8 Archon Ellora

"Well that's gloomy. Really? Is that what they think of us, just a bunch of convenient sacrifices?" Fen's lips curled into a sneer; his already low faith in the organization that put them through the Rift plummeted into uncharted depths.

"You know, saying that isn't going to change anything. Might as well just accept it, we can't do anything about it. " Amelia argued.

"That's a load of bullshit! You're not even defending them, you're just accepting this!"

"I actually agree with her, Fen. I know we just met and all, so forgive me if I'm coming off as rude, but you're not seeing the whole picture here." Qin quickened his words after feeling Fen's glare on his skin for a few moments too long. "Just think about it. There must be some reason why we're here. If they didn't want or need us to be here, I'm sure we wouldn't be."

"If they have the resources to do something like this," Qin waved his hands around the room, "then I'm sure they had time to prepare everything. Time that they probably spent picking us. All I'm trying to say is, is that they must have well thought out reasons for everything."

"Oh, I'm sure they have a reason. Probably something along the lines of, 'we're psychopaths, so this is fine', because, y'know, they're crazy psychopaths." Fen seethed with barely controlled anger. Last night's events were still ingrained into his memory and he would not forget them any time soon. The despair he felt and the confusion at realizing how easy it was for him to do it, all of that was balled up into a large mass of anger in his chest.

"The Chosen are probably exactly what the name means: meant to succeed. I have zero doubt in my mind that we are nothing more than punching bags for them, or the next best thing." Fen continued his rant. "There's no police here, no law. The VPF may as well be gods here, they could do whatever they want to us and we wouldn't even be able to complain!"

Contrary to where the conversation was heading, the VPF actually had set much higher expectations for the Opfer than Fen thought. Qin was right in that they had years to prepare and plan for what they believed to be the second golden age of Humanity; they knew they wouldn't get a second chance. Every single risk was calculated down to the nth place, and carefully shaped until it formulated the best possible frame in which to input the variables, i.e. the Chosen and the Opfer.

Outer-circle members of the Foundation, such as Terrance Smith, would naively believe that the roles of the Chosen and Opfer would resemble the relationship of a talented older brother and his mentally disabled younger sibling. In reality however, the relationship between the two groups would be more similar towards a fire in a crucible and an extremely attention demanding metal. The purpose of the Chosen was to expose the Opfer to hardships and to Humanity's flaws, revealing the true nature of mankind. At the same time, fueled by the need to survive, the Opfer would become more powerful within a short amount of time to overcome the power gap between them and the Chosen who had gone through training years prior to the Program to survive the future trials.

It was a well-thought out plan with almost no room for any issues to arise. But the most vulnerable aspect of the plan was the tipping point for both the Chosen and Opfer. Too much time spent being the most powerful in the room and the Chosen would simply become content with their abilities, becoming unusable tools for the VPF. Too much exposure to cruelty and violence combined with too much power in a short amount of time would create monsters with no morals out of the Opfer, which would be worse than bad tools.

Tools, even dull ones, can be controlled. Monsters however will only create issues for the Foundation to clean up if left alive.

It was a delicate balance, but one that was necessary to achieve their goals.

During all that talk, Gray was silent. Whether for good or bad, he didn't think he had any unique opinion to bring into the conversation. So he simply sat down at the table, listening to them talk.

However, at Fen's last remark, he finally exploded.

"Could you just shut up!" He pointed a thin finger at Fen, a small but noticeable vein popping on his forehead. "Crazy this, crazy that, but what have you done? What do you even want us to do!? Yelling and complaining are all really easy things to do, but they haven't even done anything bad to us yet!"

When Gray wound down, his small frame was heaving for breath, but he still had enough energy in him to send a nasty look at both Amelia and Qin, before sitting back down in his chair.

"All of you need to take a breather. We should be working together and not arguing against each other." He finished.

Despite his small appearance, Gray was actually the oldest brother in a family of six, with three younger siblings. He had gotten used to being both ringleader and mediator while growing up in his family, but he was never able to put those skills into use before now. He didn't have people to try those skills on, most people avoided him for his oftentimes too optimistic personality and appearance.

But instead of inciting a positive effect amongst the group, the opposite happened. The spark thrown from his speech, from a part Gray didn't even deem important enough to speak about barring a brief mention lit the small ball of anger wrapped within Fen.

"'Nothing bad to us yet'. That's was what you said. I'm starting to have the sneaking suspicion that we went through very different nights." Different from his past rant, what he lacked in volume he made up for in emotion and energy. His voice was much lower, but to the rest of the group, it may as well have been right into their ears.

"Let they tell you the good thing they did to me last night. They put me and another guy into a room. Filled with equipment, just dumped us onto the floor. Do you wanna know what they told us when we were in there?"

"Oh I'm sure what happened to you was just, terrible. What, they have you two confess your darkest secrets or something? Just suck it up, you're one of the oldest guys here, so start acting like it." Amelia snarked back, peeling her lips back in disgust at Fen's behavior.

'I got stuck with my parents, just like when I was a kid. But, I don't act like a child and complain about everything' Amelia inwardly grumbled, not wanting to waste their time with whatever sob story Fen was about to tell them. 'All they did was argue, and even though it was annoying, it wasn't all that bad.'

If Fen heard her inner thoughts he might have thought she was crazier than the VPF. Even if it wasn't as bad as what he experienced, something like that certainly couldn't be considered good, right?!

Before he could speak again, the intercom speaker interrupted him with another announcement.

[You may leave your rooms, they are now unlocked. Follow the flashing lights towards Central, where you will be given further instruction on what you can do for the following year.]

[The Opfer follow the black lights, the Chosen follow the white lights. You have ten minutes to arrive.]

Fen's eyes narrowed before getting up. He didn't want to involve himself with them anymore. Gray was debatable in his books, but the two others were past the red mark.

Fen had always been a person who kept grudges, always remembering when others had treated him badly. It was one of the many reasons he didn't have many friends, and he knew it. Or rather, he gradually became aware of it, and accepted it.

His love for his family and Miko always overrode any grudges he had against them, because he knew that their relationship would always be worth more than anything they did. But Miko wasn't always his girlfriend, just like Fen didn't always have friends.

Fen always had kept up an invisible wall between him and everyone else who wasn't family. The wall only grew higher after Alex was born, and he grew extremely protective of her. His parents worried about his lack of friends, but Fen was content to be alone with his family. Nobody else was good enough or they didn't care enough to even be considered acquaintances, much less friends.

As kids, him and Miko weren't very close. But they always ended up together, whether it be schools, classes, or even clubs. She showed him again and again that she was a good person, and never gave up trying to befriend him as a kid. For a while, he thought she was a saint.

'Hell, I still think she's a saint.' Fen thought while remembering the past.

No matter what Fen said to her, she always came back to try again. He later admitted that her always coming back helped him to open up. Eventually, Fen put down his wall against her and let her in. They became friends sometime when they were both eleven and after that, his wall lowered even more until it collapsed onto itself by his feelings towards her.

When he was sixteen, they became lovers when Fen confessed to her, and by some miracle, she had feelings for him too. In one short year, Miko changed him for the better, even helping him get some friends, even if he wasn't completely ready to put his wall down for them too.

Without her, he would've probably grown old with only his sister as a friend and he knew it. She saved him. Fen was grateful to her for everything she did for him and tried (and failed) to make up for what he did as a kid. He didn't fail for lack of effort, but because Miko was reluctant to forgive him.

Fen was smart, but in concern to Miko, he could be extremely dense. She didn't forgive him because of hurt feelings, but because she didn't want to let go of a solid hold on him.

Without Miko around he sometimes regressed back into his past self, unconsciously putting a wall between him and whoever was talking to him at that time, in this case, Squad 42. Whenever this happened back at home. Miko would always hit him and remind him that, and he quotes, 'you can't lower your wall if you keep the wall up.' (A metaphor that eluded him, but he understood the general meaning behind it.).

And that was what was happening now, without her to control his anti-social nature he was putting a wall in between him and the rest of the group which was only strengthened by his anger and his frustration that they couldn't understand his pain.

The group walked outside the room, Fen being the last one out. Contrary to what he expected, the 'lights' were nothing more than the veins on the walls. He was curious to find out what a black light would look like, and reality, for once, did not disappoint him.

A small cluster of veins were steadily pulsing and absorbing the light produced from the others, creating the illusion of a black colored light when in actuality the light around them was just being absorbed to produce the 'light'. There was no light being produced but the lack of light next to the veins absorbing light created a vacuum that other light rushed to fix.

Looking at it, the phenomenon strangely reminded him of the void outside.

The veins led the group through a series of hallways and corridors until they reached a large amphitheater, but instead of seats there were benches, and instead of the massive fabric curtains, there was a curtain of lights that somehow layered on top of each other. It was as mesmerizing as it was strange.

'Another theme to add to the pile.' Fen inwardly sighed. He was beginning to tire of experiencing more strange events in less than two days than he had in his entire seventeen years of living.

"Welcome! Or rather, thanks for coming." A feminine voice was projected through the room but rather than coming from a speaker, it was more akin to a sound being amplified. Fen simply wrote it off as another magical feat.

A woman stood on the stage wearing a strange mixture of the armor the executioners wore and the clothes that an office secretary would wear, the colors clashing so much that it would send any fashion guru into a stroke. The horrific combination was only further accented by the woman's choice of shoes; she was wearing vibrantly colored tennis shoes instead of the grey boots that nearly every other member of the VPF wore inside the Rift.

"Unlike some of your unfortunate friends," She pointed near the entrance of the room, where a large number of Opfer were being dragged into the room unconscious, "You'll have more time to prepare! Those kids will of course be punished before they are informed of the following events."

The woman wore a creepy smile when she mentioned punishment that sent a shiver down his spine. She had appeared energetic and happy, bouncing at nearly word, but that appearance faded as fast as Fen's hope, before it was replaced by that smile.

"Ah, where are my manners! I'm Ellora, your Archon! Oh wait, you don't know about Archons yet. To Hell with it, you'll learn about them eventually so there's no harm in learning now." Ellora gestured with her hands to wave away any comments.

"You're all Opfer. That means that you were chosen to enter the Rifts because you are thought to possess various skills and talents that are necessary to learn certain fields of magic. The name itself may mean sacrifice," She grimaced," but that's kind of an inside joke. Funny for them, those old bastards, but for us it's just demeaning."

'Us?' Murmurs about her word choice filled the room for a moment.

"I'm going to be completely honest with you guys. Well, not completely, a girl's got to have her secrets." Ellora giggled, which was a weird sight to see with her wearing such visually unappealing armor. "Some, maybe most of you will die. Not from any fault on our part, of course."

An uproar came from the Opfer gathered in the amphitheater.