"Should we really be doing this if he has some kind of anger-issue time bomb inside him?" Ekko whispered to Powder as Vi and Orion ed their hands and fitted their gloves.

  "No idea," Powder replied with a casual shrug. "But if it gets these two to make up…"

  "What are you talking about?" Caitlyn asked, stepping up beside them.

  To keep things ral, Mylo was ag as the er ref for Vi, and Cggor for Orion. It had been agreed that Powder would stay uninvolved, and Vi's Pilty goon- Caitlyn- would stay out of an Uy matter. Ekko, meanwhile, had ht refused to take part, watg Orion warily.

  Uhe past, the robot could retrato the wall, giving them the entire ring this time.

  With a quid a 'Tsk' from Powder, Ekko responded instead.

  "None of your business," he said curtly.

  "I think it is very much my business."

  Scoffing, Powder shot back, "The only reason you're even allowed here is because of my sister. Your people aren't wele here."

  "And here I thought we had a mutual uanding," Caitlyn frowned, crossing her arms as her gaze flicked to Ekko. "I help you catch Silco, lock him away, destroy Shimmer, and take out a few others along the way. Holy, it's a one-sided arra."

  Powder and Ekko exged a brief gnce. After a beat, Ekko sighed and answered while Powder shook her head, turning away.

  "He's got some issues after a job."

  His gaze flicked to Orion for a moment, clear hesitation in his eyes before he spoke.

  "Doesn't sound like the whole story."

  "Yeah?" Powder muttered, folding her arms and looking away. "Then maybe you should ask him yourself."

  "I will," Caitlyn replied coolly, her gaze shifting back to Orion. "After this."

  "Hmph." Powder's distent was obvious as her fingers unsciously drifted to Isha's hair, absentmindedly pying with it like a toy.

  "Nn." Isha waved her hands in annoyarying to shake her off, making Pgle.

  Isha was getting amped up despite the distra. Her eyes were wide with excitement, her small frame boung up and down—just like a certain Powder had once do her age.

  Powder felt something strange, a quiet reition. Watg Isha was like glimpsing her younger, i self. Her gaze flickered to Orion.

  What happened shocked everyone.

  The fight had started as expected, a sharp exge of movement- Vi slipping and jabbing, Orion tering, each testing the other's distance. A few more blows were traded when, suddenly-

  BOOM!

  The entire er of the ring exploded outward, fttening like a pancake.

  The shockwave sent Ekko and Caitlyn tumbling to one side, while Powder and Isha were thrown to the other. A violent indigo wave rippled outward, shaking the walls. Gss rattled but mercifully didn't shatter, sparing them from deadly shards.

  Cggor and Mylo staggered backward, and after realizing what was happening, retreated backwards several more steps.

  "Agh- AAAaaa…"

  A series of painful, whining groans echoed from the ring.

  Caitlyn groaned, slowly sitting up. As she turned her head, she caught sight of Orion- and her eyes widened in shock.

  Ekko, breathing heavily beside her, muttered darkly, "There's your time bomb going off."

  At the back er of the ring, Orion was on his knees, clutg his head.

  The indigo waves fluttered wildly around him, sparking bright and unstable. But within them, something darker twisted—a faint, uling violet that cshed violently with the Are energy.

  Squinting, Caitlyn blurted out, "That- That looks like Hexteergy! But what is- ?"

  Vi, groaning from where she had been knocked out of the ring, winced as Caitlyn rushed to help her up. But even as she pulled Vi to her feet, Caitlyn's guard never dropped, her gaze fixed warily on Orion.

  "What do we do…" Powder's voice cut through, breathless with panic. Her head whipped toward Ekko, desperation fshing in her wide eyes.

  "We have to help him, Ekko! Hey- e back!"

  Powder's hands cwed out at Isha desperately who ran fearlessly toward the ring.

  "Stop! e back!"

  ------------------------

  //Ring Fight//

  The bell rang and the two started dang with their guards up, throwing out jabs to test their distance.

  'She's definitely improved, not rushing in like before,' Orion noted, slipping a jab while simultaneously tering with his own. She caught it and spped it down, and they pivoted in sync.

  More jabs and soft hooks.

  Vi smirked. She was clearly enjoying this. But Orion was not. His temper was fring in the background after everything that was said and done.

  Like in the past, however, Vi was still mgressive. Orion closed in, but so did Vi.

  She slipped under his hook, and flowed into her first body hook that caught his elbow. Her body quickly pivoted though, and a sed hook was delivered with her other into his side.

  When his arm lowered instinctively, protect his already impacted side, his body twisted too, and an uppercut came straight up the middle- finding his fa a collision.

  Blood trickled down Orion's nose aumbled backward, throwing out his leading jab to try f her to backup.

  But an experienced, street-fighting Vi against someone who spent the st six years isoted and rotting in a cell?

  The punch was slow.

  She easily slipped to the outside and a short, fast right impacted his face again. He was seeing white sparks through fshes of mounting pain, and knew he had to re-adjust.

  Vi wasn't going in for an immediate kill, though.

  She wao savor this.

  After all, she never nded blows- not even once- when they sparred as kids and this felt like retribution for all of the times she left with a stinging fad sore ribs.

  It was also, as much as she hated to admit it, a stress relief. A way to show her emotions without words, but through her fists instead.

  Orion's guard came back up, close and tight.

  'I 't trade blows with her. My body isn't ditioned, and my reflexes aren't there.' He spit out some blood. 'I o revert to how we did it as kids and dan the outside to give myself rea time.'

  Sound phought. But he didn't reize, or rather didn't prehend a feeling that was rising inside him.

  All of this adrenalihe feeling of violend destru, it was causing the Void energy to stir within him.

  He thought it was just his nerves, or his heart pounding away, and didn't take too muote of it. After all, he also promised not to use magic.

  But how he was wrong.

  BOOM.

  The air split apart.

  Energy erupted outward, raw and untrolled, sending shockwaves through the room.

  The st thing Vi saw before she was hurled from the ring was a flicker of violet light, something she was going to call out. Then she was on her back, body ag, pain radiating through her core, the world spinning around her.

  What was merely seds in this reality, however, was a drawn out session for Orion.

  He saw- or felt- himself losing trol in his mind.

  In visions, uo trol his rage any longer, his pent up rese and anguish for the years spent in this accursed world was finally unleashed.

  In a split moment, as if inhibitors were pletely removed, Vi's body exploded outward with a torrent of blood from one of his fists.

  Waves of violet, void energy rippled out from him. He blinked. Jinx was missing both her arms and Caitlyn's head was ly removed. Cggor and Mylo were staring lifelessly up at him, and Isha was c in the er.

  "How does it feel?"

  "How does it feel getting torn apart in my stead?!" Orion's distorted, insane driven voice rippled out.

  "HOW DOES IT FEEL?!"

  He blinked again, the visions vanished.

  He felt pain rippling through his head like a thousand needles and realized once more that the Void energy was trying to wrestle trol away from him.

  The pain was intense, and almost unbearable, f him to his knees while clutg his head, guttural groaing from him.

  All he could hear was corrupted, haunting whispers from the beyond.

  And desperate cries approag.