It was Riven.
Was that his name?
That silent boy. The one who was kicked out...wasn't he?
Why was he here?
Kalen slowly moved the can away from his forehead. Riven placed it on the table.
"...why are you here?"
Kalen asked, eyes hollow.
Riven didn't answer immediately, instead he sat down.
Sitting right next to Kalen.
"...you here to gloat?" Kalen turned slowly.
"...Is that it?" Kalen's voice was hoarse, barely above a whisper. "Are you happy i'm like you now?"
His jaw clenched. "You must be happy - you're all the same..."
Riven didn't answer.
Not yet.
He just sat in the chair, the space between thick with silence.
The faint hum of the medical equipment filled the room.
Outside, the muffled roar of the crowd was a ghost of the chaos.
Distant, but there.
"I saw what happened." Riven finally said, voice low.
"You and...a billion others."
Kalen tried to muster a chuckle, but it broke halfway.
His breath caught.
"I lost everything. Everything. So what now? Are you here to offer me pity?"
Riven's eyes didn't leave him.
"You think I'm like you? A commoner?" Kalen's tone sharpened.
The bitterness was cracked.
"Don't lie to me."
"No." Riven said flatly.
"You didn't lose everything."
He paused.
"You gained something those people out there will never have."
Kalen frowned lightly.
"The freedom to think how you want," he continued quietly, "Say what you want. Be who you want... without anyone being able to tell you otherwise."
There was a brief silence in the air.
Kalen's eyes widened for a second.
Then?
His lips curled into something torn between disbelief and rage.
"Freedom?" he repeated mockingly, the word twisting around like it was the poison he'd consumed.
He let out a sharp, humourless laugh.
"Are you kidding me...?"
His voice rose.
Slowly sitting up further.
"Will that get my ki back? Will it fix this-" he slammed his fist against his chest, wincing as pain shot through him, "-this hollow inside me? Will it make them forget the scene of me being broken? The expressions on their face? The silence in the air....?" his voice strained.
BEEP! BEEEP!
The monitors beeped faster.
His breathing quickening at the words.
It settled.
Riven hadn't flinched.
Kalen shook his head, breathing hard. "You talk like that's worth something. But it's not."
He looked at his hands.
Back and forth.
"Not when they've already decided who I am."
.....
"Not when I can't fight again...."
A lump was forming in his throat.
The words coming slower.
Hurting.
Meaning.
Riven listened without interrupting, his eyes steady on Kalen's trembling hands.
"Who decided that?" Riven asked softly, his grey eyes flashing.
Kalen looked up, confused.
"Who decided who you can become?"
His tone didn't rise.
But the weight...
The weight of his words piled.
"Who decided you couldn't fight again."
He leaned forward, right in front of Kalen.
He stared at his dark hair.
His dark eyes.
"I saw you in the training room," he said. "Fighting tooth and nail, like the world was already against you back then."
Kalen's breath hitched.
"I heard your story in that room."
He continued, voice low but certain. "I know you."
A silence stretched.
Kalen didn't know what to say. He looked at Riven's defiant face.
Then Riven reached out, placing a firm hand on his shoulder.
The weight of it wasn't just the touch.
It was presence.
It was grounding.
Gravity.
"Don't give up now...", Riven said.
His eyes softened, the next words came slower.
"Lean on me."
------
Kalen's thoughts blurred as Riven's hand pressed down.
He was frozen.
The touch felt like it'd sunk him down.
For a second, everything was silent.
The world outside, the chaos, the defeat; it all faded into a singular focus.
Riven's voice.
"Lean on me."
'Lean on me? What the hell does that mean...?'
How could he lean on anyone. The only thing he'd ever leaned on was his own will. His own stubbornness? When everything he'd built, he'd worked for was crumbling?
His vision blurred again.
Not from the fight.
But the burning shame that refused to leave.
'Was it just pity?'
'I'm not weak. I'm not like you'. Kalen thought, but the words felt hollow.
Echoing something he couldn't deny.
'I've lost it all'
The harsh reality of his father's words.
Of Jacob's defeat.
The way the world turned against him...it was too much.
His chest tightened.
But this brown haired boy.
'Riven'
Riven was still here.
Still offering something.
'Why?'
He didn't ask.
Riven just stood there.
The weight of the moment pressing down.
Heavier than any punch he'd taken in that ring.
------
Kalen didn't answer.
His mouth opened.
Then closed again.
The words just couldn't come out.
They couldn't.
Riven didn't press him.
Instead, he reached for a small remote on the side table.
It was for a TV hooked up to Kalen's right. Next to the door.
He placed it in Kalen's hand.
"For the TV", Riven said, his tone even.
"Might help drown out the noise."
Kalen stared at it, brow furrowing.
"...what am i supposed to watch", he blinked.
Riven's lips curved in the faintest smirk.
"Whatever you want."
He straightened, hand briefly tightening Kalen's shoulder before pulling away.
"I'll be back."
Then...
He left.
Not with the usual hesitation one would have leaving a hospital room; but with certainty.
A grinding jaw.
The door clicked shut behind him.
Click
For a while, Kalen didn't move.
The remote sat in his hand, heavier than it should've been.
He thought of what Riven said again.
'Lean on me.'
The words gnawed at him, unsettling.
Like they'd lodged somewhere in his bones.
Eventually...
Sigh
He pointed the remote at the screen across the room.
boop
The TV flickered to life.
The first image was the roar of an arena crowd.
One he could faintly hear from his room.
It was a swirling mass of colour and sound.
It took him a minute to register what he was looking at.
The camera panned across the stands.
The flashing banners.
The announcers voice echoing over the PA.
And then...
It cut to the arena floor, where a lone figure stepped out from the shadows.
Kalen's grip on the remote tightened.
Brown hair.
Grey eyes.
That same calm posture.
No announcement.
No warmup.
Just walking straight to the centre of the ring.
Every head turned towards him.
The crowd shifted emotions; Shock, confusion shouts.
Then Ayling's voice cut in.
"....Ladies and gentlemen"
"We have an unexpected challenger!"
Kalen froze.
The echo of "I'll be back" - ringing in his mind.