"This seems wrong, Will," Vera sat across from Will in their apartment, gazing off towards the neon-lit fish tank and the few surviving fish that they had, the ones that Vera had remembered to feed, not the ones that Will had neglected. "This guy survives god knows what out there and is just going to be made an example of?"

"That's how it goes, ya know?"

"I do know," she said. "Just like I know that I have no place here if it isn't for you."

"That's bollocks and you know it," he said. "Where would I be without that sexy lil' mind of yours?"

"You wouldn't have that gauntlet that you use, that's for damned sure."

"Right, so, you ain't goin' nowhere."

"But you are going to have to kill him."

"S'pose so," he said. "But it's not like I don't kill other people, innit?"

"It's not like every night after you do I'm any less annoying about it."

"I guess that I just tune it out."

"That or you just drink yourself stupid and fuck Jenna until you pass out."

"An' that, aye," he said, feeling morose.

"What happens when you retire? Do you even get to retire, or do you die a martyr out there? Branch brought this guy in as a big deal, but now he's willing to sacrifice him in just 24 hours? Doesn't that seem off to you?"

"Well, the bloke was pissin' 'round."

"So what?" She asked. "Haven't you ever looked at your relationship with Branch and how he uses you? That whole display tonight was just so he could make a grand display of this guy and make a fool of him. Now he's trying to get him to fight in the arena and get killed? If you ever asked a simple question, wouldn't he just do the same to you?"

"That won't happen, darlin'."

"And why not?"

"Because I'm not 'bout to be buggerin' around like that, you know that."

"This was supposed to be your retirement night, right?"

"Aye," he said. That one stung.

"But it wasn't, now there is just one more guy that they have to build up for you to tear down in front of those people."

"So?"

"So, don't you see the pattern? You were supposed to retire. Then some movie star waltzes in and Branch considers him a threat, so he wants you to keep going for a bit longer as his pet to make an example out of this guy. What happens when the next guy comes along?"

"There won't be a next 'un, darlin', I promise," Will was speaking quietly now, starting to wonder himself what the line was.

"You aren't a bad man, Will," she said. "Or else I wouldn't even be in here with you, having this conversation with you. You helped me out there when you could have just been like the rest. There is some humanity left in you yet. I know that. Look, I'm under no illusion that you owe me anything or that I mean anything to you, but you are better than this."

"An' if I'm not?" He asked, genuinely unsure of the answer.

"Then you've let me down," she said.

"Just bugger off then," he was starting to feel frustrated. "There's a lot going on right now and I'm lookin' out for all of us. Just bugger off, will you?"

"Whatever," Vera gathered up a few things and stormed out of the room, slamming the door.

"My champ," Jenna was awoken from her daze. "What was that?"

"Oh nothing, snookums," he sighed, picking up a few of the bottles in front of him and swishing them around looking for another sip. "Just the usual bollocks from Vera."

"You were amazing tonight, my champ," Jenna smiled to him. "Why aren't you over here with me?"

"Just thinking is all," he said. Climbing into bed with her was tempting, especially after such a long, strange day as this one, but he wasn't sure that he wanted to clear his mind just yet. Things were going wrong and something felt off. He just couldn't put his finger on it. "What a fuckin' day."

"Oh baby," she slid out of bed, slinking across the room towards him wearing nothing but a pair of black laced panties, her breasts two perfect, perky orbs on her sleek torso. "Let me make it all better."

"Ah fuck," he said, feeling her hand slide down his chest, her breasts pressing against his back while her hand kept sliding down. "Jenna, look, I—"

"What?" She asked in an innocent tone, him stopping dead in his tracks when her hand plunged into his pants and wrapped around his cock. He felt himself growing in her tight grip, her hand starting to move up and down the length of it and his troubles melting away in her skilled hands. "See, that wasn't so difficult, was it?"

"No," he groaned, feeling her hand stroke up and down his engorged member. "It sure wasn't."

"Here," she moved towards the bed, holding onto his hand and leading him while she laid back down on the bed, legs agape while she pulled him in, wrapping them around him. His hands instinctively moved towards her breasts, her working her hands on his button, dropping his pants to the ground. "Mmm, see?" She was looking up at him, her lips moving in towards him. "Isn't this much better?"

Before he knew it he was inside of her mouth, her lips caressing him gently, her hand working its way up and down like a piston. The blood of those men, their cries, the call for mercy and the judgement of TK Gabriel was leaving his mind. Only the thought of her expert lips gliding along his cock remained. Vera wasn't there, which bugged him. They were having a conversation before when he had just dismissed her. She wasn't as hot as Jenna by any stretch, but that girl's mind did things to him.

None of it mattered when Jenna peeled off her panties and he was deep inside of her, thrusting and grunting away the pain of knowing that he might be disposable to Jordan Branch, knowing that things didn't feel right. How could things feel any differently while he was deep inside of this bombshell? She was there because of Branch, there because of his victories in the arena. That's who he was now; he was the man that ruled over the arena, the man who got the girl.