Awakening: Prodigy

07: Prescribed Dissonance

POV Seth

"We all aspired to win," he said after a moment. Winning was the only unifying motive about any of the eighteen squads who took part in the games. Their approach varied, but as the games progressed toward the Championship game, winning by any means necessary became the unspoken rule. In the last game, winning condoned slaughtering the opposition.

Seth didn't see the point of killing his future comrades-in-arms. But with the hindsight that many of the participants were not war-bound, it made even less sense that murdering the opposition was a reasonable solution to attain victory.

He had seen good people turn savage at the chance of laying claim to the title of Champion. The brutality of the last game made no sense. What did the elite gain by participating in the games at all? Obviously, some form of notoriety, but what else?

"You took part in the games. Won two championship games. What did that win you?" Seth asked.

The therapist cocked her head and cast her gaze to the ceiling. A cruel smile touched her lips and the flicker of humanity that barely existed to begin with blinked out. She had been among those who had slaughtered their opposition. Twice. And got away with it.

"We're not here to talk about me. I understood my role."

"Did the people you murder understand their role?"

The cruel smile didn't so much as falter. "Their role was to serve as a sacrifice to our superiority. Had they been smarter, stronger, faster... I assure you, they would have done the same."

"I didn't kill my opposition," Seth reaffirmed. "I somehow managed to not kill anyone in three years. Yet you could barely manage a single game without murdering anyone at all." That's right, she didn't just satiate her bloodlust in the last game. She had taken lives in every game she had taken part in.

Her smile shifted, baring perfect white teeth. "There used to be four squads to a game, instead of two. The scenarios were harsher, longer, more frequent, and more demanding. The Council deemed the violence of the old games unnecessary. You're demonizing me for responding to the standards of our society."

"No. As an elite, you made a choice to join the games. Just like you made a choice to murder participants. If it's as brutal as you claim, why join?"

"Why did you join?"

"I wanted to survive the Killing Fields. Direct combat situations would have given me the experience of unpredictable and thinking opposition." Though not the whole truth, it was enough to signal the difference between his motives and hers. "You never served. You stole a position from a soldier who could have used the training, who could have used the experience."

The cruel smile faded. She nodded to herself and tapped her tablet, adding additional notes to his case. "I stand corrected. You don't just resent your squad, but all elites. Unless you deem them worthy, of course."

"It doesn't matter what their net worth is," Seth countered, the uncomfortable truth gnawing at his conscience. "Anyone willing to murder to get what they want isn't even human in my books. In your case, you murder people for something you didn't need. You only wanted it because you couldn't stand the idea that someone else could have it."

"I wanted it because it proved I was the best," the therapist replied, probably her first real statement in ages. "Same as you. The games don't care if you were born top-side or in the Capital. They don't care about my heritage, anymore than they cared that you're here on a sponsorship. I was better than them. I survived through sheer grit."

Seth frowned as he took in her unsettling words. "I don't think it was about survival at all. It's just like this room, and this stupid chair, and that ugly painting. For you, it was about dominance. Revealing your true nature. Promising pain and suffering, and death if you didn't get your way. I know too many people just like you. And no, they aren't all well-off. You are a monster born to wealthy parents. You didn't even earn your wealth. It was handed to you, just like your slot in the game was given to you because you made a deal with the Captain through your family's assets. How much did that cost you? Maybe not you specifically, but maybe your father, your mother... What did they have to trade to have you play an insecure warrior princess in pretend battle?"