CHAPTER 13: CH 13: THE ULTIMATUM.

The corridor was silent, but the tension was deafening.

Even Zack had backpedaled away.

Levi stood across from the trainee, boots planted, shoulders loose. The guy was taller, broader, and cocky enough to think that mattered.

Levi took his stance.

His shoulders were relaxed but coiled like springs, his center of gravity balanced as if he were ready to shift in any direction.

~THUD!~

The trainee lunged first—sloppy, predictable. Levi sidestepped, grabbed his wrist mid-swing, and twisted. The crack of bone echoed through the corridor.

His fist angled toward Levi’s shoulder. He shifted to dodge, but mid-motion, the trainee’s hips twisted.

He switched targets with terrifying precision, ramming his fist into Levi’s open stomach.

~"Ghk—!"~

Levi staggered backward, his boots skidding against floor. His insides tightened, his breath knocked clean out.

But the guy didn’t drop. He spun, elbowed Levi in the ribs, and shoved him back.

Levi stumbled—just a step.

"You punch like a drunk monkey," he muttered as a smile crept along his cheeks although his face was bubbling red.

They circled each other. Fast footwork. Controlled breathing. Levi’s eyes scanned—shoulder tension, weight shift, telegraphed rage.

~WHAM!~

The trainee charged again. Levi ducked under the punch, drove his shoulder into the guy’s gut, and flipped him over his back. The floor shook as he landed.

The crowd gathered. Soldiers. Trainees. Even Selene leaned against the wall, watching, assessing every detail.

The guy scrambled up, blood dripping from his nose, fury in his eyes and pain

"You think you’re special?" he spat, spittle leaving his lips.

Levi didn’t answer.

He just moved.

~CRACK!~

A brutal uppercut snapped the trainee’s head back. Levi followed with a knee to the chest, then a hook to the jaw. The guy staggered, dazed.

But Levi wasn’t done.

He grabbed the collar, slammed him into the wall, and began hammering.

~BAM!BAM!BAM!~

Fist after fist. Blood splattered. Bone crunched. The trainee arms stopped blocking after a while, hands slumped to his sides.

He stopped fighting—but Levi didn’t.

His eyes were wild. Breathing ragged. Hands soaked in red.

"You wanted to find out," he growled, "now you know."

Guards rushed in—three, maybe four. They tackled Levi, dragging him off the broken body.

He fought them too—elbows, knees, snarls. One guard went down screaming.

~CRACK!~

A gun butt slammed into Levi’s temple.

Selene stood over him, eyes cold, hand still raised.

"Enough."

~THUD!~

The corners of his eyes slowly turned white— he finally dropped to the ground.

The corridor was silent again.

Except for the blood dripping onto the floor.

Selene rubbed her temple as all eyes drifted back and forth between the heap of man left of her trainee, Levi’s unconscious body and her.

At the corner of her eye, Mr. Manhattan stared at her for a second before turning away.

She sighed inwardly, muttering under her breath, "This is gonna be more difficult than I thought."

---

About four hours later.

~Argh!~

Levi’s eyes fluttered open. Blinking profusely to clear his vision but the ever constant throbbing at the back of his head didn’t help.

His eyes eventually adjusted to the dim glow of a tiny room, metallic black except for the blue circuitry wires running at either corner of the room.

He was sitting in a chair but restrained, his legs chained to the ground but his hands in some sort of cuffs fused with the metallic desk glowing with an eerie light.

But in front of him was a very pissed Selene, her brows furrowed, rubbing her temple and letting out a sigh that never seemed to end.

Levi started first, "What the hell is this, Selene?"

"Levi, I have an honest question for you, are you retarded?" She hissed.

"No I’m not and he started it," he defended, "I was just defending myself."

"How old are you? Five?" She then stopped rubbing her head, "If someone wants to start a fight then you walk the fuck away—"

Levi tried to interrupt but her hand in the air stopped him dead in his tracks.

"You don’t beat someone to a pulp because you’re pissed, you’re not a child and I don’t want to have to babysit you. You want to know why I brought you into L.U.X, it’s because I get it..."

She paused for a moment, letting her words sink in, "I get what it’s like to watch your entire family killed by something when you were too helpless to do anything about it, so that’s why I fucking brought you here."

Levi leaned back into the chair, taking his eyes off hers but it didn’t help, she continued.

"People here don’t like you already, some think you’re a vampire or a walking disaster waiting to happen and today I got a glimpse of that... But I need to know you’re more than a feral dog that I have to keep on a leash."

"I get it, no more beating up random people over being dumb," he said honestly.

"No. That’s not enough," she placed her arms on her thighs, "I want you to promise me you’ll do as I say, I need to know you can trust me and I can trust you, that’s how we do things here and that’s the only way this is gonna work."

"You knew this before I came here, I don’t particularly love taking orders—"

"Levi! I don’t give a damn what the fuck you want, you know about L.U.X already, which means you have two options either you join us or I make things simple for you right here and now."

She said angrily.

~BAM!~

She pulled the gun from her waistband, slamming it onto the table, she pointed at it, "That. That’s your other choice Levi and I cannot stress this enough but really do not want to be the one to put a bullet between your pretty eyes and watch your body go limp."

A slight chill crept up Levi’s spine, "So that’s it? Either I follow orders or you kill me."

"Oh my God, could you let the ego go for one second for you to actually use the super brain for anything besides fighting... You started this because you wanted to kill vampires right? And this is the most effective way to do that—"

"Fine!" He roared, after remembering his mission and realizing he couldn’t do this without them.

Selene stood from her seat, walking to Levi, so close he could feel her heat radiating off her body.

"Fine is not gonna cut it here, you almost killed one of our top trainees and probably put him in a hospital forever.

I don’t want to kill you, Levi. But I will if I have to.

Either I kill you right now—blow out your brains so fast and clean you’ll be dead by the time your brain registers it—or you fully join L.U.X.

I’ll be your handler. I say jump, and you ask how high. I say kill, you say who, when, and where. And if you ever give me a reason to believe that you’re not following my direct orders.

I assure you—I’ll gut you open before you can see the light of day."