The Mesa has no celestial bodies. No sun, no moon, no visual signal of time change. Here, clocks and watches are your only tools to be able to tell time. They’re your tether to saneness, allowing you to plunge yourself into the insanity of this place without becoming trapped in it. I live in this place clueless. No idea who is also here, what is also here, what time it is. I can still feel her hands on me, her words bouncing off the walls of my brain, only getting faster with each ricochet. I’ve had two days to prepare for this redemption, yet everything I’ve prepared is everywhere but my head, an extreme pounding in my head replacing all the information, plans, and techniques. Team Chrome stands across from Sye and I, ready to pounce on us as soon as Bruno gives the ok. I can hear Bruno talking, his words sounding more and more like muffled screams with each syllable he releases. My eyes force themselves shut, trying to expel the noise entering my ears. The sounds only get louder, almost as if in protest for trying to ignore them. They go from muffled screams to a noise too loud to identify. It’s so loud I can feel my bones vibrating, my lungs having the air shaken out of them.

“Mofu, do you understand?” Bruno screams into my ear, shaking me back to reality. My eyes open to the sight of everybody’s attention on me, the fear in my body hidden behind my eye covering. Bruno’s hand waves in front of my face, sending a heavenly scent through my nostrils, filling my mouth with saliva.

“Y-yeah, yeah I get it,” I stammer out, struggling to control myself.

“Then withdraw your armament,” Bruno commands. Daedalus materializes at my side before Bruno walks back into the center of the arena.

“Wait, before we start, I need to tell you something, Bruno,” I call out.

“What’s up?”

“The boxing woman on Chrome, she was casting in our first battle,” I exclaim. The woman scoffs at the allegation, disbelief filling Team Chrome’s anger more.

“Do you have any proof?” Bruno asks, his usual playful delivery dropping to a serious tone.

“She essentially admitted it in the fight. I was calling out to Amelia for help, but she couldn’t hear me. I wasn’t even that far from her, so saying she couldn’t hear me over the gunshots isn’t viable here. Not only that, the woman told me nobody would be able to hear me, and I was told it looked like I was just standing there while Aku and Ame were in combat. I think her casting is some sort of transport or she can freeze time only for her and her opponent, or something along those lines,” I explain.

“Erica, why do you continuously cheat?” Bruno asks, disappointed in the woman. He escorts her out of the arena, tossing her back to the ground. “Alright, let the fight begin!” The staff boy immediately begins casting spells onto the tungsten girl, Sye and I watching in boredom.

“Does your liquefaction have a skill cap too?” I tease.

“You should be worried about keeping your focus, I wouldn’t want you zoning out in the middle of battle,” Sye bites back. Sye carries a large bucket to our opponents, the tungsten girl receiving enough boosts for Chrome to take the offensive. The wizard begins shooting balls of light at Sye, who dodges the projectiles while continuing her stroll. The tungsten girl sets me as her target, moving surprisingly fast in that big suit of armor. She comes at me with a flurry of punches, the first one knocking me off my feet entirely. The impact on my stomach teaches me how little blocking will do against her, forcing me to use more energy than I’d like to. Team Chrome proves to be quite intelligent, boosting the girl so she can move quicker and hit harder while her armor prevents any of my punches or kicks from doing damage to her, putting me on permanent defense. If I had to guess, the girl is trying to tire me out before pummeling me into oblivion, probably having a stamina boosting or regeneration spell casted onto her. I hear the wizards confused screams, letting me know Sye took any piece of metal he had, before the sound of a body falling to the ground goes into my ears. The tungsten girl surprises me with an unnaturally quick right hook, twirling my body upside down as my head makes quick acquaintance with the ground. The attack sends my already bad headache into a ball of pounding and pulsing rioting in my head, keeping me on the ground. Sye rushes over, dropping the bucket and all the liquid metal into it to come help, tackling the tungsten girl to the ground. They struggle to get back to their feet as I slowly rise to mine, a nose bleed staining my lips. My right foot kicks Sye in the ribcage, getting her off of the tungsten girl. My hands grip the girl's helmet, tearing it from her head. The bottom of my shoe greets the girl’s face before smashing it repeatedly, my anger rising with every stomp.

“What’d I say, Sye. You just gotta brute force your way through this fight,” I yell. I finish the battered girl off with a kick to the temple before walking away from her, composing myself. My sleeve wipes the blood from my nose as Bruno ends the match, nurses carrying the tungsten girl to Sophie. Aku immediately hurls himself up the ladder and jumps onto the arena, his energy showing that my headache won’t go away any time soon.

“Mofu and Sye, are you two ready to continue?” Bruno asks.

“Looks like we’re going with Plan B after all,” Sye whispers to me before nodding at Bruno. My headache prevents me from any protest or rebuttal as my want to lay down overpowers any other sense in my body.

“Aku, are you ready?” Bruno asks.

“Yes, yeah, yeah yeah! C'mon, start the match, let's go!” Aku exclaims, bouncing in place.

“Alright, let the fight begin!” Bruno yells. Aku screams in excitement, sprinting over to me, completely disregarding Sye. His loud personality only makes my head spin more, an annoying side effect Aku can inflict. He does exactly what I expect him to, swinging his mace wildly, yet I underestimated just how overwhelming it is. It looked stupid when I was an observer, but now that I’m on the other side of the mace, Aku’s strategy proves to be more dangerous than I originally thought. His sporadic nature proves trying to predict where the mace will land to be nigh impossible, forcing me to use more energy to dodge all possibilities. Add to that my previous battle doing the exact same thing and my anger and impatience, and it makes a very unfavorable outcome. Sye creeps up behind him before he randomly swings his head around, his mace following his head. His target shifts to Sye, who is visually unequipped to deal with Aku’s fighting style. I grab him from behind, putting my hyperactive opponent into a tight headlock. Aku is stronger than he looks, my arms struggling to hold him in place. The sweet scent emanating from his skin chips away at my better senses, erasing the plan I had created to make this fight quick and easy. Because of the lack of oxygen he’s getting, Aku’s neck veins present themselves to me, begging to have my teeth penetrate them. I happily oblige, Aku’s squeals and screams only making me bite down harder, satisfying my craving ten times over. The lack of oxygen mixed with the quick drainage of his blood makes Aku quickly lose consciousness, Bruno and Sye having to pry my teeth from his sweet veins.

“Well so much for my blood, you just couldn’t help yourself could you?” Sye jokes.

“You can get it all the same, don’t worry,” I respond. Amelia climbs up onto the arena the complete opposite of Aku, calm, collected and organized. Her eyes are sharp and focused, her posture confident and relaxed, almost as if she saw the outcome before the match. She withdrawals her pistols as Bruno signals for the match to begin, a nervousness competing with hunger to take over my stomach. Amelia aims her crosshairs at my stomach, firing with zero hesitation. The metal flies through my torso, a small hole in my back showing its route through my body. A look of surprise jumps onto her face, almost like she was expecting something more. Amelia carefully inspects her weapon as Sye dashes towards her, a dagger in hand. Sye jams the dagger into Amelia’s neck, ending the battle almost instantly. An explosion goes off from behind me, sending me off of my feet and towards the girls.

“That crazy bitch,” I whisper to myself, amazed at what Amelia tried to do.

“What was that?” Sye asks, bewildered.

“It was the bullet. Amelia was banking entirely on the bullet breaking in my body. She wanted me to explode,” I explain, laughter shaking my entire body.

“What’s so funny?” Sye asks, her tone showing how weirded out she is.

“If our original plan worked, we would’ve lost. All that brain power, just to find out our opponent put all her eggs in one basket. It's hilarious!” I exclaim. Bruno helps me to my feet before escorting both me and Amelia to Sophie.

“Well, you lucked the fuck out,” Bruno says to me. “Congratulations, you’re now officially redeemed.”