After Hilde and I ate, she took me to her ship and took me on a tour of Sakaar. We ended up finding a place and talking until it was time to head back for the event.

The flight back was silent, melancholy. Neither of us wanted to see Grandmaster. I told Hilde she didn't have to stay with me, but she insisted. She didn't trust him around me, especially if I went by myself. I wouldn't voice it, but it was a huge relief, not having to deal with Grandmaster alone tonight.

As soon as Hilde parked her ship in the hangar, she sighed.

"You ready?" She asked as she stood from her seat. I stood, too, playing with my fingers as I answered.

"No," I said truthfully, "but when will I ever be with him?" I questioned with a slight smile on my lips. Hilde chuckled and took my hand, placing it on her arm.

"He is a bit much at times." She admitted with a nod. I looked at her skeptically and she snorted. "Alright, all of the time, but you get used to it." Brunnhilde shrugged, walking me to Grandmaster's VIP box that overlooked the fight.

As soon as the doors slid open to reveal Grandmaster and his posse, I got a bad feeling in my stomach.

"Look at that! Right on time, as usual, 142." Grandmaster exclaimed and stood from his seat. "Come, we've got three fights before our champion." He noted and ushered me and Hilde over to the large white couch.

"Oh, great. More garbage." Topaz rolled her eyes as we walked passed her table. Hilde flipped her off while I stuck my tongue out at her.

"Ignore her." Grandmaster told us, waving off Topaz's comment. "Come sit, I have to do the announcement, but we can start now that you're here!"

"You waited for me?" I asked, surprised. Grandmaster turned and took my hand, holding it between both of his.

"Of course I did! You're our guest of honor. We can't start without the guest of honor!" He explained before dropping my hand and taking a glass of wine off of a tray one of the servants was carrying. "Come on, come on, come on!" He said as we finally made it to the couch. We sat down, but Grandmaster didn't as a weird projection sphere flew down from the ceiling and cast a light over him.

"Welcome, welcome!" Grandmaster announced as a large projection of him appeared in the arena for all to see. "Wow, so many of you." He laughed. "I'm your host, but you all know who I am." Grandmaster joked. Everyone in the stands cheered for him. "Who's ready to see some undercard competitors?" He asked. Again, the viewers went crazy. "Good, that's good because our first competitor comes from the planet Xander!"

At the familiar planet, I sat up more to see. A pink skinned Xandarian came out of the tunnel and into the arena. She was a gorgeous woman with long brunette hair. She wore a blue one piece leotard with a square of fabric hanging from her waist. The leopard was open down the middle to show her stomach and cleavage. She also had a gold sword attacked at her back.

"Put your hands together for the foxy, Novari!" The Grandmaster said.

"My money's on her." Brunnhilde pointed out as she grabbed a bottle of mead. Novari looked around the stadium with a scowl on her face. I could tell that this was the last place she wanted to be.

"This next guy is a beast from the swamps of Badoon Worlds. It's Rephl!" The Grandmaster introduced.

A reptile-like man ran out of the tunnel. He was already enraged and snarling. His skin was green and scaley, and almost looked wet. His ears were pointed, like the Dark Elves I'd encountered years before. His eyes were a bright yellow color and his teeth were razor sharp. He wore some kind of green metal that coiled around his body.

Rephl didn't waste any time. As soon as his eyes locked on Novari, he charged. Novari was ready and blocked his attack with a metal arm guard on her forearm. As she pushed him away, she reached for her sword and swung. Rephl jumped back, avoiding her blade and circled her, waiting for an opening. He got impatient when he didn't find one and charged again. That proved to be a mistake as Novari's sword pierced through his stomach.

It looked like it was going to be a short match. I had already named Novari the winner until the reptilian swiped forward with his claws and ripped out her throat. I gasped as I watched her fall to her knees and then collapse to the ground completely. She was choking on her own blood as it filled her lungs. It didn't take her long to stop twitching.

Just because Novari was dead, didn't mean Rephl was the winner. He collapsed next to her, sword still in his stomach, and quickly bled out. No one won this fight, but the audience still cheered like it was the best possible outcome. Even Grandmaster was giddy with excitement.

"Well, that's unfortunate." Hilde sighed, unaffected by the whole show. I wondered how many of these fights she'd seen since falling to Sakaar. Was she always this unaffected? From my time at HYDRA, I was a little numb to death, but I still had a problem with the 'competitors' being forced to fight each other.

"What a show that was!" Grandmaster laughed as his projection reappeared and he started introducing the next fight. "We haven't seen that in decades! Double kill, amazing!" His smile was wide as he looked at their bodies. "While they're being cleaned up, let's introduce our next challengers. This time, we have beast against a team of two. How exciting!" Grandmaster exclaimed. "Let's introduce our team first. From the planet Conjunction, we have the husband and wife team, Ab and Len!"

Two people, a man and a woman, walked out. Their skin was a sapphire blue color, kind of like Loki's was in his frost giant form, but their eyes were a strange gray color. They looked rugged, tough, and ready for a fight. They were both bald, but there were these knots on their heads that stood out above everything else.

"And their opponent, the large beast from the radioactive planet Sivos!"

A large, four-legged creature ran out of the opposite tunnel. It's fur was purple with blue markings, it's eyes dark red. The creature didn't even pay the husband and wife any attention as he immediately tried to climb up the wall. When that didn't work, it turned to look for another exit. That's when it finally saw the others. The creature huffed, stomping his feet against the ground as it got ready to attack.

The couple broke off into different directions, surrounding the beast. I watched as they took turns attacking the creature, almost getting, and keeping, the upper hand. The beast was bleeding, but it wasn't slowing down at all like the couple was. All the creature had to do was wait for them to tire themselves out. And, as soon as the moment came, he lunged at the man, sinking it's claws into his chest and biting into his shoulder.

The woman screamed a bloodcurdling scream and raised her weapon, a spear. She ran toward the beast, but it didn't even react as she speared his side. When she pulled her weapon out and aimed to do it again, the beast kicked backward. The woman's body flew into the wall with a force that split her skull open, leaving a trail of blood as she slid down to the ground.

The only screaming left was from the man as the beast tore his limbs off. The creature ripped into the mans arm, snapping it like a twig, and throwing it with such force that the severed, blue hand smacked into the glass of our VIP box hundreds of feet in the air.

"Ooh, that's gross." Grandmaster grimaced and waved someone over as some of the others in the box with us screamed. "Can you- can you get someone to clean this? It's killing the mood for my guests."

I watched as dark, red blood dripped down the window. The arm hit the glass hard, so there was quite a lot of blood spattered across the glass. I couldn't tear my eyes from it, even when images started flashing through my mind.

Blood flowing steadily down my arm, falling off the tips of my fingers to the wet floor below. The rings of blood thinned in the water.

Tony... oh, god, Tony. The look of horror. His panicked mumbling as he did everything to slow the bleeding and keep me conscious. Him pleading with me to keep my eyes open...

A hard slap to the face snapped me out of my head. My breathing was fast, as well as my heartbeat. I looked around me in a panic until I locked eyes with Hilde. She was the one that slapped me. She was holding my shoulders and talking to me, but I couldn't hear what she was saying over my pulse in my ears. I was shaking horribly, my body wracked with sobs.