---

Carmen had dragged us a ways past Emanuel before his words sunk in. "Carmen, wait!" I hissed. Emanuel seemed to be trying to be inconspicuous, so I figured I should follow suit. "Didn't you hear what he said?" I whispered when she finally came to a stop.

"What?" Carmen asked. Obviously she hadn't.

"Come on!" I said. Grabbing her hand I turned and pushed Terrence ahead of me. Emanuel wasn't moving very fast, so I was able to keep him in sight. Carmen grumbled, but quieted when I hushed her. Terrence just looked confused but followed my lead. We started to catch up to Emanuel, but then he sped up. No matter what we did, he remained a similar distance away from us.

I didn't notice at first, being too worried about not losing him, but we were moving into even older areas that I hadn't been in before. They looked different; more primitive somehow. Emanuel clearly didn't want us to get too close, so I slowed a bit and he followed suit. After a while we turned a corner into a particularly different looking area and found ourselves in a circular room with burn marks on the walls, floor and ceiling. I wondered what happened here, but Emanuel didn't pause, so I had to hurry to keep up.

"What's going on?!" Carmen hissed at me. She was at least trying to be quiet, but she wasn't thrilled with me pulling her around like that.

"Just keep moving!" I whispered back. I wasn't really sure why I was whispering. There was no one to hear us except for Emanuel, but Emanuel acted like he knew something. Something about me. So I was more than willing to follow his lead if it would lead to some answers!

Thankfully, Emanuel stopped after stepping through a blasted door just off of the circular room and turned to beckon us in. As soon as all three of us were in the room he shoved the door back in place and sighed in relief. "Next time, no talking!" he growled.

"What are you talking about?!" Carmen almost yelled back.

"Not so loud!" Emanuel replied angrily. "The video is out in this area, but some of the audio still works. Now shut up and listen, we can't stay here long."

I nodded and Terrence followed suit after glancing at me. Carmen huffed and folded her arms, but reluctantly nodded, too.

"Okay, here's the deal. There are cameras and microphones all through this place, even in your rooms. So what I say here stays here, got it?!" Emanuel said. We nodded again, a little quicker after hearing that news! "They'll come looking for us if we stay in here too long, so we don't have much time. Sebastian, you're in danger. Pentacle level danger." he said, looking at me.

I felt cold when he said that. "You mean...a squad is coming after me?!" I squeaked.

Emanuel shook his head, "No, not yet. But if you don't listen and do what I say, they will. You're a kind of mutant they fear very much. You're not as powerful as Pentacle, but you can blend in where most others couldn't. You're a Shapeshifter."

I suddenly realized I was sitting on the floor. Carmen joined me and held my shaking hands, but hers were shaking just as much. Terrence was looking at all of us in confusion and said, "What's the big deal about a Shapeshifter?"

"I am so dead!" I said weakly.

"Isn't there something we can do?!" Carmen asked fearfully.

Emanuel shook his head in frustration. "I told you, we don't have much time! There are Shifters that are limited in what they can do. Some can only grow wings, or add armored scales to parts of their body, things like that. We have to convince the Commission that you're limited like that. Only, you'll only be able to change from male to female and back again. And your male and female forms will always be the same. If we can manage that, you'll be okay."

"Wait, you mean I really am turning into a girl?" I asked.

"Yes, you are. Sometime after you finish changing, you'll change back into a guy. I don't know when. But you have to make sure that you change back into exactly the same form that you had before! And when you turn into a girl again, it has to be exactly the same as whatever you end up looking like when your change is finished this time. Once they've seen you change back and forth a few times like that, you just might be okay." Emanuel replied.

"How do you know all this?" Terrence asked. His question startled Carmen and I; probably because we hadn't thought to ask it ourselves!

"I'm a Precog. I saw it when I ran into you two yesterday. Look, we don't have any more time. I'll explain more later. I'm going to walk out of here in a minute. When I do, I'm going to pretend we never had this conversation. If you talk to me, I will ignore you. If you tell anyone what I've said, I'll deny it. And I'll make sure a Squad comes for you! I'll contact you again tomorrow, the same way. Be careful." With that, Emanuel turned, opened the door, and walked out like nothing had happened.

"Come on, we'd better go." Carmen whispered. She pushed me and Terrence forward and we all started back the way we'd come. Emanuel had already disappeared, but we were able to find our way back okay. Carmen led us back to the Arena and we sat to watch the next match.

"What just..." Terrence started to ask, but Carmen put her hand over his mouth.

"Let's just watch the match, okay?" she said. Terrence and I nodded and watched as Grim entered the Arena, along with fifteen others. It was a standard free-for-all match. We didn't see any other major players there, so we knew Grim would almost certainly win. Not only is he pretty powerful, but merciless!

Before she knew what was happening, one of the fighters was cut down by Grim. He liked to generate weapons out of shadows, and his favorite was a long pole with a curved blade at the end. I'd heard that some mythical figure had used a weapon like that who was connected with death somehow. That was supposed to be how Grim got his name. I just figured it was because he was always so serious and scary!

He disappeared into the shadows and reappeared near another unsuspecting fighter. This one was literally cut in half by Grim's blade before he even knew there was anybody near him. Grim was being even more brutally effective than usual!

"What is that thing?!" Terrence whispered, staring at Grim's shadowy form as he stalked another fighter.

"Grim. He's one of the psychos. He likes to kill people; that's the only reason he fights in the Arena. He's a Shadow Elemental." Carmen explained.

I was glad she was handling talking to Terrence, because I was only half aware of what was going on around me. I wasn't sure if Emanuel knew what he was talking about, but it sure seemed like he did. And if that was true, than I was really turning into a girl! He'd said I'd be able to change back, so that was good. But still! I was going to be the laughingstock of the Arena once word spread...

"You okay Seb?" Carmen asked softly.

"Uh, yeah, I guess." I said.

"C'mon Seb, stop doing that!" Carmen said. She wrapped her arms around me and rested her chin on my shoulder. "I know you must be upset. Stop trying to hide your feelings from me."

I sighed, "Yeah, I guess I am. Right now I'm mostly worried about how people are going to react to me."

"Don't worry about that; I'll take care of you." Carmen said and gave me a squeeze.

"Speaking of taking care of people, what are we going to do about Terrence?" I whispered. With her so close she could hear me easily, but I hoped he wouldn't.

"We'll have to take care of him, too. He doesn't even know what his powers are, so he can't defend himself. But we'll be fine if we just all stay together. I guess that means we should stay out of the Arena, though. At least for now." Carmen replied.

"I guess so." I agreed. I wanted to talk about what Emanuel said, but if he was right about the cameras and microphones then there wasn't any safe place to talk except where he told us about them. And it would probably be suspicious if we went there too often. I wondered if there was any way I could hide my changes, but then I remembered that Emanuel said that the Commission would know about my shape shifting, so that meant they would see, somehow.

I turned my attention to the Arena match in time to see Grim cut down the last of his opponents. By the looks of things, most of his opponents wouldn't survive the fight.

After the fight we went to the cafeteria to grab a snack, then headed to the nearest game room. We started playing our favorite game, with Carmen telling Terrence how to play since he hadn't played it before. While we were playing I realized something; we could talk through the game! As soon as we killed off all the monsters in the area we were in I typed in, "Let's talk?"

Carmen looked up in surprise and smiled when she realized what I was doing. A moment later a new message popped up on the screen from her, "Great idea Seb! So, what are we going to do about you turning into a girl?"

Terrence looked confused, but shrugged and kept playing. I got the feeling he didn't know how to read. Not real surprising; Avatar's one of the only teachers who bothers to teach people how to read.

"I don't know." I typed. "But it looks like I won't be able to keep it a secret for long."

"Don't worry about that." Carmen replied. "So long as we stick together we should be fine. Have you noticed, it looks like Terrence doesn't know how to read?"

I nodded and typed, "Yeah, I thought so, too. I guess I took our ability to read for granted. It never occurred to me he wouldn't be able to."

"Yeah. Are you sure the Commission won't see this?" Carmen typed. I glanced over and saw she looked worried.

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure. The computers are only connected to each other, and only these three in this group even work anymore. We should be safe." I typed back.

Neither of us could really figure out what we could do about my being a Shifter, so our conversation fizzled out pretty quickly after that. We kept playing for a while, but Terrence seemed to get bored with it. So we went back to the Arena, for lack of anything better to do.

"Uh, Seb, your hair..." Carmen said as we were settling down in our favorite spot Domeside.

"What about my hair?" I asked.

"It looks lighter, and it's a lot longer!" she said.

I put my hand to my hair and realized it was shoulder length! I pulled a bit in front of my face to get a look at it, and it was definitely a lot lighter than before. Why would my hair change color? "That's weird." I said.

We were distracted from my hair when we saw the next group of people entering the Arena. We didn't recognize any of them, and they were all pretty young. So this was probably a beginner's match. They did that every now and then for some reason. The match started off rough, as they obviously didn't have any experience in the Arena. A couple of them looked pretty promising, though.

"Why does anybody want to fight in the Arena?" Terrence asked as the match was ending.

Carmen looked at me and shrugged, so I answered him, "Lots of reasons. I like the Arena because it's the only place where I can fly around and cut loose. Some people actually like to fight, like Crusher. Others like to hurt people, like Grim. And some do it out of boredom. It's not like there are a whole lot of things to do here."

"And sometimes people use the Arena to settle scores." Carmen added.

"Why not just beat the person up if that's what they want?" Terrence asked.

"Lots of people are part of groups or gangs that watch out for each other. So if you want to get revenge on somebody for something the Arena is one way to get them away from that group." Carmen explained.

"I hate this place." he said sadly.

"Most of us do." I agreed. "But what can you do?"

"Hasn't anybody ever escaped?" Terrence asked.

Carmen slapped her hand over his mouth again, "Don't even say that word! If the Commission gets even a hint you want to, you know, they'll be all over you! And they don't just take you out, they take out anybody you've been hanging out with recently, too. Nobody ever gets out, ever!"

He kind of curled in on himself after that. I couldn't blame him, the reality of this place is pretty depressing at times. That's what made having Carmen around so important. I don't know if I could stand it without her.

We watched the matches quietly after that. I think we all wanted to talk about what Emanuel said, but we didn't dare. That didn't leave a lot of room for conversation. I almost wished I didn't know there were cameras and stuff everywhere.

Eventually we got bored with the Arena and went for a walk in an older section, though we stayed away from Avatar's area. We stopped to grab something to eat and then continued. We were way off in mostly abandoned areas when I noticed someone standing at an intersection up ahead. I glanced around and saw that there were people at every intersection of passages around here, with a big guy moving in to stand at the entrance we used.

"Ambush!" I hissed. Terrence didn't get it, but Carmen immediately moved him between us as she looked around. We were already boxed in. I didn't recognize any of the people blocking us, but that didn't mean anything. There are so many gangs nobody could keep track of them all.

Seeing that we weren't moving anymore, the gang started moving in on us. There were eight of them in all, and they made sure to keep themselves between us and the exits. I figured Carmen and I could probably manage to fly past them if we had to, but it would be a lot tougher carrying Terrence.

They were a scruffy group; their clothes were all worn-looking and torn up. Considering most people just put their clothes down the laundry shoot and got new ones from there it looked like they must have been wearing theirs for a long time, or something. I'd never seen anybody with clothes so torn up before except maybe right after a match.

Nobody made a sound as they moved in. Carmen and I exchanged glances and I knew we were thinking the same thing: I hope these guys aren't very strong!

There was this tense moment when they closed the circle on us and we all just stared at each other. It was kind of weird that they didn't say anything, but I guess it wouldn't have changed anything if they had. Terrence squirmed between us and everything happened at once.

They all came at us together, but they weren't very practiced at fighting as a group. It was like they were all trying to beat each other to the kill. Made things a whole lot easier for us!

I grabbed the first person to get within reach and used him like a club to knock a couple of others back. Carmen didn't bother, they were getting in each others' way so much she could concentrate on one at a time anyway. Thankfully, none of them were in our league.

The entire fight was over in seconds. We both stayed crouched and ready for a fight for a while in case they tried again, but the conscious ones were already dragging themselves away. Nobody came back for the unconscious ones.

"Not much of a gang." Carmen said.

"Can we get out of here before they come back?" Terrence asked weakly.

"I don't think they will, but yeah, let's go." I replied.

We hurried out of there, still keeping Terrence between us the whole time. Once we were back in familiar territory we relaxed a bit. "Why did they attack us?" Terrence asked.

Carmen shrugged, "Who knows? Maybe they thought we'd have some credits they could steal. Or maybe they were protecting their territory. Some gangs are really uptight about that. I don't know."

I glanced at Carmen and she nodded to me, "Why don't we go play some games for a while and relax?" I suggested. She smiled and Terrence shrugged, so off we went.

Once we were seated and had our game going we let Terrence go on without us as we were more focused on typing messages to each other.

"Do you think that attack had anything to do with what's happening to you?" Carmen typed.

"I'm not sure, but I was wondering." I replied.

"I wish we could talk with Emanuel some more. Maybe we can suggest this way of communicating to him whenever we see him tomorrow?" she typed.

"That's a good idea. We might get more answers that way. I'd really like to know more about what's going on. If I'm a Shifter, why am I turning into a girl? He seems to think I can do a lot more than that, so why that?" I replied.

Carmen shrugged and typed, "That's a good question. We'll have to remember to ask him tomorrow. Maybe we should get something to eat and return to my room. Even if we can't sleep yet, it's probably safer than wandering around."

I glanced at Terrence and typed, "Okay, but lets play for a while first. Terrence really seems to be getting into this."

"Okay." was Carmen's reply, before we both started playing the game. It took us a while to catch up to Terrence, but eventually we were able to help him clear a couple of levels before he got bored with it.

"How come I never saw this game before?" he asked as we headed for the cafeteria.

I shrugged, "You never looked for it, I guess. Most people don't bother with the game rooms anymore, since many of the computers don't work. Carmen thinks the Commission doesn't bother fixing or replacing them because they want us in the Arena, but I think they just don't care."

We talked some more about the game while we ate and then piled into Carmen's room. "Are you sure I shouldn't find a new room? It's pretty cramped in here." I said as she closed the door behind us. Terrence and I had to sit on the bed to give her enough room to move around.

Carmen shook her head, "No, I think we should stick together. Once people notice how you look you're likely to attract some attention. I want to be there to watch your back. Besides, we can take care of Terrence better together."

"If you say so." I replied wearily. I was surprised at how tired I was, but figured it had to do with the fight. Not that it had been all that challenging, but it was still a fight.

Terrence and Carmen weren't as tired, so they let me lay down while they sat and talked. I overheard enough to know she was questioning him about his old teacher and John before I nodded off.

---

I was the first up in the morning; not surprising since I was the first to get to sleep. I almost dreaded seeing what might have changed, but figured a shower was in order. I remembered Avatar telling us about mirrors. We'd seen the effect sometimes when the light was right at Domeside, but there were no mirrors in the Arena. At least that I knew of.

I reluctantly took off my clothes and threw them down the laundry shoot before turning on the shower. Only once the water was raining down on me did I really look at myself. It looked like my... breasts, were bigger now. And I looked a lot smaller down below. I knew it was coming, but it was still kind of a shock. I also noticed my waist was a lot smaller and my hips were bigger, too. I figured I probably looked more like a girl than a guy by now.

After my shower I dressed, leaving the bra alone again. I didn't really understand why girls wore them, anyway.

When I came out of the shower Carmen was sitting on the side of the bed, clearly waiting for me. When she saw me her eyes widened in surprise. "Seb!" she exclaimed. "You look totally different!"

---

To Be Continued…