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flight?”
     
     

Chapter 4
     
    His release from the place was bittersweet as he was immediately placed under Shifter's control. Shifter was his Owner and he took Ryan to an academy to be officially trained as a Beta Belligerent. That last part had come as a bit of a shock. He had been sure Shifter had been joking about his being placed on a team, but it seemed Shifter did in fact need someone to fill a spot as a student. The only way Ryan could shed his status as a Belligerent was to win his freedom or be permanently injured beyond being useful.
    With only eight Belligerents being freed a year, Ryan didn’t like his odds. It was a bet Alex would never dare make.
    The path up to Proserpine Academy was lined with trees so dense that Ryan couldn't see the sky, but he figured that it was still the same dreary overcast image that had greeted them at the airport. Proserpine Academy was located in a perennially cold climate with only a short, mild warm season, as Shifter had so kindly informed him. The branches of the trees intertwined with each other to form a natural archway over the road.
    “The people here enjoy their privacy,” Shifter said absent-mindedly. “You'll grow to appreciate it.”
    Ryan glanced over at the man, who had been busy reviewing documents on his tablet for nearly the entire ride from the airport.
    Several long moments of silence passed.
    “What's the matter? Not feeling sociable?”
    Ryan sneered and went back to staring out the window. Attempting to steal the Zeus had been the worst decision of his life, and he was paying for it with his freedom. He stared down at the thin, identification band encircling his left wrist. The band marked him as a Belligerent. There was no way for him to remove it short of cutting off his own hand, and if the device sensed him trying such a thing or tampering with it in any way, it would immediately eject a sedative into his bloodstream which would knock him out until a member of the disciplinary squad could get to him.
    “How long do I have to stay here?” Ryan asked. If he couldn’t find a way to escape, he wanted to know what would happen to him.
    “You're being entered as a fifth year along with the rest of your team. You'll have to play catch-up for a while, but I have no doubt you'll be able to do it. You'll graduate after you complete eighth year. You're lucky, you know. You're a bit old to be given a chance at an academy and Proserpine is the best of the four.” He spoke of the place as if it were your typical school where students studied normal subjects instead of a place that trained teenagers in combat, theft, hacking and manipulation.
    “And what happens after I graduate from the academy?”
    “The top two groups from each of the four academies will go on to become the eight teams that will play in Vicara. If you happen to be a member of one of those groups, you'll become a celebrity. If you go on to win Vicara, you'll gain enough wealth and reputation to be anyone you want or do anything you want. You'll be free. If you do not graduate within one of the top two groups of Proserpine Academy then you will only move from being a student Belligerent to a professional Belligerent. You will continue to fight in pit games at my or your new Owner's discretion, and you will probably be loaned out for your transportation skills which will otherwise be useless if you do not get a chance to compete in Vicara. Of course, I could also have you downgraded to an Omega and sell you off to work as a labor or domestic Belligerent.”
    Ryan hoped his fear at that threat didn’t register on his face. Nothing terrified him more than the possibility of becoming a labor Belligerent condemned to work in the mines or fields.
    “Of course, I doubt there’s any way I would decide to do that to you. I'm not that sadistic.”
    “What if I want to return to Darton?”
    Shifter locked eyes with him. “Then win the right to be a combatant in the Vicara arena.”
    The car