Chapter 9: Day 1 of the Trials

Tenet's consciousness was free. It rode on the waves of his imagination, tumbling down a stream of memories and fantasy all jumbled together into a dream Frankenstein. He was sitting at the table as his mother plated dinner. She sat down next to him, but he couldn't see her face. He could see a flash of a smile, dark curly hair like his own, but longer and smoother, falling to her waist. Fair skin. But he couldn't piece it all together. His dad sat opposite him, and again, Tenet was afflicted with the same curse. He couldn't see him, but he was there. It felt like sitting at the table with ghosts.

Then his sister took a seat at the table, and Tenet let out a heavy sigh of relief. Her face, at least, remained clear. Young and innocent. Tenet's sister never smiled with her mouth. She did so with her eyes, like glowing pools of liquid midnight. They would shimmer warmly if she was ever happy. Somehow, it felt more real than a smile. More genuine.

As he was eating, he could feel a profound sense of wrongness, an innate feeling of being watched and incoming danger. He tried to piece it together, but there was nothing out of the ordinary. Just his family, sitting down to eat, like any other ordinary day. But as he continued eating, Tenet found it increasingly more difficult to shrug off this growing fear inside of him. Building and piling until he stood up out of desperation, his chair clattering away. Then he felt a pressure on his back. He recognised this feeling as a hidden blade stabbed him, its dark edge jutting out from his chest.

'I've been stabbed' was the only thought he could muster as he felt himself pulled out of the dream, not knowing who had stabbed him.

Gasping, Tenet woke up. The bed had been drenched in sweat, leaving him to shiver under its covers. His watch read 4:45AM. Trying to calm his pound heart, Tenet got up, preparing to get ready for the day. While his heart slowly returned to normal, Tenet still couldn't shrug off the lingering sense that something was wrong.

'It probably was pent-up exam nerves.'

After breakfast, instead of having some time for rest and recovery, Lieutenant Scarlet ordered the Unit to follow her. All day the sadistic glint in her eyes had been profoundly subdued, much to the relief of the rest of the unit. However, now he could see the manic glint return in its full brilliance as she hurriedly urged them at a fast march.

She led them to the Sim room, where they conducted their sparring under the colossal gaze of Otto. When they arrived, she instructed each cadet to enter the pods, but not to place the helmet on.

"Lieutenant, what is this about?" called Finn nervously.

"Isn't it obvious Cadet O Malley? You're about to start your exams. Now listen up cadets. The exams in the Y.S.C are split into two. The theory exam, and the practical. Right now, seeing as though none of you are mutants yet, the practical exams are the main factor behind your overall grade."

"Lieutenant, if these exams have no proper basis on our standings or elimination, what is the point of performing well?" asked Bean. As always, he asked the questions that told him how hard he needed to work.

Lieutenant Scarlet smiled, "In the Y.S.C, as many of you know, a good performance is rewarded, and a poor performance is punished." Her smile widened. "Both of which will be left up to me."

 She let the threat hang in the air unspoken, locking eyes with each cadet. The effect was miraculous. Each Cadet had turned from confused to incredibly determined, a look of worry contorting their features as they imagined what horrors the Lieutenant could fry up if given full reign.

"The trial will be a month's survival course, joint with the other seven units. The longer you last, the more points you'll gain. Surviving cadets of a unit with the most points will be deemed the winner. Don't disappoint."

Without any further time to process the information, she ordered each cadet to place on their helmet, transporting them to the simulation room.

As each cadet did so, Lieutenant Scarlet sighed sadly. It was unfortunate, but given the number of unique situations in this unit she had been explicitly barred from telling them the nature of the trials, unlike the other cadets who were informed the first week they joined. Still, there was nothing she could do against him. He always got what he wanted, and she felt a tiny pulse of sympathy for herself that it was her Unit 8 that had attracted his attention this year.

.......

Tenet felt the familiar feeling of being transported into the simulation, losing all awareness of the real world.

The first thing he noticed was that he was alone. He had expected to be transported with his unit, but of course, the Y.S.C. wasn't so kind.

Then he noticed his surroundings.

Instead of being transported to the forest where they sparred in Otto's lessons, he had been placed somewhere entirely strange. There were many things about his surroundings that were familiar to Earth, yet it made those slight differences much more pronounced.

There was a sky like Earth's. But instead of it being blue, it was purple. Glowing in a gentle violet that dimly illuminated the swirling dark mist that engulfed him. There were no stars to lead his way. Nor was there a sun, or a moon, or any celestial planet or marker otherwise that could have given Tenet a sense of direction. There was just a glowing sky, the light having no apparent origin; and dark swirling mist.

Hefting his Kit Tenet sighed heavily. These trials were going to be harder than he expected. As he walked, the ground seemed to bend under his weight, as if it was elastic.

'Right, first things first. I need to get out of here, see where I actually am.' The surrounding mist made it impossible to see anything really, giving him the sense he had been cut off from the world. Which, in a way, he had been.

Picking a random direction, Tenet kept walking.

 It was strangely incredibly tiring. Soon his muscles became drained and exhausted, his eyelids growing heavy. There seemed to be something obscuring his thoughts, slowing him down until he could barely piece together what was happening.

'Maybe I should just have a brief nap first. Yes, a small sleep would do nicely.'

Just as he was about to fall asleep there and then, he felt something within. A tremor within his heart, a deep, overwhelming anxiety that seemed to push back at the cloudiness within his mind. There was something wrong. But what?

'Maybe I should have a nap first. Perhaps I'm too tired.'

Just as he was about to sit down, the feeling returned, stronger and more urgent. 'No, there is definitely something wrong.'

But again, there was nothing. Tenet was just so tired. Tired of the Y.S.C, tired of sparring, tired of his life before that, tired of the fog even.

Then his eyes snapped open.

Urgently throwing off his sack, he rummaged for the water supply. Tearing off his shirt, he drenched it in water, quickly wrapping it around his nose and mouth.

'Shit, the fog, it's poisoned! He had almost missed it, the way the fog slowly put him to sleep. If it wasn't for the feeling, he would've lost there and then, mere moments within starting.

'If the fog is poison, that means the chances I'm bumping into some sort of wild beast are slim.'

With that thought, Tenet broke into a fast jog. His mask wasn't perfect. It was far from it. At best, it would slow the process for a short while before becoming completely useless. The wet cloth would dissolve any anaesthetic airborne chemicals that were putting him to sleep for a short time. Hopefully long enough for him to get out of here.

Gradually, the fog lessened until it disappeared all together. The landscape morphed into sudden clarity as he emerged into a forest. But nothing like the forests of Earth. The trees had no roots, for they never reached the floor, the trunks hovering above the floor, held up by red tangled branches and vines. The trees were also in vibrant shades of reds, yellows and oranges as if the entire landscape had been doused in exotic spices.

Tenet kept his guard up. This was a place that wasn't meant to be easy to survive. He needed to make camp. Find a source of water and food. Prepare for other cadets while slowly finding his own team members.

 'But first things first, shelter.'

Tenet scanned the forest as he walked, glad to be free of the poison fog. Taking off his mask he stored it in his pack, ensuring that it was kept separate from the rest of the supplies that had materialised with him.

As he passed, he noticed that the forest floor wasn't flat as he had expected, but mountainous and rocky. It wasn't long before he found caves that looked good enough to take shelter. But Tenet ignored them. They were too obvious. Too easily ambushed and spotted. He needed something more secure that can be used as a permanent shelter for the month. So it had to be hard to find and easy to defend.

It took another hour of searching till he happened upon one. At first glance, it seemed like a large boulder, similar to any other. But as you approached closer, you could see a fissure that was covered by dangling vines and trees. It was just a large enough gap for Tenet to squeeze through, meaning multiple people couldn't enter at a time.

The cave opened up into a small space. It wasn't a deep cave, for which he was thankful. A deep cave seemed too foreboding to sleep comfortably in. Sighing, he opened his pack. It was time to see what the absolute shitheads in the Y.S.C had given him.

A half empty canteen of water.

Four days' worth of supplies.

A blanket

Hat

Spare change of clothes

Torch

There was enough to keep him going at the start, but he'd need to find his own source of supplies. Water was the priority right now.

After unpacking everything, Tenet left the cave, memorising its location. He moved cautiously now that he was no longer in the fog. While it had blinded him from his surroundings, the fog had also obscured him from others, meaning Tenet could previously move with much less caution. But there were now Eight Units of Cadets including his own. That meant there could be 63 other cadets in the forest, with only seven of them being his allies. Those weren't nice odds.

Tenet felt naked as he scanned for water sources. The instructors hadn't given him a sword to protect himself. He had trained every day with Jellal since the day of their first spar, becoming more accustomed with the weapon. He had expected that whatever exam or trial that was coming his way, it would've involved a sword.

'Damn Otto, what's the point of teaching me the sword if you aren't giving it to me?'

As he walked, a heavy branch snapped off one of the dangling trees, falling right in front of him at his feet. It was longer than the swords he was used to, and of course, it had no sharp edge. But it was made out of a firm wood and Tenet believed it wouldn't snap easily if he used it to fight.

'I guess this is the best I could hope for.'

Tenet searched for water for hours, not encountering anyone. He didn't venture far, fearing that he'd forget his cave and all the supplies he left there. When the violet sky began dimming, like a bright hot metal slowly cooling down, Tenet decided to give up for the day.

This place, or wherever this place was meant to simulate, it was a poorly illuminated landscape, and with it becoming darker, it became futile to look any further.

Retreating to his cave, Tenet opened one supply packet, downing its contents hungrily. He wasn't sparing with his water, despite the canteen already being half empty. He felt that keeping himself semi-dehydrated in order to make it last wasn't the smartest idea.

After that, Tenet made his bed, slowly allowing himself to drift off into a dreamless sleep.

......

Jellal ran, sprinting between dangling trees as he tried to escape the beast. It was huge, resembling a large hairless dog, snarling madly as it slowly caught up to him.

'Fuck sake', he cursed inwardly. The simulation had dropped him onto the edge of the forest, with large grasslands behind him. He thought he was smart, entering the alien forest that would be better suited for cover. After he'd settled into the first cave he found, leaving his pack of supplies there, Jellal left to go get a feel of his surroundings. After all, this was his home for the next month.

When he had returned, it was to see that monster of a creature tearing open all his supplies. Then it began eyeing Jellal as if it had just found the main course.

He knew it would be impossible to outrun the thing for long, Jellal was fast, in fact all of his physical capabilities had always been astonishing really. But slowly this dog monster was getting faster and faster, its snarls getting louder. Reacting out of desperation, Jellal clambered on top of one of the main piles of small boulders. Right before the Monster swiped at him with a massive paw, he jumped onto one of the dangling trees. Clambering upwards as fast as he could.

It was impossible to tell whether this Dog Monster could climb.

'Maybe I should call it a Mog. Monster and Dog. Donster doesn't sound right?'

He almost laughed at the thought. Here he was climbing for his life and all he could think about was whether Donster or Mog would be a better name. Well there was no question really, Mog was obviously better.

Looking back he saw that the Mog was still on the floor, snarling up at him, but making no attempt to chase further. Jellal sighed in relief. Climbing onto a large branch where he could lie down. It was getting darker now, so the best thing to do was sleep.

He knew Tomorrow would be a hard day, especially with all of his supplies missing.

'I wonder if Tenet is having an easier time than me?' He grinned at that.

'No, definitely not. Poor bastard never had good luck.'

With the comforting thought that his friend was probably having a worse time of it, Jellal closed his eyes.