars broke out before his eyes. Seven-A drew him back and smashed again, again. Blood blossomed on the glass.

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The flame flared, screaming for him to fight back. It burned hotter, hotter, until he couldn’t breathe, until it seared him from the inside out. Bam! Pain. Stars. His grip slipped. Bam! His breath caught. He tensed as the flame surged again, hotter than before. Why am I fighting it?

Seven-A drew him back again. Bam!

Blue-hot fire rushed up from within him. It burned away everything unnecessary. Emotion. Pain. Thought. He burned up, devoured by the blue flame. From his chest outward, the flame lit every inch of his body on fire. Impurities turned to ash. Imperfections melted away. Gray ashes, the remnant of his self, fell away. He became the flame, brilliant, pure blue.

His eyes flashed open. Blue light splintered along the cracked glass behind his head. Seven-A drew his head away and smashed it into the glass again. Before his head met glass, he slammed his hand into the window and held firm against Seven-A’s push. Slowly, he turned from the window and glared at Seven-A.

Seven-A’s eyes went wide. He sucked his stomach in and threw himself backward, hips first. A dagger plunged into the place where his abdomen had been.

Looking up slowly, Seven-A shivered. A grin spread across his face.

Sasha didn’t respond. His eyes were blank. Nothing reflected in his bright blue irises. No past, no future. Only himself, this moment, the fight. Blank-faced, thoughtless, he shifted subtly. Tension accumulated in his heel. All at once, he burst at Seven-A, so fast the world blurred around him.

Seven-A barely raised his hands in time to block. One step at a time, he backed up, forced to retreat while Sasha’s blades flashed around him. Nicks appeared on his fingers. Cuts opened up on his forearms. He laughed aloud. Earnest joy spilled across his face. “Finally!”

Steadily, Seven-A backed away. In the last few feet, he neatly ducked one of Sasha’s stabs and kicked. Sasha blocked, but stumbled back a step. In the gap, Seven-A ran for the wall. He leaped up, kicked off the wall, whirled in midair and whipped a kick down on Sasha.

Sasha ducked and backstepped, dancing across the carpet. Seven-A chased after him, unwilling to give an inch, feet steady as he punched blow after blow at Sasha. Another step back. Slick blood under Sasha’s foot. He slipped, and Seven-A lunged into the gap and landed a punch on his chest.

Teeth bared, Sasha took the punch. Black fluid leaked from the corners of his mouth.

Chasing after the punch, Seven-A rammed his shoulder into Sasha, throwing him backward. He laughed again, derisively. “You’re still pathetic.”

Sasha caught himself and shook his head like a dog. He glared at Seven-A, then rushed into motion, eyes blazes of blue light. His dagger thrust at Seven-A’s eye. Seven-A leaned back, dodging the blow. Glimmering like a fish, the dagger changed directions mid-strike and darted for Seven-A’s heart.

Seven-A dropped backward. His hands met the ground, and he kicked up at Sasha’s chin. Sasha’s head snapped back, and he dropped. As he fell, Seven-A threw his weight over his hands into a backwards handspring, threw himself upright, and immediately charged at Sasha, lowering his shoulder. Sasha braced himself, but too late. The impact lifted him off his feet. Seven-A carried him, then slammed him into the wall.

Sasha’s head bounced off the wall. Artifacts sparked across his vision. He staggered a step, bent over, half-blind. Seven-A lifted his leg. He blocked, but too late. Seven-A’s heel smashed the small of his back and bore him to the ground.

Sasha bounced off the carpet. His eyes flew wide. He clawed half-upright, propped on one arm. His vision blurred, dark spinning around him. Bile surged in his throat, and he barely swallowed it down. Trembling, blinking away the stars and the dark, he tried to push himself up. The world went dark. His arm gave out, and he collapsed.

“Was that all?” Seven-A walked over slowly. Drawing to a stop, he stared down at the crumpled body on the floor. Disappointment dripped from his glowing eyes.

Sasha’s eyes snapped open, blazing back at Seven-A. From a limp pile, he leaped up at Seven-A. Both daggers slashed upward, aiming for the soft, unprotected stomach.

For the first time, the daggers found their targets. They shredded Seven-A’s shirt and bit into flesh, rending his gut open from hips to ribs. Dark fluid seeped out. Sasha pushed deeper, higher, teeth bared in what might have been a smile. Blue light blotted out any reason.

Seven-A punched him in the face.

Sasha staggered back, head knocked aside. One of his daggers stuck out of Seven-A’s abdomen, lodged into his lowest rib from beneath. The other hung loose in his grip, almost forgotten.

He wandered to a halt. Froze. Looked up, slowly. A curtain of black hair hid his face. He kept turning. His jaw hung open. Blue eyes beamed through the fallen hair, headlights in the night. Seven-A saw himself reflected in the discs and nothing else. Brilliant light blocked out the world.

“Rabid dog.” Seven-A pulled the dagger out of his stomach and tossed it aside. Black fluid welled up and sealed the wound. Derisively, he glared at the wounds, then quickly thumbed away the excess and, with a quick motion, threw it off his hand. Thick like tar, black splattered across the carpet.

Abruptly, he put a hand on his skull, twisted his fingers into his hair, and yanked his head to the side. The back of his neck let out a horrible crack. His head pushed forward in a way that human joints could never move, horrifying and beautiful all at once. At the top of his spine, a slot clicked open. A bone-white handle popped out of the slot, tall and slim. With one smooth motion, Seven-A drew the handle from his spine.

A long white blade, slender and flexible, shirred out from the back of his neck, inch by inch, impossibly long. At last, the tip emerged. Cracking his neck back into place, Seven-A lowered the blade in front of him. As long as his spine, the white blade arced at Sasha, sharp enough to cut the air.

Eyes flashing, Seven-A nodded at Sasha.

Sasha bared his teeth and charged.