Three weeks ago.

Luka ducked and dodged and punched at his father, a tall man with green eyes and dark hair which soaked up the surrounding light. His adoptive father, Lleyton, slammed Luka softly to the matted ground with a swift grapple and contained swing, smiling. "Again."

Luka stood up smiling too, but was mad at himself for being bested by his father yet again. He truly hated letting his father down.

As they readied in their attack stances beneath their white robes, a radio piece buzzed off to their left which Lleyton had left on his heap of clothing, the buzz reverberating within the metallic complex and the fake yet beautiful stars above them.

"I must take this," Lleyton said to his adopted son. "Go grab something to eat." He grabbed the radio piece and put it to his ear.

Luka obeyed, and grabbed protein bricks and gulped down the green nutritious fluid that sat on the counter in the kitchen adjacent their training complex. He tried desperately to listen in on his father's conversation with his radio. "Yes, come soon," Lleyton said to the radio piece.

It was only a week out now from the beginning of his father destroying their enemies, when the battle begun, when father would destroy his evil siblings and their loyalists. Luka wanted desperately to join him, yet his father told him he was being saved for another mission which was even more important. Luka agreed to himself he'd try asking again today.

Their enemies called them Outlanders, but they knew they were the Chosen. Lleyton told Luka their enemies would not rest until all the Chosen were destroyed. They were hidden underground, in the Labyrinth, until they could reclaim the surface from their foes.

Of course, the Labyrinth wasn't a Labyrinth at all. It was a beautifully intricate network of tunnels and facilities in the planet's underground, which formed a circular spider web right underneath their enemies. Silent trains could shuttle people across the planet in a flash, faster underground than anything on the surface. Several great elevators throughout the continent would soon ignite, bringing the Chosen to the surface, many in each province deep in the thick vegetation and secluded areas of each. The exits ingeniously, automatically, and algorithmically changed their locations in case a surface dweller ever discovered one, making it impossible to ever find a way to the underground. Not that it mattered. The Chosen were careful, smarter, focused.

Although their enemies had powers, Lleyton told them, they were overconfident and vain villains. Their reign was coming to an end after years of Lleyton training and creating the ultimate and technologically advanced army, right beneath their noses. The time of unshackling themselves from their oppression, and finally returning to the surface that the Chosen were denied, had come.

Luka didn't know if he wanted the honor of destroying their oppressors alongside his father, or just to see the surface for the first time. Both were high on his list. He often asked the older citizens what the surface was like.

"You have to see it to believe it, although I pity anyone who has to lay their eyes on the surface dwellers," they all told him. He wondered what they truly looked like, being half human and half animal. He wondered if he'd ever be able to see them, their grotesque faces.

His father told him he was born after the great exodus from the Ring, and he saved him from the surface dwellers when he was a babe in a crib, adopting him after his parents were slaughtered in the wilderness by the surface dwellers.

It was nighttime now, the great ceiling of the gym of their living quarters turning dark with artificial stars to simulate humanity. Lleyton noticed Luka trying to eavesdrop as he drank from his green sludge, and wagged a finger at him. He hung up his call, and approached him to reprimand him about something else, too.

"I heard you got hit in the arm today, during Fitness. Ms. Crayton told me. That's the first time you've been hit in years. If you have to fight your classmates, what have I always said, Luka?"

Luka looked down sheepishly at his drink, and said, "I was double teamed, I couldn't take both of them on without getting hit. They started it."

Lleyton hated that his son was often bullied. He suspected he knew why. But he had to keep it a secret. He had to continue the white lie for Luka's sake. He shook his head and said, "I'm not disappointed you fought off those boys in self defense, I'm disappointed you didn't have your bandages handy. They can never see you injured, Luka. You know this. You're lucky they punched you where you were sleeved."

Luka lifted his sleeve to reveal no bruise to his father. "Relax. See? He didn't leave a mark."

Luka couldn't remember the last time he was injured. He was faster than the others, because his father trained him when he was just a small boy to dodge and plan and fight as effectively as he possibly could. The few times he was gouged or bruised or broken, his father was there to quickly wrap him in advanced medical bandages. Luka was under strict instructions to bandage himself as soon as possible if he were ever hurt. His father watched over him like a hawk and usually wrapped his injuries himself.

But Luka could count when this was needed on only one of his hands.

"Why can't they see me injured?" Luka asked. He had heard the answer a thousand times and his father rolled his eyes each time he asked it.

Lleyton said, "Because you are my son, and the people gain strength when they see we both cannot be injured. Even though you don't have my blood, think of the message this sends to everyone that you can't bleed, either. It instils a confidence that we need if we are to win what is to come. That our people can be powerful, too." It was a lie he could recite easily by now. It was so effective because there was a sliver of truth in the words.

Luka understood, but a nagging piece of himself failed to understand why he could not earn the love of his comrades, of his peers. "Then why do they all hate me?" He asked his father. He couldn't hide this sadness from him.

It was why he also so desperately wanted to help him, and them, in this imminent battle. To prove to the people he did not deserve their scorn. His whole life he tried to fit in but failed at every step, and he hated failure, hated letting everyone down.

Lleyton sighed and thought of his siblings. It was their fault. This beautiful, innocent boy raised without his people, his kin, because of them. Because of the needless war they waged on the Wolves. Luka was the constant reminder of what happened to the people he once cared for, the Wolves he once led. The mere sight of Luka was a reminder to Lleyton to never forget the revenge he was owed and the debt his siblings were to pay.

Lleyton grabbed his son by the neck and looked into his eyes in an attempt to comfort him. He said, "Go finish your training, Luka. Train so you won't get hit again, yeah?"

Luka closed his eyes and smiled. At least he had his father's love. He exited the complex to a darker and more metal one, his father watching on from behind.

He picked up a pistol, and waited for the simulation to begin. He sprinted the course, gunning down shining metal plates stride for stride that popped up before him with ease.

"Surroundings, soldier," Lleyton smiled and said from the corridor to the range.

Luka turned and saw many targets pop up behind him that he had not noticed, his bullets never missing.

He dropped his pistol and picked up a long metal baton and a short one at the last stage of the course, sparring with spinning robots which struck with fury and perfection, Luka sparring with a matched intensity and efficiency.

He exited and sat back down with his father in their kitchen area, panting, his father handing him a towel to wipe his face. After some time and as his father sipped on a cup of coffee, Luka mustered the courage to ask the question that burned in his mind.

"Dad," Luka stammered, Lleyton looking down upon him with his green eyes from across the table. "I thought I'd ask again... I can help, I can be your best soldier. Let me fight with you, let me come to the surface."

"Out of the question. You are to stay here. It is for your own safety, Luka, I promise. And I promise when I return and our enemies have been defeated... I will show you what tribe you're from. Who your parents really were. I'm saving you for something more important, Luka. Say that you understand."

Disappointed Luka added, "Why train me every day for my entire life if I can't help right now?"

Lleyton replied sharply, "Because I love you, Luka, and I want you to be safe. And because, I fear our second fight will be harder than the first, and I may need you for it. Now if you promise you won't bring this up again, I'll let you listen in on my meeting."

Luka relented with a sigh, but listening to his father lead was always enthralling. His new promise of telling him about his real parents gave him something to look forward to, and the promise of fighting alongside him against something worse than the surface dwellers gave him a sense of purpose.

Regardless, Luka had already made a deal with himself. That no matter his father's answer, he would help in this first battle with the surface dwellers whether his father liked it or not. Luka would make him and his people proud.

With a snap and bur of electricity, a giant red and silver train zipped into the opening that was attached to the gym of Lleyton's and Luka's division. Four men exited, and the train continued its never-ending circle of the continent with lightning-speed.

They were Lleyton's Generals. Lleyton never told his son much else about them. Each was assigned with decimating the most important region of each province, the capital cities. Once destroyed, the Outposts with the remaining population of their enemies would be easy to take care of. But they had to find a way past the walls of the cities, something Lleyton and his Generals carefully planned.

The first general was Cole Shrak, dressed in orange and black and assigned the Ravens of the west. The second was Hakeem Saw, always dressed in dark brown and green, his objective to destroy the Bears of the North. Ralee Golton, dressed in crimson, was assigned the Tigers of the East. And Trent Prackal, a blue and golden man assigned the Orcas of the South East. Trent was the prickliest of the bunch.

When Luka was just a babe, a legendary General of the Chosen named Warrax Chilick was responsible for exterminating the surface dwellers of the North West. Luka's father, Lleyton, used to lead those beings, but being benevolent and open-minded as he was, the Chosen were able to break through the brainwashing that the Sixes and surface dwellers subjected Lleyton to after Warrax completed his mission. Lleyton vowed to destroy his siblings and the oppressors along with the Chosen after they broke through the façade and the dark magic of the surface dwellers. The Chosen, unlike the surface dwellers, knew their battles were not a sprint. Their war was a marathon.

Portraits of Warrax were scattered in his honor ubiquitously around the Labyrinth. Luka had never seen Warrax in the flesh before, and his father never spoke of him for some unknown reason. A piece of Luka thought that his father actually hated him, but Luka knew better to ask why.

Something was strange about the way Lleyton and his Generals interacted, Luka had always thought. Sometimes, Luka thought his father showed compassion towards their enemies while the generals always dismissed certain ideas, logically returning Lleyton to the Chosen people's motto of 'no mercy'.

"Everyone has what they need?" Lleyton asked the generals, who nodded when they joined him at a long wooden table near the train entrance.

"My soldiers are ready," Ralee said, Cole and Hakeem agreeing.

"Not us," Trent said, to the other General's and Lleyton's surprise. "We have ideas of how to breach the walls, but none are... satisfactory. One involves you scaling the walls and going through the Field, if it's not solid of course, and opening the gate from the inside."

As a Six, Lleyton would be able to drop through the Field in its non-solid state just as the apple he ate dropped through the Ring so long ago. But the risk of raising suspicion and being caught were too high, and he knew his siblings solidified their Fields during the night.

"While I have no doubt you'll be able to get inside and destroy Aimos with that pretty smile of yours, we don't have a way to sneak weapons inside for population control and to move them into the..."

Lleyton interrupted with his hands to his face, "I want solutions, not problems. Understand?"

"We may answer to you, but ultimately we answer to him. We suggest you watch your tone," Cole Shrak said, prompting Lleyton to glare at him.

Luka didn't know who Cole was referring to, but it made him shudder.

Trent shook his head and complained, in part to wash away the awkward silence which stuck in the air, and said, "Everyone else has assistance except me. The Raven's sensitive eyes will be blinded for hours and unthreatening by our Flash Bomb, allowing you to open the doors. The Bears will be asleep because the arrogant animals live in a floating bowl that we can lob sleeping gas into. The Tigers will be practically unconscious after we drain them with our magnets. My weapon doesn't help us detain the Orcas; it only eliminates them. Unlike his siblings, Aimos's bitch of a city is impregnable. It's impossible."

Luka could only guess what kind of weapon could eliminate the Orcas all at once, but he guessed it was extraordinary. It was futile if they couldn't get the Orcas to whatever and wherever it was in the first place, though.

Even more chillingly, Luka had no idea who constructed such weapons. The sleeping gas which could knock out Bears, the Flash Bomb intended to detonate when curious eyes peered upon it, and the magnets capable of sapping the Tigers of their powers were creations of death far beyond the intellect of anyone Luka knew in the Labyrinth, even out of his father's scope of expertise.

Lleyton nodded curtly and scratched his head. "Well, we have three weeks to figure that out. Radios will be down in a little over two. Everyone knows their role. Is there anything you're missing that I can provide?"

It sounded to Luka as if the radios going down was not under Lleyton's control – whoever was responsible of that, no doubt created the mechanisms of death. Ralee shook his head while the others nodded, Luka watching from afar from in his quarters.

Ralee said, "We will need something to pound down the gates, given that Panza would never let you within her walls. Unless you want to cut through it by yourself."

"Good, yes. I'll contact him and get it for you. Remember, I want quick deaths. No tortures, no nothing, after I take care of the Sixes and their kin. And wherever I go, no one follows. I work alone. Is that understood?"

Luka didn't understand why his father was so secretive. The Generals scoffed and nodded, but something about their body language told Luka they would not obey. They'd been hearing about the Sixes their entire lives, bred to hate them. Even Luka hated them. But Luka never knew why Lleyton had all his siblings trust except Panza's.

If there was one thing his father hated talking about, it was his siblings, the Sixes. One of the only things his father said was that, 'While they are invincible, I'm the only one of them that knows the truth.'

"Good. Get some sleep. Trent, I want you and five of your best to go inspect Orconia City as soon as the sun is up. Find a way we can get weapons inside. Everything has a weakness. Even my brother Aimos."

The Generals saluted, and re-boarded the train the next time it circled, jaws of metal accepting the Generals aboard.

**

That night, Luka devised his plans. He was tired of training and not helping his father, his people. There was evil out there, and he knew he could help.

He slipped out of bed very early in the morning while his father slept after staying up all night. He would help Trent and the others deal with the Orcas.

Putting his training to use, he slipped out of his bed, swiftly and silently, careful not to wake his father in the room adjacent to his. He grabbed a pistol from the armory, a metal baton strapped to his back, and slipped into his sleek black espionage clothing.

He stealthily ran past his father's room and timed the circling train perfectly, which he snuck into which was empty so early in the morning. His father would be immensely angry with him for going, but he didn't care. He could see the slight smirk on his father's face after he destroyed the Orcas singlehandedly. Unable to hide how proud he was, how proud he was of his son.

He exited at the Great South Eastern Elevator, which he knew his comrades would be using to get close to Orconia City. He was five minutes early before the sun on the surface rose, and waited in the shadows of the great tunnel of the Labyrinth, tucked away in a glass chamber off to the side of the metallic hallways.

As he waited, he wondered what the sun looked like. What the sky looked like. What trees looked like. What the monsters he was destined to destroy that oppressed his people looked like. Soon he would know. It was an enthralling and frightening thought to know he was only minutes from knowing.

Unloading off the train were the soldiers and Trent, armed with pistols and rifles and black clothing, armor and yellow paint on their faces. They boarded the great lift and rocketed upwards towards the surface.

Minutes passed and it returned.

Luka snuck on himself, clinging to the shadows, and pressed the up button on the panel. He rocketed upwards, the motion making him queasy. The algorithm of the lift would take him somewhere slightly different than his comrades, but he knew where they were headed: Orconia City.

The elevator stopped with a snap. He could sense the surface mere meters above him, as if it was where his body and soul truly belonged and ached for. He opened the latch in the ceiling, and quietly exited, his eyes in a daze. Despite the sun hardly peaking over the horizon, the light nearly blinded him.

It was a beautiful blood orange over the increasingly bright lush forest ground. He exhaled in awe. But now was not the time for indulgences. Now was the time for war.

With his pistol at his side, he closed the latch of the elevator which resealed, perfectly camouflaged with the ground.

He began tracking his comrades, careful not to be found out and sent back. He stopped, seeing that they had set up camp in high forest trees, over looking a beautiful river, and beyond, the golden walls of Orconia City.

It was beautiful. Luka couldn't believe the half fish, half humans could build something so magnificent and charming.

He too, settled in a nearby tree that he climbed, behind the soldiers and Trent who were hiding ahead and scoping out their task. The incredible aromas of outside filled his nostrils as he breathed in the air of the surface, as he grazed his finger across smooth and sharp pine needles. How dare these monsters deny us living up here, he thought to himself.

To his left, nearing the river, he heard steps. He sucked himself into the trunk, blending with the remaining darkness in the sky, and listened closely.