There was no need for masks in here. The air was always clear enough to enjoy. That was thanks to a filtration system made by someone Kai didn't want to think about. He didn't want to think about how the BP (Big Space) had already been affected the by the person, that once again - he really did not want to think about.

Kai sat uneasy. His room was in the BP It was past two doors, and down a long hall. All the way to the end there was a small room to the left. He had chosen this room himself, simply because it was so solitary. He sat back against the wall. It was hard to imagine, that there was anyone stronger than him. Lade was always talking about this "angel" that had come to him through Remis. Kai remembered how Remis was before his friend and brother had decided to desert him. Remis was so energetic. He was still energetic – just more fueled by anger and sadness. Remis had been working on something. Always working, always thinking. 

It had something to do with the "angel" that Lade was talking about. 

She was next on the list of things he really, really did not want think about. 

It also had something to do with the person who he was failing to avoid thinking about... Zakt. 

It was not right. Something about all this Up Top business rubbed him the wrong way. There was always more to it than it seemed, more to Zakt. It already seemed complicated – so he could feel that something very complex was going on.

Kai remembered how despite how Remis loved watching Lade practice,  when Lade first decided to start teaching Remis was too shy to do it. Jelm went right ahead and tried it out. being just a year or two younger than Jelm, so he and Jelm were actually pretty close. 

That was, before the "angel" everyone was talking about even showed up.

 Almost seven years ago. Remis wasn't even involved with that bastard of a friend who'd left him yet.

 Probably would have been better if they never became friends. 

Because the way Remis told it, he had stayed behind because of that friend and so called "Angel". 

Kai decided long ago, that he was just going stay in the Slums with Lade. His father had left him, and his mother died, and had asked Lade to watch over him.

He didn't want anything to do with the people up there. Because his father was from up there, and one day just decided to go back. 

Not Lade though, 

Lade would be down here for good,  Kai thought to himself.

 That was the only thing he really trusted to be true. Nothing else mattered, or ever would mater. He wouldn't let anything else matter.

He could hear the gears and feel the movement of the elevator from where he was. It was depressing, every year it was depressing, but this year was just plain sad.

 Remis and Jelm were like older brothers to him. 

One brother was leaving and the other was pathetically staying behind. 

Kai looked around him. This was the only place he knew as a home. 

The BP

Lade had once called it a "stadium". 

 No one knew what that was – so he just renamed it. It was big and had a lot of space. The only thing inside of it was the chairs. As seemingly endless rows and rows of fold down chairs lined all along the walls. The paint on them had mostly crusted off. The steps were broken and chipped. Yet there were all these rooms behind doors and down long hallways. 

He liked the ongoing amount of them.

Lade said, that he liked this place because somehow it felt familiar. There must be something like it Up Top. Because the only other thing Lade said felt familiar was teaching to fight, and fighting itself. He said it was like reenacting a memory he just couldn't picture in his head. Like making those missing thoughts come back to life.

Kai had yet to meet the new student Remis said he was going to bring today. 

 It couldn't be someone from Up Top because they just arrived.

 He had brought this up a week ago. So it could either be a friend of his, of which Remis had many – or it was the one person Kai had already decided to have nothing to do with.

"Kai, Remis is here. There's someone I want you to meet. Get up." Lade said walking into the room.

"Is it Zenny?" he asked softly.

"What if it is? What do you have against her? I thought you'd be happy Remis had a reason to stay – or are you mad that his reason wasn't you?" he asked softly sitting down next to him.

"I'm mad that any reason could make him stay. . . He always talked about going. He trained and trained until he thought he was strong enough. He worked hard even though he was already stronger than anyone else. He was as good as we are. Yet first he decides not to go – because of that guy; it doesn't make any sense. I thought he was stronger than that. I thought he was smarter. That girl, is not going to get Up Top. . . She was SENT down here. The probably has an E.I.T, and there is NO way she'll even get to take the Exam. Stay, for two more years, then not even take it just because SHE has to stay?" he explained grumbling. 

Lade nodding as he listened.

"Fine you don't have to meet her. Avoid her like the First Quadrant. However – I think that it is your duty, as you claim to be a friend, to at least see what it is that they all feel like it's worth sacrificing for. . . Even I met Zakt. . ." Lade sighed, Kai flinched a little.

 "He wasn't some jerk Kai,"  he sighed again as he spoke.

"He could fight as well as everyone else, sometimes it seemed like he had an advantage. It was an amazing thing to fight someone who's blind, well not blind but he did it with his eyes closed. Said that the blurs would just confuse him more. He actually got a hit in on me. I couldn't touch the guy. You on the other hand, you never even took the time to meet the guy. I think that was disappointing to both Jelm and Remis. It can't be easy having a friend who refuses to meet the other." he began to pace a little.

"I wasn't about to let him hypnotize me." Kai spat out. "Just like I won't let that girl entrap me." He said smiling at his word choice.

"Remis and Jelm teach you those words?"

"Yeah, what of it?"

"Take a guess at WHO taught them. . . " Lade shot him a quick look.  

"Remember this, almost anything they thought to teach you, they learned from him." Lade finished. He got up slowly, chuckled a slight. He smiled at the boy, shaking his head as he turned to exit the room.

_______________________________

Remis placed the sleeping Zenny on the mat in front of him. 

He wiped the dry steaks from his face. 

 He couldn't believe he'd cried like that, that he'd cried at all. He didn't even know what his REAL reason for crying was. 

Had he cried because they had left, or because he'd been left behind?

 Had he cried because he was scared Zenny wouldn't pass the exam, or because he wasn't sure that he would? 

He didn't know, but the tears had fallen nonetheless.

 It didn't make any sense, what Zakt had planned. Yet it was the most sensible thing in the world. Why not everyone just leave at once? Yet why risk everyone at once either? He understood it, however, somehow he couldn't wrap his mind around it. How was that possible?

He looked up to Lade, who was walking toward him. Lade was an impossible man. He wasn't tall, yet somehow he was thy type of person to make you feel insignificant. His skin, wasn't dark, but he seemed reasonably tan. Like he'd spent too much time under a lamp. His muscles bulged out to make him look large. However, he wasn't booming with muscle, there was a leanness to it. He was very flexible, and extremely agile. His body was a trained machine. Lade had dark hair, a rare trait that he shared with Remis and Jelm. 

Zenny had dark hair as well, however it was dark purple, not dark brown. 

He had green eyes that seemed almost symbolize the fact that he was from Up Top. Eyes the color of grass. A rare thing in the Slums. Though green eyes weren't strange – his eyes were different. They seemed so bright, and full of life. He had crows-feet next to his eyes, it seemed he used to smile even more than he did now. His nose fit his face. He had a big-head and not just in ego. People often made fun of him in that way. He had big feet, especially for his height. 

 He never wore shoes inside the Big Space. So right then, he was barefoot.

"Kai, is being as stubborn as ever. Don't worry, he'll come around in time. . . Zakt, was he serious about involving him in this? I mean, why does he want so many fighters? Most people who come down aren't like me. . . This whole thing could be unnecessary." He said sitting down next to Remis.

"He was serious. He said, he told me that this is like a game of chess."

"What's Chess?" asked Lade confused.

"An Old World strategy game." He started. "He said even though you have to move the pawns first, if the main players aren't on the board the game can't start, or it's already finished."

"So him and Jelm are the main players?"

"No, Him and Zenny are."

"I'm lost." He smiled. "Why isn't Zenny on the so called board if she's important? Doesn't that mean, he's already lost the game then?" he asked worried.

"Zakt is the piece with all the moves, the strongest player, and Zenny is the piece he has to protect. You see because in chess, if the 'king' is captured, then the game is over. Zenny can't enter the game until Zakt is strong enough to protect her." He explained. "If they left at the same time, they would both be weak. They would BOTH only be as strong as pawns, he has to become a strong piece, so he's ready to play the game when she gets there." He sighed finally.

"It seems like he's not a part of the game at all. Feels more like he's the one playing it. Where does that put us?"

"Then, that would make Zenny and some other player the most important."

"Would that be you or Jelm?"

"It wouldn't be me. I'm more like a pawn. He gets to choose how I move, and where I end up. I'll most likely be sacrificed for the sake of the game. Dead or forgotten"

"But, you're the one he left to protect her. You're the one who has to protect the important piece. So . . ."

"No. . . I'm not" he turned to face the wall. Remis was sure he would make an odd expression once he let it out.

Lade was perturbed at first. However, he figured it out the very moment Remis opened his mouth.

 "Kai is."