Juliet awoke to the sensation of her feet dragging on concrete in a dim hallway. Harsh white lights flickered overhead.
Well, there wasn’t really a point using that name anymore, was there? She was Jane. She’d always been Jane. Oh god, she’d never told Naomi her real name, had she? And now Naomi would never know. It would have been nice to hear her say it, even just once—
“Good, she’s awake,” someone said.
“Stand up,” another ordered.
Guards released Jane’s arms, leaving her to stumble into the nearest wall. She was led through a door into a room of other people who looked as confused as she was. Confused and terrified.
Was she scared? Was she supposed to be scared? All she could focus on was her pounding headache.
“Line up!” someone barked.
The prisoners obeyed, Jane included. Guards in black uniforms paced back and forth. Studying them. Assessing them. Occasionally, someone would be selected and taken off.
Jane struggled to breathe as she caught up with her surroundings only to be promptly dragged back under by memories. She was in the spaceport. Then standing in a line of children. Tyrso Starr was sending kids to the palace. Sending kids to the lab.
A man stopped in front of Jane and towered over her. Dark red skin, buzzed white hair, and completely black eyes marked him as East Kronosian. “You,” he barked. “Come with me.”
Jane followed, desperate to escape the suffocating crowd. She only hoped her next destination wouldn’t be worse. “Where am I?” she asked.
“The Lion’s Den.”
“What’s that?”
“You’ll learn.” The man led her down a hallway. “I’m going to be your handler.”
“Handler?”
“I’ll train you. I’m responsible for you and your schedule. If you screw up, I’m the one who deals with you. So don’t screw up.” He stopped in front of a door. “This is the room that houses one of my units. You’re replacing someone.”
“What happened to them?” Jane asked, a terrible feeling stirring in the pit of her stomach.
“You’ll be able to make a pretty good guess soon.” The man opened the door. “I’m Mars, by the way.”
It took Jane a moment to process the introduction. She blinked. “Oh, uh, Jane.”
“Not anymore.”
“What?”
“I’ll assign you a name, after I see what we’re working with.” Mars gestured for Jane to enter the room.
It was hardly more than a large cell packed with bunk beds. Nineteen people watched her enter, their gazes ranging from suspicious to bored to tired to scared.
“That bunk will be yours.” Mars pointed to the back corner. “You’ll come back after your physical. Come on.”
The door, a good six inches of solid metal, clicked shut and locked behind them as they left.
Mars led Jane to a small room. Inside, a woman covered in a thin layer of gray fur and wearing a lab coat motioned for her to sit down on a table. Jane shuddered.
“Scared of needles?” Mars asked. “Don’t worry, we’re not going to hurt you. Not today.” A slight, cold smile followed the words. “We just want to find out what you’re made of.”
The woman started with a simple physical examination, then moved on to scanning Jane with a metal wand and pricking her finger for blood. The blood went onto a disk that slid into a machine.
“Human. Earth,” The woman read off a monitor. She rubbed a clawed hand across her foxlike snout, ruffling her whiskers. “No other species in her genes. Were you born there?”
Jane frowned. “What?”
Mars huffed. “Were you born on Earth?”
Oh. “Yes.”
Mars raised an eyebrow. “You know, my name comes from a planet in your star system.”
It was all Jane could do to keep from rolling her eyes. Was this an attempt to get her to trust him?
The woman spoke again. “X-rays are far more interesting. Your cybernetics are extensive.” She pointed at her screen. “Who did this for you? No legal operation would put this in your brain.”
“I don’t know,” Jane mumbled.
“You don’t know who cut you open and put all this in your body?” Mars asked skeptically.
“No.”
“Well, do you know what any of the computers do?”
Clock. Heat vision. Calculations. Jane shook her head. “No idea.”
“That’s fine. Your strength alone gives us a lot to work with.” A cold grin crossed Mars’s face. “You should rest. Your training starts tomorrow morning.”
“Morning” was pushing it. Jane was taken back to her shared room for a few sleepless hours before being dragged back out at roughly five a.m. Training began with a brutal routine of running and push-ups and lifting weights, with other exercises thrown in at random.
Three days passed. Mars still had yet to tell Jane what she was doing all of this for. He did give her a name, though.
“You said you’re from Earth?” Mars stared at a tablet while Jane scaled a rock wall. “You’ll be Jaguar.”
“Huh?” Jane slipped, and the next thing she knew, she was lying flat on her back, struggling for air.
“Your name is Jaguar now. And today we’re starting you on weapons.”
She followed Mars to a room in the training wing she hadn’t seen yet. Other prisoners, many of whom Jane—Jaguar—recognized now, were engaged in practice fights across the room. The far wall was filled with quite the assortment of weapons. Swords and daggers. Throwing stars. Maces and axes and whips and spears.
“I’m sorry, what century is this?” Jaguar asked.
Mars laughed. “Funny. You think we’re going to hand our fighters guns and let them shoot each other? Where’s the fun in that? The rounds would only last a few seconds.”
“Rounds?”
“The Lion’s Den is all about entertainment.” Mars waved at someone nearby. “Wolfoid, grab a staff. You’ll be fighting Jaguar.”
“I’ve never used a staff before,” Jaguar told Mars.
“You have to start somewhere.”
Jaguar had barely selected a staff from the wall when something struck her in the side. She flew a few feet and slammed into the concrete floor.
The boy, Wolfoid, stalked toward her, spinning the staff in his hand. His skin was a light gray, he’d pulled back his long mess of darker gray hair, and when he smiled, his sharp teeth shone white.
“Better start learning!” Mars called.
Jaguar adjusted her grip on the staff as she rose to her feet. Wolfoid hit her again. She staggered back. The world slowed and she swung at his face. She missed.
Another blow to her side. Something cracked.
She didn’t win that fight. Or the next. Or the one after that. In fact, she hardly remembered them. All she could recall in the weeks after were the bruises they left all over and the taste of blood in her mouth.
First, she focused on dodging. Then she started hitting back. As soon as she was decent with the staff, Mars threw her into her first sword fight.
The slashes on her arms healed surprisingly well, considering Mars didn’t give her anything beyond bandages to wrap them up before throwing her back into the fray. They did leave some nasty scars, though. But once Mars decided she’d been beaten enough, he actually showed her the technique behind the weapons and had her practice more carefully with other new arrivals.
One night, as training ended, Jaguar stood in front of one of the room’s large mirrors, clutching a dagger. Her scratched and bruised face stared back. Her hair was a mess, and she was sick of it.
She sliced through it in chunks as fast as possible. The cut was messy, but it would make fighting easier.
A few mornings later, Mars woke her and informed her that she would be having her first real fight that day.
“What do you mean?” Jaguar asked groggily.
“Jaguar’s listed as an opening act. All newcomers get the same treatment. They’ll pit you against a big dumb monster. Do well, and you’ll move on to real fights.”
“Real fights?”
Mars left without further explanation. Jaguar dressed and ate her breakfast like she would any other day. When she was done, a squad of guards entered the cafeteria to take her away.
She was escorted to a room by a grate that stretched to the ceiling twenty feet above. Mars was in the room, too, talking to a girl Jaguar had fought a few times in training. The girl was chained to the wall by a shackle on her wrist. A similar shackle was put on Jaguar.
“This is only until it’s your turn to fight,” Mars told her as he approached, noticing the annoyed look she gave the chain. He handed her a sword. “After that, you’ll be returned to your room. Assuming you survive, that is.” He laughed.
Jaguar stared past him at a group of people standing in a circle in the corner of the room, all shackle-free. “Are they fighters? They’re not chained up.”
“They’re free agents,” Mars replied. “Some people choose to come to the Den and compete. Villains looking to show off, assassins looking to find clients, et cetera.”
“So, they’re not prisoners like me?”
Mars responded to the question with more laughter. Jaguar was getting real sick of the sound. “You’ll do great.”
As he walked away, the grate at the end of the room creaked and inched up. The same guard who’d shackled Jaguar procured a key and freed her.
“Really?” she muttered. What a waste of time.
The guard nodded toward the opening gate. An announcer’s voice boomed on the other side. “Tonight will be the debut of Earthling Jaguar, facing an alkura from Hatu.”
Jaguar tested the sword with a few slow swings as she walked under the rising gate into an arena. The stadium seating around it had to hold upwards of a thousand people. All watching her. Massive screens hung on every side, magnifying her for them to see.
Two massive wooden poles stood in the middle of the arena. Dozens of weapons stuck out of them, and they were both heavily scratched and damaged. They were probably more for show than structural support, despite connecting to the ceiling far above.
Another gate opened on the opposite side of the arena. It had hardly creaked past the halfway point when a creature burst out from underneath it.
The alkura was built like a bear on steroids. Dark green fur covered its body, and shiny white antlers protruded from its head. It spotted Jaguar and immediately charged, not giving her much time to think before she had to move.
Jaguar darted out of the alkura’s path. As it passed, she swung at its leg with the sword. It roared in anger, turned, and slashed at her with a paw.
The blow flung her into the air. The sword slipped from her grasp. Her back collided with dirt and she slid several feet, throwing up a cloud of dust that sent her into a coughing fit.
Despite the massive gash she’d left in its leg, the alkura stalked toward her at a steady pace. Jaguar needed to find a weaker spot to strike. Its neck muscles were thick, but if she could get just under the jaw—
She rolled aside, grabbed the sword, jumped to her feet, and ran. The alkura’s claws missed her by inches. She risked a glance back as it chased her.
One shot. If she went for the neck and missed, she’d be in the path of claws and teeth.
Jaguar reached one of the poles. She jumped, pushed off, and twisted in the air. Her brain finally decided to slow things down for her. Well, better late than never. She aimed the sword and tightened her grip. The alkura reached her.
The blade sank deep into its neck. The sudden stop sent Jaguar flying over the beast’s back and into the dirt. A shriek pierced the air behind her. She staggered to her feet, ready to run, and looked back.
The alkura collapsed, the light gone from its eyes. Blood stained the blade and rapidly spilled into the dirt. A few people in the audience clapped. Cheered.
Poor thing, was all Jaguar could think once her heart started to slow. The alkura had been a prisoner just like her, hadn’t it? Ripped from its home and brought here to fight?
At least she’d given it a quick death.
“Not bad,” Mars said as she exited the arena. “Once you move on to real fights, they’ll cheer much louder.”
“Do I have to kill them?” Jaguar asked.
Mars frowned. “What?”
“My opponents. Do I have to kill them to win?”
“Technically, once they’re unconscious, they’ve lost. Whether or not they die from injuries later—”
He kept talking, but Jaguar barely heard the rest.
For now, all she could do was survive.