There was trouble, of course. Kain had killed an inmate. Beatings and brutalizations were common. The inmates with the longest stays acclimated the inmates to the consequences of killing their fellow inmates. In short: it sucked for everyone. The cleaning drones found the body, and eventually the place went into lockdown as the drones began to search for clues. What this meant was that while food and water were delivered to the inmates, no one was allowed out in the recreation areas. No one was allowed access to the exercise instructors, or the educational drones. No one could visit the library. In short, distraction was in short supply. And distraction was the tenuous thread that allowed the inmates to maintain their sanity. Indeed, anything new being introduced to the detention center was a novelty and heavily focused on. The most common new thing being fellow inmates.

  In that regard, Kain and Kres were both disappointments. Too old and too weak to really be threats. Even with Kain recovering from his malnutrition, his hunger, his thirst, he was still too small on the metaphorical totem pole to really be much of a threat to Kyxx or anyone. Still, with his recent exertions, a lot of the tremors that went through his body just from the effort of walking or staying upright had begun to fade. He still had that stooped posture. Kres had noticed, though. And if he thought it odd, well it was likely put down to whatever strange ability Kain seemed to have that had allowed Kres to grow in strength and toughness. Of course, Kres was worried he would lose his new friend. The ‘bots ALWAYS found the culprits, after all.

  So one can imagine Kres’ surprise when the ‘bot showed up and questioned Kain in its monotone voice, “Were you responsible for the death of the man in the bathroom? You were seen entering it and leaving shortly afterwards.” Kain’s simple response was, “No.” And of all things, the ‘bot merely turned and left. Kres stared open-mouthed at Kain, but held his tongue until they were alone, “You just lied to a warden… and it believed you.” Kain shook his head, “No. He asked if I was responsible. I answered him truthfully.” It was here that Kain’s harsh world-view had saved him, of course. In Kain’s head, the chief of a tribe was responsible for the lives and deaths of all of his people. Kain’s answer had been no technicality or word-weaseling from his own standpoint. It was very firmly Kyxx’s responsibility. Kyxx had decided to play dominance games with Kain, and Kain had seen much, much better players than Kyxx in his short life. “Kyxx should be willing to pay the price for his decisions. It is his right to spend the lives of his tribe as he sees fit so that it may prosper. And it is my right to eliminate a threat to mine. To do that, I needed power. Now I have that power.” Kres’ expression, as much as Kain could tell anyway, was rather sickly looking. “Sleep. You will feel better when Kyxx’s tribe no longer preys upon you.”

  As Kain closed his eyes to sleep, Kres could not help thinking to himself that his friend was an utter psychopath. Kres also found himself ashamed that he was happy that psychopath was his friend.

  ***********

  That barren plane again. Today it looked a little more inviting. The fire burned merrily in his firepit. No sign of the corpses stacked like cordwood inside of it. Add to that that there seemed to be NO visible fuel and that the flame was now blue, and one could correctly conclude that the evening’s weirdness had ratcheted up another notch. Sitting with legs crossed, the see-through spirit of his one-time enemy was visible next to the fire. She opened her eyes as Kain approached her, a bittersweet expression on her face, “Careful, Kain. The rules are different now, where you are. Your people no longer face extinction. Society at large no longer worries over that on most days. Emotions other than rage and the desire to survive now matter. Obligation is now the most powerful force. You got through on a technicality. This time.”

  Kain grunted in reply. Rolling her eyes, the white ape rose to her feet, her stick once more appearing in her hand as she leaned on it, "Fine. Fine. Today… today you should make some mortar, the way I showed you. Gather bricks. I’ll show you how and where to stack them until you get a feel for how to build things properly and then I’ll let you get back to work. Then you’ll use your new power to scour the walls of vines, moss, and other dead clinging things. Really, this stuff isn’t very hard though. It’s more about showing you have the patience to see it through. Our world, our time… It only showed us how to break, how to destroy things. It was difficult. In this new one, it’s all about building. Everything we build, it’s kind of a bulwark against the chaos pressing in on us from the outer reaches of reality.”

  “We won’t win.”

  “No, we won’t. But before you ever came here, you knew one day it would all end in death. For you. For your tribe. For anyone and everyone you ever cared about. Even gods die, Kain. And neither one of us are gods.”

  “It isn’t in me to stop. To give in.”

  “Nor I. We’re not creatures of grace, Kain.”

  “Grace?”

  “Grace. It means a lot of things. In this case, it means the wisdom to calmly accept what is and what must be.”

  “Then no. I am not… graceful.”

  “No.”

  ***********

  “Kres. What is grace?”

  “A lot of things depending on who you ask. Among my people, grace is a trait that all know you possess. And when you possess, it shows people that you’re something greater than the shell that holds your mind, your heart, your soul.”

  “We are not graceful.”

  “No, Kain, we’re not.”

  “But we could be.”

  Kres’ head lifted at that, surprised. A small smile. A nod. With the night gone again, Kain had decided that today was the day he would join in the greater society of the detention center again. Unable to find a murderer, the center was on high alert, but despite this the wardens had released the prisoners out into the recreation yard. Kress passed through the soft blue, grassy yard with purpose in his steps. In one corner, a wide circle had been dug in the shallow earth, denoting a ring of sorts. In it happened the chief amusement of those with the credits to bet or talent to participate. The wardens ensured assiduously that those who entered it to fight were not coerced into doing so, and halted any and all fights before they could become deadly in nature. They were still quite blood, brutal, and painful. By the rules set by Kyxx himself, anyone who wished to fight could. Priority was given to those with the most talent and best records, of course.

  Kain stopped just before one of the men recording bets in his data tablet, and declared in a rasping voice,”I wish to fight.” This ignited a bark of laughter from the canid-faced organizer. Pale gold eyes crinkled as the corner as his wolfish muzzle cracked a smile. It was unusual to hear Kain speak up, and the request assured Reff that this strange primate had finally succumbed to dementia, “Keep moving gramps. We may be prisoners, but no one here wants to see an old man get beat up.” A pause follows. “Well. Maybe Kyxx, but probably not even him. Though only because it’d be boring for him.” A round of nervous laughter follows Reff at the mention of Kyxx, and then the inmates turned back to their fights. Reff went back to his data tablet and continued to tap on it, only to realize that Kain had not in fact left, “I wish to fight.”

  “Look, monkey, I don’t have anyone appropriate for you to fight. You’d just get hurt.” Reff appeared plainly annoyed, clicking his black nails in an irritating staccato against the back of his tablet. “And still, I wish to fight,” claimed Kain.

  Reff blew a sigh, and stepped aside, “Fine. Whatever.” Kain forced himself to straighten up and walked proudly into the ring… And was confronted by a six foot tall, octopedal insect with a golden carapace and four arms that ended in six stubby, club-like digits. Kain shuffled his feet and arms into a protective fighting stance and eyes his opponent, Krbkl.

  **********

  “You’re being very stupid right now, you know.”

  Kain blinked, “Aren’t you supposed to be helping me rebuild?”

  The spirt rolled its eyes,”You’re not going to be here long enough for it to matter.

  ***********

  Kain awakened in his cell and peeled the bandage off of his face, an annoyed expression on his face. “What happened,” he demanded of Kres.

  “You walked into the ring and got knocked out immediately.”

  “That is less than ideal.”

  A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  “Yeah. Let’s go see what they’re serving from the food dispensers for lunch.”

  “No. I must fight.”

  Kres stared again, once more slack-jawed as Kain rose to his feet and headed to the yard, with much the same results.

  ***********

  “I’d warn you against brain damage, Kain, but I think they can fix that now.”

  “I do not need brains. I need muscle.”

  “Well that’s good. Because that statement says you definitely lack at least one of these things.”

  “So what will you teach me this ti-“

  ***********

  “-me.” Kain looked around, irritated. Kres spoke up, “That was impressive, dude. You actually went down even faster this time.”

  Kain growled, stood up, and marched back out to the yard.

  ***********

  “… This is getting irritating Kain.”

  “Your face is irritating, harlot!”

  “Mature.”

  ***********

  This became a sort of pattern over the next week or so. Kain would go sign up for a fight. He would get knocked out. Occasionally he would level a skill (combat made this happen surprisingly fast). He even ranked up a few. After a while, the residents of the detention center began to bet. Mostly on how long it would take until the foolish hominid would be laid out and carried away by the ever patient, ever attentive ‘bots. While it did garner Kain some respect, most commented on how resilient he seemed to be, always returning after each bout seemingly healed and ready for another round. It was one more thing to break up the monotony of the day.

  Kain, however, noticed that as his skills leveled, his body, his mind, and how he felt grew more comfortable, more at ease than he’d been in years. Indeed, his race had leveled more than once, and seemed stuck at twenty for some unknown reason. Yet every time he fought, and lost, he could feel an uneasy energy welling up in him. Growing more condensed and yet more frantic. As if his very self was vibrating inside of him. Finally, of course, one day it happened. He was fighting a humanoid creature. A Succhid, with its pebbly grey-green skin and its crocodile like teeth. It turned its head to gloat. It had been taking its time with Kain, drawing out the time it was spending on taking him out. Far longer than was required to finish the fight.

  Kain took the opportunity to try something his newly raised skill levels had told him should work. He turned, and while the Succhid was facing away, cocked his knee up, leg folded. Kick thus loaded, he launched it as hard as he could toward’s the Succhid’s cheek. Pain shot through Kain’s leg as he heard a cracking sound. The Succhid, though, dropped to the ground like a puppet whose strings had been cut, laying there in a heap, gurgling and twitching. The betting ring was completely silent. Kain took the moment to look at the prompt that had appeared, leg throbbing with pain.

  Kain pressed the ‘yes’ button out of sheer curiosity and lack of caution brought on by the headiness of the whole ordeal and the energy that had been building in him SURGED, bubbling up out of him. Kain fell to the ground, foaming at the mouth as the ‘bots descended. He lost consciousness, and he did not dream.