Ranking Day (1.12)

Darkshadow stomped on the dark haired man's skull, screaming at him about what he had done. "You killed her and now you will die, understand me!?" He cried out, tears streaming down his face as he beat the ever living shit out of the man. He had hatred burning through his bloodshot eyes as he ended the man's life.

Jaxon's eyes shot open and he looked around. He had been put in bed, and he couldn't tell how much time had passed, he looked around and only saw Flail, who was cleaning his mask.

"How long have I been out..?" He looked at Flail, who didn't acknowledge him straight away, but looked up at him eventually.

"All night." He replied before putting his mask on and looking at Jaxon. "You'll want to get up soon, since ranking tests will be in an hour." He got up and walked out of the room.

Jaxon got up and put his mask on, the painting of a sun on it glistened as the sun leaked through the curtains into the room. He put his hoodie on and headed out after Flail, who was making his way to a large room, where Jaxon could hear people talking.

Jaxon entered the room and saw everyone was there, some were chatting amongst themselves whilst others hiding in the shadows to try and make themselves feel menacing, he guessed.

Jaxon waited with everyone until eventually, an hour passed and they all watched the middle aged man walk into the room, the masked children who had helped kidnap them were all lined up perfectly, and everyone else fell into line with them.

Jaxon saw the lavender haired boy glaring at everyone as the fell into line, he was the last to take up his position as the middle aged man walked past each of them.

"My name is Malachite." The man announced, not a warning for his introduction. "I'm sure your team leaders have informed you about why your here by now." He smiled, one of his eyes glowing yellow and green. "Now I would like you all the make your way down to the arena underneath our building." He ordered and the team leaders headed down first, while everyone else followed while murmuring amongst themselves and spreading their anxieties through the group.

"So how long do you think this will take?" Jaxon heard a boy with a british accent speak, he looked around and realized it was the boy with lavender hair.

"Oh, umm no clue.." Jaxon noticed a scar on the boy's right eye, as well as on the right side of his top lip. He had pale brown eyes and a deep red and black school uniform to one of the most elite private schools in their country. "Wait, you aren't wearing your mask..?"

"I find it hides my face too much," he smirked, "Malachite has already given up on forcing me to wear it since I've already refused enough times." His smirk intimidated Jaxon, he had never met someone so confident in his actions.

They all reached a room that overlooked the arena, there were stairs that lead down into the battleground, as well as a wall that displayed everyone's rankings.

Number 1: Reaper

Jaxon noticed the name at the top and looked around, trying to figure out who Reaper might be. But he had no way of finding out, the other names on the board were all the team leaders, which meant they also had to undergo ranking day.

Jaxon looked around and locked eyes with the white haired girl from earlier, her red eyes narrowed at him before someone walked past and blocked his vision, when he looked in her direction again, she was gone.

"It's time for your first battle." Malachite hissed and then two names appeared above the ranking board, everyone looked at it but noone seemed to recognise the names.

"Phoenix vs Diamond." Jaxon then felt a hand grab the back of his hoodie and shove him down the stairs into the arena. He got up and dusted himself off before looking across the arena, but there was a large wall in between him and his opponent.

"As you can see the names on the board are not the name given to you at birth." Malachite pointed out. "That's because they're your code names, it should be pretty obvious who is who though." Malachite smiled and the wall began to collapse into a field of rocks, probably there so that they could have obstacles.

"Begin."

Before Jaxon could even check to see who his opponent was, the earth had already begun to shift and his enemy was dashing towards him. He had gleaming white hair and beautiful pale blue eyes, and he wore the same school uniform as the lavender haired boy and his mask was decorated and studded with many different gemstones.

Jaxon jumped up onto one of the rocks and then pounced for Diamond, lighting his hands on fire and slashing embers at him. But it somehow did nothing, not even slowing Diamond down as he dashed towards Jaxon, who he ultimately punched in the face and knocked him off the rock.

Jaxon didn't even know what hit him, it was like have a brick thrown at your face by some sort of catapult. He could feel his nose bleeding as well as the scratches the fist had left on his face.

"How the--" Before he could speak, Diamond was already throwing more punches and attacking him.

Jaxon began to feel helpless as what seemed to be studded fists continued to hit him. But once he was cornered against one of the large rocks, a burst of energy came over him and he suddenly knew exactly what to do.

"You're welcome." The voice in his head barked before fading out, though this time it was a little bit different.

Diamond threw another punch at Jaxon, but he quickly dodged under it and slammed a flaming fist in his face, knocking him back. Jaxon had no control over his body now, as he quickly began fighting better than he knew he possibly could.

He finally knocked Diamond out of the arena, and the battle was over. He looked around and saw that his name had gone up a rank, meaning he was moving up the board already.

"Don't expect me to save you from situations like that after we get outta here." The voice in his head echoed. "You're gonna have to train in order to fight like that once we escape." Jaxon held his head in his hands as he headed back up the stairs with Diamond following behind him.