The cells used to be silent, a morose place where broken women waited for their deaths. Now, the moans of agony drifted from cell to cell, following the scent of fresh blood and the sour smells of the chemicals that permeated their skins.

It was torture. Dina wanted to comfort them, not unlike Melodi, but none of them would let her. Instead they lashed out at her, accusing her of working with the aliens, blaming her for their torture.

They were right, in a way. She was the first of the slaves, the first of the women who were going to spend the rest of their lives on the barbed cocks.

With tears in her eyes, she looked over at cell one hundred three. The second victim was rocking back and forth in a pool of drying blood and tears. She clutched herself, prying her knees apart to keep them from touching against the bloody opening that was her sex.

Their gazes met for a moment.

She glared at Dina with tear-filled eyes. Then with a sob, she turned away.

Dina cried herself as she looked away. Blindly, she reached out. Her fingers felt raw as she scraped the bench. She caught her table with two fingers and pulled it closer.

Reflexively, she started toward the education section but stopped. It had been days since she looked for Korin. She went through the video selection looking for his name. The last eleven videos had a symbol for liquid tagging the video. To her surprise, she spotted his name as the last one recorded. From her lessons, it was less than twenty minutes old.

Her heart beat fast as she tapped on the video.

The fighting arena was familiar, it was still between the various scout ships with barrier to form the fighting ring. There were half a hundred of the aliens sitting on wings and in chairs, drinking and celebrating as they waited for the fight.

There were two warriors inside the fighting ring, but neither was her husband. She didn’t see the scuffed and dented firm suits. Instead, the two men wore shimmering outfits that fitted to their muscular bodies. There was no obvious joints or even a helmet, just a triangular black triangle over the face.

She frowned and started to back out of the video but stopped when one of the aliens yelled “Ready!” and both men brandished their weapons. She recognized the plasma lance, it was Korin’s.

Her finger hovering over the tablet, she waited. She didn’t know why his armor had changed. Why did they change his firm suit? Was he hurt? Did she miss something in the other videos?

"Fight!”

At the command, Korin surged forward. Her husband moved smoothly forward except for the limp from an ax wound in the previous fight. The smooth armor appeared not to hamper his movement as much as his firm suit, he looked more free and agile than before.

He feinted before swinging around, bringing the burning weapon in a low arc that came up at the end.

His opponent easily parried with an electrified rod of some sort. The parts were crudely welded together, but it looked solid when it caught the metal part of the lance.

The crack of metal on metal rang out. Before the sound faded, Korin’s opponent snapped his right foot into a powerful kick, slamming it against Korin’s wounded leg. His thigh pulled back and kicked again in less than a second.

The impact shook Korin and he staggered to the side.

Dina let out a gasp of surprise and fear. Korin’s opponent knew exactly where to hit her husband. She clutched the tablet even tighter in growing fear.

Another snap kick and a rapid blow from the rod sent Korin to one knee.

"No,” gasped Dina. She sobbed as she hovered her finger over the pause button, terrified to watch it forward.

It happened before she could blink. Korin’s opponent caught him with a left cross and then slashed down with his electrified rod. It slammed into Korin’s shoulder, right at the junction of his neck. There was a burst of brightness. The armor seemed to melt away, boiling away in sparks and mists to expose bare skin and his heavily scarred face. He had a beard now, a short scruff crossed with healing wounds and patches of burned skin.

Instantly, the flesh along his exposed shoulder, neck, and face began to redden. The hairs smoked as the acidic air burned his body. Blood seeped out of sores and burns.

Tears burned in Dina’s eyes as she forced herself to watch. More attacks came, rapid kicks and blows from the rod. Each one slammed into Korin mercilessly, driving him into the ground.

She knew it was the end. Her husband was going to die.

Dina couldn’t stop watching.

His opponent lifted his electrified rod with both hands.

Dina bit her finger, crying out as she stared, praying to any gods that were listening that it wasn’t the end. She couldn’t lose him, he was the only thing left of her past life, the only thing keeping her sane with a lifetime of rape and torture in her future.

She shook her head. “No, no, no.”

The victorious fighter swung down.

The world slowed down in sickening slowness.

The electrified rod blurred and sparked as it came down. It swung past Korin’s nose, missing by millimeters. The fighter took a step, planted it on Korin’s chest and lunched himself toward the edge of the fighting ring.

A shimmering field briefly sprung up along the top of the barrier. It was a force shield of some sort, it rippled with expanding circles of energy.

The electrical rod slammed into the field. It exploded in a shower of sparks. The ripples grew brighter.

On the far side of the barrier, visible to the camera but not the fighters, a square box mounted on the barrier began to spark also. Light grew from inside the device, sparking and flickering. It flashed twice and then exploded.

The shield disappeared instantly.

The mood of the aliens changed almost instantly. Many of them began to scramble away from the fight, crawling over the wings of the ships and chairs as they tried to flee the escaped human. Others froze. Despite the violence of their rape, she was surprised that only a few fought to approach to the human.

The human spun around on his heel. He stopped sharply and then charged along the barrier. His head was focused on something and she followed it with her eyes.

Amidst the chaos, there were three aliens that stood out from the rest. They were not panicking judging from their lowered quills, nor where they fighting or trying to run away. All three had matching colorations, dark and light blue strips with quills tipped in black. Two of them were large and bulky, the third was smaller and frailer.

The escaped man jumped off the barrier and charged straight for them, his shorted rod smoking as he held it right above him.

The resolve of two of the two larger aliens cracked. Then stepped back as their quills rose up. Then they turned on their heels and joined the panic.

The smallest one stood his ground and slapped at his arm. A display appeared along the dark skin, symbols glowing from subdermal implants. She could see the edges of letters but the camera angle made it difficult to discern which letters were on top but they looked like the keyboard on her tablet.

Without glancing down and his gaze focused on the charging human, he tapped a series of letters along his arm. The impact of his thick finger would cause the letter to flash.

Three meters away from reaching the blue-quilled alien, the man’s armor dissolved into sparkling mist. He was naked, his body as scarred and bruised as Korin’s. He had been dueling for a long time, a plaything for the cruel humans.

Dina’s breath caught in her throat as she watched the unnamed human stagger forward. She wanted him to make it, desperately wanted to see one of the aliens beaten and broken.

The other human made it only made it two more meters before coming to the ground. His entire body smoked from the acidic air. Blood ran from his ears, mouth, and nose. Face reddening and wounds opening up, he tried to swing his rod.

The alien batted it easily away. Taking a step forward, he stepped over the human and then slammed his fist down. The powerful muscles drove the alien’s knuckles into the side of the human’s head.

A sickening crunch brought a gasp from Dina.

The alien beat the human again, punching him repeatedly in the side of the head and neck. Pieces of bone and splashes of blood sprayed in all directions as he mercilessly punched the man’s head into a pulp.

Dina almost threw up.

It was over in less than a minute.

The alien stood up and looked back toward the barrier. With his fingers dripping blood and gore, he tapped on his arm again. She caught the first few letters before the camera panned away and back to the fighting arena.

Korin was lying on the ground, gasping for breath. His entire face was coated in blood as more of it poured out from his mouth, ears, and nose. More blood came from burns that opened up from the acidic air.

One hand was trying to cover his mouth with blood-streaked fingers but it was his other that caught Dina’s attention. He was clutching his wedding ring, holding it tight with his thumb.

He was thinking of her with his last breaths.

A sob of despair ripped out of her throat.

The camera operator zoomed in, obviously wanting to catch his last breath.

The liquid-looking armor surged over the wound, sealing up and covering the flesh.

The camera turned toward the blue-quilled alien, almost as a surprise look. The alien finished typing. It looked up at the camera and then gestured toward the arena sharply.

By the time the view focused on her husband, he was once again covered in his armor but his body was still. She couldn’t seen even a hint of breathing, no rise or fall of his chest, no twitch of his arm.

“No, no!” she screamed, slamming the tablet down on the bench. “No, you can’t! You can’t!” She sobbed and bowed her head. “You can’t be dead.”

Dina couldn’t take it anymore. Sobbing, she sank to the floor of her cell and clutched herself tightly. She had just lost Korin.

"Dina?” Harmmon came rushing in.

Dina didn’t look up. "Korin. He’s d-dead.” Her voice caught as she tried to hum out the words.

Harmmon snatched up the tablet. She tapped a few times hard. The video flashed back on the screen, the last few moments of her husband’s death.

Dina sobbed and crawled away. She curled up into a fetal position and clapped her hands over her ears. "No, no more. No play. Don’t play it again!”

The female alien didn’t say anything else. Instead, she stood up and rushed out of the cell. Her heavy footsteps shook the ground, rattling items on the desk. She threw the tablet on the central table before continuing down the hall.