There was nothing but black in front of him. Vincent felt himself wander through that black, slowly getting colder. Time didn’t seem to exist, only darkened emptiness. He wandered on and on, and eventually, he started to hear ringing.

Quickly, the ringing grew so loud that he started to become pained by it. To make matters worse, it seemed that the emptiness started to reverberate that ringing, causing the space to vibrate with the same frequency.

It was unbearable. Even though it was so painful, there was nothing he could do about it. He thought about using his powers to silence everything around him, but just that thought alone caused the ringing to grow much louder.

Just as he was about to go over the edge, it all went quiet...and his eyes blinked awake.

Now awake, the first thing he noticed was that his head and body ached like nothing else. He realized that he was laying down, and when he tried to sit up, every tiny movement caused him pain. So he just resigned himself to the floor for the time being.

As his eyes adjusted, he saw that the ceiling above him was made of a familiar sandstone. Even the low light of the room hurt his eyes, and he was forced to wince a few times before he adjusted.

“Wha…” he started to say, but his throat was parched and irritated.

Suddenly, he heard some shifting and stirring coming from his left. It sounded like footsteps, and they were getting closer to him.

“Hello,” a voice called out to him. Finally, Vincent decided to push through the pain and sit up. In front of him, he saw a slightly smiling Fang Nola looking back at him.

“Mornin’,” Vincent replied, squinting and rubbing the back of his pulsing head.

“You’ve been asleep for a while. I’ve never seen someone sleep that long,”

“Yeah yeah,” Vincent responded, rubbing his eyes. “What the hell happened?”

“Well…” Fang then looked around the room a bit nervously. “You kind of got the shit beat out of you.”

“What? I don’t lose. What are you talk—” And then uncomfortable memories of the fight started to patchwork themselves in his head. “Fuck…”

There was a bit of silence before Fang spoke up again.

“I mean, it was a really good fight, so you shouldn’t feel—”

“I lost,” Vincent said to himself, cutting Fang off.

“Yeah...yeah you did.”

Vincent just stared at each wall, watching them get closer and closer the longer he stared at them. There was something inside of him that was shaken a bit, and there were other things that seemed broken.

He then looked down at his torso and at his legs. There were balck and purple bruises all over, slowly thrumming with pain. He could tell that he was messed up. There were probably a few broken ribs and he was almost certain he had a concussion.

Vincent leaned back against a wall and just stared up at it. He took a deep breath and gathered his thoughts.

“How did that happen?” Vincent asked, seemingly at the ceiling.

“Well,” Fang started to reply, “you challenged the champion of a ruthless underground arena. What did you expect to happen?”

“So? I’ve beaten plenty of—”

“And you didn’t even bother to train or figure out what her powers were,” Fang said matter-of-factly. “I may not be the smartest person out there, but I’m not an idiot. Even I can see that you messed up.”

Vincent’s face winced in pain. His body didn’t physically hurt, but when Fang said that, something deeper inside felt pain. He took another deep breath and sank a bit lower.

“I mean, yeah…” Vincent mumbled. His eyes never meet Fang’s.

Fang then walked over to Vincent and forced themself into Vincent’s eyesight. The moment that happened, Vincent rolled his eyes somewhere else.

“Vincent,” Fang said, much like a parent softly talking to a toddler who just got done throwing a tantrum. “Are you mad at me?”

“No,” Vincent replied, looking away from them.

Fang smiled and asked, “Did I hurt your feelings?”

Vincent hesitated a bit and responded, “...maybe.”

Fang just laughed out loud, covering their mouth to reduce the volume. Their laughing fit lasted for a few seconds before they calmed down again.

“What’s so funny?” Vincent asked.

“Nothing, nothing,” Fang replied, his giggles subsiding. “I just didn’t expect you to pout so much about one loss.”

“I’m not pouting,” Vincent quickly retaliated. “I’m just, you know, I…”

“No it’s alright, you don’t have to explain yourself.”

“It’s just that,” Vincent started to say, ignoring what Fang said, “I’ve lost a lot of things in my life, like my nice shoes and my mom.”

Fang just looked confused by the choices of comparison.

Vincent then continued his thought by saying, “But I’ve never lost anything when I actually tried to hold onto it. Like my astronomy class, for example.”

Fang had a look on them as if it was taking them a few seconds to process what they just heard.

“Those are, uh, interesting examples,” they said. “But I think I get what you’re saying.”

“Yeah I know, it’s just that—”

“Hello there,” a random voice said, interrupting their conversation. The voice was somewhat familiar-sounding, but Vincent couldn’t put his finger on why.

Fang and Vincent immediately were on edge and they quickly looked towards the bars of their cell. After surprisingly seeing no one on the other side of the bars, they scanned their room. Eventually, Vincent’s eyes landed on a weird-looking shape on the wall. It looked like a small amorphous shadow, no more than a foot tall or so. The weird thing was that the shadow didn’t seem to be completely flat, there was just a slight bit of depth to it.

“Please don’t be alarmed, Vincent Huron,” the voice softly spoke, again. It was now obvious that it was coming from that weird shadowy shape.

“Who the hell are you and how do you know me?” Vincent asked the shadowy figure.

The shadowy figure spoke and said, “You probably want to know who I am.”

“Yeah I do, and I want to—”

“My name is Prince,” the figure said, cutting Vincent off, “and I am talking to you through what I just found out was called an Apparition. His name is Shade’s Slimming, or Shades for short.”

Vincent held his arms up in a very hold-on sort of way. “Wait just a second, stop interrupt—”

“I’m sorry if I’m cutting off whatever you’re saying, but I can’t help it. I can’t hear anything you’re saying.”

“What does that mean?”

As if they predicted what Vincent was going to say, Shades said, “Shades can repeat sounds that he hears, including my own voice, and that is what you’re listening to. Think of it like an answering machine on your phone.”

Vincent looked at Fang, who was still a bit visibly on edge, and said, “Makes sense to me.”

“Now that I’ve said that, I want you to hear me out. I saw your fight against Marezi—”

“Oh boy,” Vincent asided to Fang.

“—and I was genuinely impressed.”

Vincent’s ears perked up and he was immediately interested in what Prince/Shade had to say. So much so, that he actually stood up from his sitting position, not giving a care in the world if it hurt.

“Not exactly from the fight, but from what you said in the beginning,” Shade continued. “No one has really tried to really stick it to Lucretia in a long time, and I was sure that it was doomed to stay that way. That was, until I saw your brazen, if not stupid, tenacity.”

“Thank you,” Vincent plainly said, forgetting that Prince couldn’t hear him.

“When I heard you openly bash her and even say that you were going to kick her ass, I was actually given hope for the first time in a long time.”

A slight smile started to make its way up Vincent’s face without him even realizing it.

“I was rooting for you the whole time, hoping that you would win.” There was a small pause and an audible sigh. “And then she kicked your ass pretty quickly.”

Fang quickly snorted with laughter and Vincent shot them a dirty look, to which they just looked somewhere else and whistled.

“But that doesn’t change anything,” Shade continued. “I’m actually glad you lost, because Zander and I were actually able to form a plan out of it.”

Vincent immediately snapped to attention, and it seemed that Fang did too, albeit a few seconds later. The air grew a bit tense with a name drop like that.

“Oh yeah, I forgot to mention, I’ve been working with a friend of yours, Zander Nenmos. He and I have been working together in secret for a while now, and we have a plan to get you out of the Collider.”

Vincent squinted his eyes and replied, “But how can I trust you?”

“Oh, and Zander told me that if you questioned if you could trust me or not, I should mention something about a Marlin Street Incident.”

Vincent’s face immediately turned bright red, and he could feel his cheeks burning with embarrassment. Fang looked towards him and raised an eyebrow.

“What’s that—” they started to ask.

“It’snothingdon’tworryaboutit,” Vincent responded.

“So I hope that helps,” Shade continued. “But anyways, so Zander and I want you to enter the Le Monde grand tournament that’s going to take place at the end of the month. It’s a one-on-one fighting tournament in which the winners advance and the losers are forced to drop out. It’s a huge money-maker for the casino and the Upper Echelons, and anyone worth their salt is going to participate...especially Marezi.”

Most of what was said went in one of Vincent’s ears and out the other, but when her name was mentioned, his interest peaked again. Even the mention of one of his best friend’s names can only hold his attention for so long.

“Zander and I need you to train and be prepared for this tournament. We need to make it all the way to the finals and beat the champion. If you do that, we can get both you and Eliot out of the Collider. What’s your response? You can talk to me now, and I’ll hear it later.”

Without hesitation, he looked at Shade and confidently said, “Oh yeah, you got yourself a deal, but only,” he then looked at Fang “if you can get Fang out, too.”

With that, Shade left. He seemed to slither across the wall, as if his back was stuck to it and there was a smooth conveyor belt attached to it. It was a bit creepy, but there have been plenty of weird things that have happened within the last month or so.

After Shade left, there was a few seconds of silence before Fang looked at Vincent and asked “Why did you do that?”

Confused, Vincent replied, “Do what?”

“Ask to get me out, too.”

“Oh, that’s ‘cause you're my friend. Why wouldn’t I want to get you out?”

Fang shook their head in surprise and said, “W-well, thanks, I really appreciate it. I’m not sure what I can do to thank you.”

“Oh, I can think of something.”

“What’s that?”

“I’m gonna need some help training and getting ready for my fights, and I want you to help me.”

Fang couldn’t help but crack a smile. “I can do that, no problem.”

“Awesome! I don’t want you to hold back, because I’m serious about this trainin’. This time, I’m gonna beat her, for sure.”