[00] Hotel

[Sage]

Deal with it.

Yeah... totally. Sage did her best to ignore the announcer blather on about a tournament she knew all about and didn’t want to participate in, and looked at her options. A hotel in one direction, a library in another, a gym in the third, and a restaurant in the last one. Well, she could go back and pick a fight with the bouncer, too.

The library seemed tempting. The things a company with this kind of money might have on file... Sage decided quickly. She would go to the hotel so she could shower; she had been traipsing around in a desert, after all, and then she would go to the library. Maybe get a bite to eat in between. Anything to distract her from what she was about to do.

Not that any amount of distraction could chase the thought that she was competing in a series of fights to the death for the chance to extract revenge from a man who had harmed her a long time ago. The whole thing seemed so stupid, but there was no turning back. And... and that pervasive need to get back at Sol... it just refused to go away.

With a sigh, the girl entered the hotel lobby. Glancing to the casino at her right, she couldn’t help but feel a vague sense of familiarity toward the place. To her left, of course, was a bar. What better for a bunch of ignorant brawlers to do then to get smashed?

Wait...

The azure haired girl poked into the bar. No, it couldn’t have be-

Her coral eyes widened. That’s... that’s not possible.

Sage stepped into the bar and headed toward a trio immersed in some conversation. But what they were saying didn’t matter; it wasn’t important. She knew she was being rude, but she had to see who they were-

“S-” she began, halting the conversation. No, it couldn’t be. But then the two men looked up at her. Orion, the saiyan, and... Kaden, Sophia’s friend. The priestess turned to see what had caught the courier’s eye, and as Sage saw her face, she knew it was her. “But... but you’re dead!”

The blonde chuckled, despite the weight of what Kaden had just revealed. “Nice to see you too.”

“N-No... how? I... saw you fall into the volcano,” Sage replied, very obviously lost in her own confusion. Sophia nearly smiled at the familiar sight.

“Well, it looks like they brought me back to take part in this... thing,” the healer sighed.

“Oh... that’s... wonderful, I... I’m glad to see you’re alright,” Sage declared with a smile. Her eyes fixed on the halo above Sophia’s head. “...Oh,” her voice had fallen significantly. “I see.”

“See what?” Kaden interjected, a look of concern on his face.

“Oh... Dante’s Abyss. They sometimes bring people back from the dead... to... fight in the contest. Sophia... I- I’m sorry.”

“...What?” the priestess seemed confused. “Why are you sorry?”

“When...” Sage turned away from the blonde, her eyes roving back and forth on the floor before her. She paced, and nervously scratched her arm. “When we were fighting Kai... I... I could have done more. I could have fought harder, and-”

“Sage!” Sophia cut her off. “It’s not your fault, alright? We did what we could. I don’t... blame you for what happened,” she stated somberly. “You did what you could.”

“No, I didn’t!” the smaller woman protested. “I could have done more, and I didn’t! I... I chose not to-”

“Doesn’t matter now, anyway,” Orion added. “She’s dead either way.” The priestess shot the man a cold glare. As if the medic wasn’t upset enough.

“Wait... uh, Sage... you know about Dante’s Abyss?” Kaden inquired, because he had picked up on what she had said about Sophia being dead, but also to try to change the subject.

“Yes...” came the weak reply. Suddenly, she felt very small.

“...So... what do you know?”

“Oh... sorry. It’s, um, this... tournament. People are brought in from... all over the place and they fight... until someone dies. The deaths aren’t real... nobody is supposed to actually die during the game. ...The winner at the end gets a whole bunch of money. My parents competed a few times, and, uh-”

“Your parents?” the courier demanded incredulously. Apparently the apple fell off a cliff and left the tree a hell of a long way behind.

“If you knew all this, why did you join? This doesn’t sound like something you would want to do, Sage,” Sophia inquired.

“I... it’s... complicated,” the girl replied.

“So, tell me. I’ll listen,” Sophia replied, shocking even herself at how compassionate she was being, given the fact she had come back for the dead, and it was only for a visit. Sage wondered if she should instead be bitter and enraged.

“I... can’t, it’s... personal. I have to win this tournament, so I can find someone,” the young doctor explained.

“You?” the saiyan replied with a snort. “You’re going to win the tournament?” Sage kept her eyes on the floor, trying to wait out the criticism that yet another saiyan would rain down upon her. Saiyans like Sol. “Good luck.”

At that, Sage lashed out. It made no sense; he hadn’t made an insult. Yet, without a word, or movement, sharp spears of ice materialized from the floor, bursting upward and outward, as a frigid chill enveloped the room. Orion found himself staring at spikes pointed at him, just inches away, from six different angles. In fact, the spears extended from ice which had grown like gnarled tree trunks, twisting and turning up from the floor around Sage’s feet. “Y-You don’t understand. I have to win the tournament.”

Despite his predicament, the saiyan seemed calm. “You shouldn’t tip your hand like that. Now I know what you can do if we get into a real fight.”

The girl merely looked away. The ice retracted into the floor and vanished, and the temperature rapidly became tolerable again. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have...” she looked at the other two. Then, specifically, at Sophia. “I’m sorry.”

The girl turned around and began to make her way out of the bar, but Sophia called after her. Dammit, she couldn’t help but think. “Come on, Sage,” she said. “Stay a while. We’re all... having trouble taking the news of what’s going on.”

Sage owed Sophia at least that much. The priestess had given her life for them. Not that she’d have had to if Sage had fought harder. Kaden motioned to the bar stool next to him, and Sage hopped atop of it. All three of them were miserable. And then there was Orion; he was more difficult to read.

Withdrawing her bottle of little blues, she tapped a Valium onto the counter, before putting the bottle away. Kaden gave her a curious look, but she ignored it, and popped her pill. At the very least she’d be able to round off the edges for a little while.

Sage’s gaze fell onto Kaden, and then Sophia. For a moment, she considered offering them each a pill as well, but then decided that it was her vice. She couldn’t, in good conscience, just hand out prescription drugs like that. Although she violated her principles as a doctor by misappropriating it for herself, anyway. But that was different.

She was being consumed, though. She could feel it. The obsessive drive to get at Sol, the irrational sense of urgency was cutting through who she was, and if what she had just done to Orion was any indication, it was turning her into a monster. It was part of why she had sworn off her elemental powers when she was thirteen.

“Well...” Kaden broke the silence, to Sage’s relief. “Some party, huh?”