Fate Breakers

Chapter 4

"What's going on?"

"It's alright, young one."

"What?"

"You are going to be okay."

"Who... are you?"

"You may call me Satyana."

"What... do you want with me?"

"I want you to live."

"I... died? I... I really... died?"

"Yes Gannon, you did."

"You... know my name?"

"I do."

"How?"

"That is not important right now."

"Okay then... why? Why me?"

"Because why not?"

↻

Tauro Makatza felt smug, watching as hours turned into minutes for Gannon Ramirez. He gleaned such a pleasure from watching the young man suffer. Gannon Ramirez was the embodiment of why he became a Balor in the first place all those years ago. Makatza just loved to see people fail where he succeeded. It reminded him that he was untouchable.

"I don't know why the fuck you're smiling."

Specialist Adriana "Fox" Guerrero. Makatza hated her from the moment she joined a decade ago. She hated him equally. Fox, for the life of her, couldn't understand Makatza. She always had a hatred for True Immortals, especially for those like Makatza, so far removed from any sense of mortality that the only way for them to feel alive was to hurt others. Looking at him smirking as he was now made Fox sick. She'd prayed for Gannon, kicked herself in the ass for not doing more.

Fox swore to the Gods that if Gannon made it alive, she'd do everything in her power to make sure she became his supervisor. Only as the minutes ticked by, her heart sank. She feared she would never get that chance.

"Only ten minutes left," Makatza said, rolling his shoulders. "At this rate, we should just pack it up."

"A hell of a lot can happen in ten minutes, Tauro," Jasper snarled.

"Why are we talking as if there's just one out there," Luther asked angrily, the Echidna male having been in a bad mood since before the field test started. "There are well over two hundred candidates who have not yet walked through those doors! I get it, Makatza's boy has been the talk since he dragged that poor child in here almost a decade ago, but for fucks sake, he isn't the only one at risk here!"

"Luther is right," Nefeli said grimly, glaring at the lot of them. "These are lives, not chips being moved about on a board that we can bet on."

"They are to The Elders," Makatza snorts, smug as ever. "So what's the real difference?"

"I really don't understand how the fuck you're still here," Luther snarls, his dark blue eyes starting to glow.

Jasper bristles. "Luth, please don't start."

"You got something to say, scales?" Makatza stepped up to Luther. The two males were equal in height, Luther's only real advantage being his broader body.

Luther jabbed a clawed finger straight into Makatza's chest. "I don't see how anyone can keep you around, knowing what the fuck you do to these poor people day in and day out. It is insulting to see you with that pattern on your cape!"

"Luther," Nefeli begged, "please..."

"You should listen to your friends, snake," Makatza spat, grinning like a madman. "I got rid of Rojas when she had somethin' to say. Got rid of Carmela and Rhyfel to boot. Don't think I won't do the same to you."

The entire room went dead silent. The air seemed to turn sour. Luther's chest tightened, struggling to choke down the anger in his voice. "You," he said, voice hardly above a whisper. "You incited that riot..."

Makatza kept grinning. "I did."

Nefeli looked disgusted. "Rojas almost died because of you."

"It would have been by the Moirai's design." Makatza gestures to the door, still shut tight. "Just like how in five minutes, if that door doesn't open, it—"

BANG!

Their heads all whip to the door.

Covered in dirt and blood, shaking from the cold, panting and in a daze, Balor Candidate Gannon Ramirez stood in the doorway. His eyes darted around the room. Slowly, they landed on Makatza.

Gannon raised a hand high. Slowly, he lowered it, a vulgar gesture aimed right for the mentor he loathed with his whole being.

"F... fuck you, Makatza," he said, barking a laugh. "I... lived..."

Gannon Ramirez collapsed on the floor, five minutes left before the field test ended.

Gannon Ramirez had passed.