Chapter 104: You Have To

  Rudy flicked on his communications suite. “Marcel,” he said.

  The ex-admiral nodded in acknowledgment. “Crimson Phoenix.”

  “No,” Rudy said. “It's Rudy Algreil. I'm not talking as a tournament mechaneer.”

  Avalon frowned. “You have not defeated me yet, my friend. You may yet not do so.”

  “You're right,” Rudy said.

  He took a deep breath.

  He closed his eyes.

  He said, “You have to beat me.”

  “What?”

  “You have to take me down in this fight, Marcel,” Rudy said. “Kick my ass back to Algreil Prime. Stomp me into the ground. All that stuff.”

  “What's gotten into you? Why would you ask such a thing?”

  Rudy opened his eyes and looked the admiral in his. “Because if I keep winning and take the Cup, the Federal Senate will claim I won because Chloe interfered. They'll use it as grounds to deny my Victor's Boon – and they'll kill her, Marcel.”

  “She has not done so,” Avalon said. “Any fair viewing –”

  “You're crazy if you expect a 'fair viewing,'” Rudy said, “but even if you were right, Chloe did interfere. Not against you, but against Zelph.”

  “And you,” Avalon said, “were not disqualified before this round so that the senators who wish your fiancé harm would have an excuse to deny your Boon.”

  Rudy nodded.

  Avalon's jaw clenched.

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  “You think it sucks for you, man, try being the one who has to lose.” And, Rudy thought, the one with so much to lose.

  He didn't know if Avalon could save Chloe with his Victor's Boon.

  He knew he couldn't.

  For even a chance, even the tiniest chance, that the ex-admiral could save her and give her back her family, Rudy would throw away every tournament he ever could have won.

  Besides...

  “Marcel,” he said, “don't worry about it.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I don't care if I win or lose,” Rudy said.

  “How can you say that?” Avalon swept a hand around to take in the vast arena. “You have fought magnificently, Crimson Phoenix. You deserve a chance at victory. They should not take that from you.”

  “You know I kicked your ass, Marcel,” Rudy said. “You know I fought the best I could. And vice versa.”

  Avalon nodded.

  “So who cares who walks away with the stupid trophy?” Rudy grinned. “This way, I get to lord it over you for the rest of our lives how I had to throw the match you beat me in.”

  Avalon laughed. “You are rationalizing, my friend.”

  “But am I wrong?”

  “Perhaps not.” Avalon bowed his head. His mecha mimicked the gesture.

  Rudy returned it.

  “In that case,” Avalon began.

  Before he finished the sentence, he'd crossed the distance between them and thrust his mecha's palm out. Rudy hurtled backwards, but not fast enough to get away from the rocketing golden mecha. He instinctively brought his hand up to block, but Avalon was under his defenses now, trapping the Epee's arms under the golden mecha's sturdy armpits.

  “I had best make it convincing,” Avalon finished, as he slammed their mechas' heads together.

  Rudy reeled. He regained his balance and met the ex-admiral's next blow with a grin – until his block turned into a terrible mistake and his mecha's wrist was yanked forward and another bone-jarring slap of the Divine Auric Drake's palm rocked its chest.

  The golden mecha's hand pulled back, rose till it was level with Rudy's mecha's head, paused.

  “I suggest,” Avalon said, “you yield.”

  Son of a bitch, Rudy thought. He actually beat me.

  So much for needling him for the rest of his life.

  “Well played, Divine Auric Drake,” Rudy said. He inclined his mecha's head again and pressed the red 'yield' button in its cockpit. The familiar crimson light flashed on his screen. Familiar from other people's surrenders, anyway – Rudy realized he'd never seen what it looked like from the transmitting end.

  Seeing it now almost seemed worth it.