Rima sat, quite literally, on the edge of her seat as she watched her dearest friends fight for the entertainment of others. As she fidgeted incessantly, Charis streaked across the arena, her body transformed into a shapeless blur.

This round’s battlefield resembled the opening of a volcano: Charis waged war above a lake of unfathomably hot lava with variously shaped platforms as safe zones. While Rima was certain that the melted rock wouldn’t kill either fighter instantly, she knew it couldn’t feel good to touch it – she could feel the heat emanating to her face even from her seat in the stands.

A brilliant flash lit up the stadium with multi-colored pyrotechnics as Charis let loose another volley of shots towards her opponent, a female character named Edri. Charis’s proclivity for long range attacks would normally be a huge advantage in this situation, but not against this particular opponent. Edri was an Elemental who could transform her base type to whatever form suited her at that moment. Right now, her lithe form looked like it had been carved from the lava she fought on, and she evidently had no problem swimming in the stuff. Meanwhile, Charis had to leap from platform to platform, constantly retreating against an opponent with an effectively larger arena.

Still, Charis clearly had the upper hand in sheer strength and speed. She moved faster, and Edri made certain to avoid her attacks. Despite her limited training, Charis seemed to improve drastically with each fight – it was like she was becoming more in tune with the game and her own body. Gage and Alicia’s stat boost didn’t hurt either. Absently, Rima wondered where Gage was on Charis’s body – she already knew where Alicia was.

Thinking about the two of them left an uncomfortable emptiness in her stomach. She had long since stopped mentioning it, but Rima still felt tearing guilt at being the cause of all of this trouble. She had already promised to herself to change her ways, to try to help people and, as corny as it might sound, make the world a better place. Yet each day saw continued torment of another victim, Alicia, at the hands of her closest – maybe only friend. Rima had long since moved past what Alicia had done to her, but Charis apparently couldn’t or wouldn’t.

Honestly, Rima wouldn’t mind this so much – except she was certain that Alicia’s continued presence was the root of all of their problems. Like an insidious cancer, a profound gloominess had crept up on their group, and it only grew worse with each day. Despite her best efforts to cheer them up, Gage and Charis seemed to be drifting apart not only from each other, but also from her as well. Rima couldn’t know for sure, but she suspected that on some level Gage identified with Alicia simply because they were both shrunk; so while perhaps he didn’t openly object to Alicia’s mistreatment, maybe it made him uncomfortable.

On the other hand, he denied anything of the sort when confronted. Rima had asked him this morning why he seemed so despondent, but he simply deflected the question by saying the tournament was tiring him out and that he just wanted to focus on getting through to the next round and to their ultimate goal. Rima’s heart ached to see him so down; all she wanted to do was hold him and tell him that everything would be all right, but ever since he had turned her down so long ago she didn’t know how to act. Not that she really knew how to act in the first place: she had always been awkward among her peers.

Rima had to get closer to Gage. He clearly needed someone to pull him out of his funk, or he would sink even further into depression, to a place where no one would be able to reach him. It may already be too late.

A tremendous roar broke out around her. She snapped out of her thoughts, realizing that she had been hardly paying attention to the fight and immediately feeling guilty for it. Her guilt quickly shifted to elation, however, as Charis’s triumphant, smiling face flashed across massive screens above the arena. Edri was nowhere to be seen, and while soot and ash marred her skin and pink hair, Charis beamed for the crowd before turning on her heel and entering a waiting portal.

…

Rima couldn’t sleep that night. She tossed and turned, counted sheep, and all of the other usual stuff, but eventually she just got out of bed and went for a walk. Not bothering to change out of her simple black nightie, she stepped out of their suite and into the cavernous main atrium. There, the continuous bubbling of the oversized fountain greeted her. Heaving a sigh, she walked over to the fountain’s edge where she was greeted by her own face in the pool’s mirror-like finish. Deciding this was as good a place as any to ruminate, she lowered herself onto the sandstone edge.

“Hey, watch it! There are other people here trying to have deep thoughts too.”

Completely startled, Rima stumbled away as if she had been stung by a bee, only to slip and come crashing to the ground. Twisting onto her back, she looked up and spotted Gage with his arms crossed, glaring indignantly at her. “I’m sorry!” she yelped, completely mortified. From her lying position, she actually had to look up at him, which to her knowledge had never happened.

“What are you doing out here?” he asked.

In an awkward shifting motion, Rima scuttled over to the wall without getting up and leaned her back against it; while she had to twist her head around to look at Gage, at least they were eye level. “I couldn’t sleep,” she explained. “What about you?”

“Same.”

The pair were silent for a moment before Rima broke it. “Only one more round, huh?”

“Yeah, just one more.”

“What are you going to do first once you’re back to your normal size?”

“I’m not really sure,” he replied. “I guess there’s plenty of other adventures to be had.” Gage looked straight ahead, contemplating. “I’m definitely looking forward to – ”

Suddenly, Gage slumped to the ground in a lifeless pile. Rima sprang to her feet, only to feel her own body succumb to whatever wooziness affected her friend. She fought valiantly against it, but darkness quickly overcame her efforts.

In her last moments of consciousness, she saw a graceful, feminine hand pick up Gage’s limp form.