Like a mature and independent young woman, Eliana lay curled into a ball on the floor, breaking down. Keith's blood was seeping into the mat and soaking into her clothes. Everything felt sticky. She was still only wearing one boot, since the other was stuck in Keith's eyeball, which hung grotesquely from its socket as his body was dragged away.
"Continue with the next fight," Lucifer's unnerving voice boomed through the hall, and the recruits resumed fighting. But on Eliana's side, there was a hold-up. She was supposed to move to the mat on the left, but she couldn't move. She just lay there, shaking and sobbing.
"Who doesn't start fighting now will be eliminated."
She didn't care what Lucifer said. They all could shove the tournament up their asses. She was traumatized, probably already developing PTSD, and completely shattered. To protect the last shred of her mental health, she completely dissociated, trying to imagine that she is in a green, peaceful meadow but the meadow quickly turned blood red.
Belial still stood over her, smiling creepily. She felt him petting her hair like she was a scared animal. The fact that it somehow really helped only showed how far gone she was.
Suddenly, a loud alarm blared from the speakers.
"What is going on now?" Lucifer asked, clearly annoyed.
"It's the fire alarm. We need to pause the tournament. Everyone move toward the open training area until we determine where the fire is or if it's a false alarm!" Isaak commanded.
The recruits stayed calm but visibly irritated by the interruption. Lucifer and Belial exchanged glances. Lucifer gave a small nod, deciding to go along with the evacuation for now. But they both noticed something: Dane had left the training hall right before the alarm went off.
Belial looked back down at the pathetic form of Eliana.
"Come on, kitten. Time to get up." He grabbed her hair and yanked her up by it.
She didn't even feel the sting as her scalp protested.
A calm voice interrupted. "I'm going to take care of her. Go outside with everyone else," Cobra said as he approached.
Belial, tall and broad, turned to face him but no one matched Cobra's size. He towered over Belial, though that wasn't enough to intimidate the white-haired assassin.
"Cobra, my friend, don't start irritating me. I'm playing with this kitten now," Belial said, smiling menacingly. His heterochromatic eyes—one white with a long scar across it, the other so dark it was nearly black—locked onto Cobra.
"She's still one of our recruits, not a full assassin. She's our responsibility. I'm taking her now. Let go," Cobra replied firmly.
Belial chuckled. "Who the fuck do you think you are to order me around? You're making me regret only destroying your eyes and making you blind back then. How about I rip out your tongue next?"
They stood chest to chest, tension crackling between them.
"That's enough. Step back, Belial, and go to Lucifer," Isaak hissed as he stepped between them.
He hated how Belial was threatening Cobra and felt the urge to protect him. Belial took one more step forward, then stopped.
"It's not worth my time to kill you worms right now," he muttered with a sigh. His eyes flicked back to Eliana. "We'll have our fun later, my little kitten. I still want to feel your claws."
His words were creepy, but Eliana barely registered them. He stroked her hair one last time and walked toward Lucifer and the recruits leaving the hall.
"I told you not to let him provoke you. Keep calm," Isaak growled, grabbing Cobra by the neck and pressing his forehead to his. All of the mentors were always on edge when Lucifer and Belial were around.
"It's okay. Let's just get her out of here. Dane's distraction won't hold long, and like this, she can't fight," Cobra said with a sigh, visibly calmed by Isaak's touch.
Both men looked down at the mess that was Eliana. Isaak bent down, picked her up, and threw her over his shoulder. They didn't follow the others outside instead, they headed to the infirmary, where Dane was already waiting.
"Took you long enough. We don't have much time. Theo and Damon are buying us as much as they can, but it'll be obvious soon that the alarm was fake," Dane said, eyes wide with worry. He looked at Eliana, whom Isaak dumped unceremoniously onto a bed.
She immediately curled into a ball, hugging herself and trembling.
"Hey, snap out of it." Cobra snapped his fingers in front of her face, but she only stared blankly, wide-eyed and teary.
"What do we do now? She can't fight like this. I was pleasantly suprised when she took down Keith, but then she just broke," he said, frustrated.
Isaak turned to Dane. "Don't you have any drugs or adrenaline you can inject? Just enough to get her on her feet for the next few hours?"
Dane hesitated, eyes fixed on Eliana. He wanted to kiss her, to hold her close and protect her but he also couldn't deny that it had been incredibly hot when she spiked her boot into Keith's eye.
"I can give her something, but with her current mental state, it could backfire. Hard," he said, frowning.
Isaak considered it. "It's better than nothing. Letting her die isn't an option. Did you see how Belial looked at her?"
Dane tensed visibly. The way Belial had stared at his princess made his blood boil. He wanted to gouge the bastard's eyes out.
"We can use that," Cobra murmured, sitting on the bed next to her. "She needs to survive. And we need to be careful, Lucifer and Belial can't find out that Eliana doesn't have a chip."
Isaak looked at Cobra curiously. "You didn't believe in her before. Why the sudden change?"
"I changed my mind, okay? So Dane, give her whatever you've got to keep her standing."
Dane hesitated one last moment, then reached for a syringe.
"Okay. Hold her down. This is strong. It'll pump adrenaline through her and make her more aggressive, but the side effects could include immense pain."
Isaak and Cobra nodded and held Eliana down. She didn't resist. She didn't even react as Dane pressed the needle into her neck and injected the serum.