V.I.R.A.L

"Come in." Christopher beckoned glancing over dozens of applications. Emil stormed in as he lowered the papers smiling. "Ahh, Emil, perfect timing I was hoping to have a word with you."

"Father, hasn't this gone enough? You've had your little fun. Stop this madness."

Christopher gave a poorly executed confused look as he bashed the papers against the table. "I know not what you talk about son."

"Zinnia! Why are you forcing her through this?! Hasn't she proven enough? Why are you tormenting her to this suffering?! Just let us see Helga."

"Alright, I understand son. I'm sorry. Perhaps I did go a little too far. Zinnia isn't like the others. Perhaps I was too harsh on her. Understandable. I'll inform the others you have offered to take over the trials."

Emil froze, licking his lips not sure if he heard his father correctly. "What?"

"Oh, the trials must go on. It's tradition, they cannot stop until someone passes or fails. I'm proud of you son for taking over. Once this is all over, you can come home. You don't belong with pathetic heroes like Team Rhapsody. You deserve a real fighting chance. With Monty gone, I now have a space for my favourite son. What do you say, Emil?"

"You'd let me back into the family?"

Christopher stood up, placing his hand on Emil's shoulder. "Of course, when you ran away from us, I was heartbroken. But now your home, you've grown so much these trials should be a cakewalk for you."

Emil lowered his head as his father began to leave. "I can't. I can't go through with those damn trials. I'll never step foot there again."

Christopher turned around with a disappointed look. "A pity. But I expected nothing less from half a Montague. Team Rhapsody might just suit you better. Let's hope for Zinnia's sake; she is stronger than you. She is going to need it for the second trial." He opened the door, taking one look back. "I've always wondered. It was your mother you saw during the second trial."

Emil flinched eyes widened as he began muttering. "Ho-."

"Thought so. How interesting. No matter, I have many applications just dying to take the trials. Word has already gotten out about Zinnia taking them. I wonder how many of them will break like you, Emil?"

Emil was left alone as he fell to his knees, holding back his tears as he slammed the ground in anger. "Damn it! Still just as pathetic as always Emil. You take after your mum, don't you?!" His thoughts of anguish were cut off as he heard screams coming from the hospital ward. He gasped, jumping up. "Zinnia!"

****

Zinnia had woken in a cold sweat, clueless to where she was. The fear and torment still with her from the trial as she began squirming around screaming. Emil and Florence held her down as both tried calming her down. Emil burst through seeing Zinnia in such a way it made him feel guilty beyond repair. Eventually, Zinnia calmed down, coming to her senses of where she was. This didn't stop her looking distort as she was breathing heavily. "You're alright now, Zinnia. It's over." Gale said in a warm tone.

Zinnia's eyes darted around the room as she was shivering. "The, I. I just. They were all dead. All of them."

"You're safe Zinnia." Florence reminded her in a soothing voice. "The trial is over. None of that was real."

Zinnia held her head nodding. "It wasn't real. It wasn't real. But it felt so…"

"I'm sorry. I should have tried to stop you more." Emil stuttered. "You had no idea what would happen."

"What got her so worked up to be out for two days!?" Gale argued.

"Two days? I was out for two days. What happened?"

"Well, you passed the first trial if that's anything to go by. You came back up with no weights on you but collapsed the moment you left the bunker. You've been here ever since. We weren't sure when you were going to wake up." Florence whispered. "If you don't mind me asking? What did you see?"

Zinnia curled up looking out the window at the cloudy sky taking long deep breaths. "I saw the end of the world."

"What?" Gale said, slightly taken back.

"The city was dead. Frozen by an endless blizzard. Everyone was dead. You two, Scarlett, Alice and Iris too."

"What about Alton?"

Zinnia shook her head, gripping the covers tightly looking petrified. "Not him. He stood there in the snow. Holding me, he killed me."

"Fucking hell," Emil muttered knowing how traumatising that must be for her. "That wasn't real Zinnia. Alton would never hurt you; you know that."

Zinnia took a little while to respond as she spoke in an uncertain tone. "I know. There was something else. At the centre of the storm was the biggest tree I've ever seen. At the top was five figures."

"A tree? Five figures? You don't mean the stages of gr-."

"That's enough, Gale." Emil roared cutting him off. "That was just a made-up future which played in her mind, it isn't going to happen."

"What did you see during your trial Emil?" Zinnia whimpered.

He let out a longwinded sigh rubbing his face. "What I saw? I saw a future where I stayed with my mother. A future of drugs and debt. That's it. Of course, that never happened or will happen. She's dead. As for you, though. I demand you stop these trials."

"Give up?! No, I can't!"

"Alton would not want you going through this for him! This is madness, your eating away at your damn mind! Give it up Zinnia, before it's too late!"

"Never, I will never give up till I die!" Emil kicked a chair over storming out, slamming the door shut behind him. Zinnia began kicking her legs against the bed in frustration. "Alton's life is at risk, and he wants me to give up?! Fuck him!"

"Don't hold it against him Zinnia, he's just worried about you. I agree with him."

"But why? What's so wrong that I can't go through with these trials?"

Florence eyed her down, shaking her head. "Being bedbound for two days should speak wonders. But it's more than that. These trials don't just prove who's worthy. It also changes you. Successful trial goers are completely different people coming out."

"Different people?" Gale says, looking lost. "I don't get it."

Florence gave a little giggle covering her mouth, embarrassed by laughing. "Believe it or not, but Jinx wasn't a nutjob at one point. She was actually a really caring and adorable girl. I met her just before taking the trial. We became good friends. After the trial, it seemed her mind snapped. She became who she is today. All the others were the same. Monty was just as caring. Always sticking up for everyone being the big brother. The Hero of the Montagues they called him. You two were actually quite alike but after the trials, well, you know what he's like today."

"The trials remove all weakness…" Zinnia muttered.

"Exactly any personality tied to the person seen as a weakness is swept away, and all that's left is the worthy streamer Christopher deems so. A husk of their former self. It's been like this for generations. Some people want to become streamers no matter what. Others are clueless about what the trials really are."

"What about you? Did you change after the trials?"

"I'm not sure. I don't remember anything about myself before the trials. But most likely, I did change for better or worse is up in the air. The Montague trials are vile acts of torment and torture. If it was up to me, I would destroy every last semblance of those nightmares and make the creators pay."

"The person changes entirely? What will I become after these trials? Will I even remember who I once was?"

"A fate worse than death. So that's why we were warned going through this wasn't worth it…"

Florence tried smiling but couldn't bare the concept. "I'm sorry, Zinnia, your strong. You're doing this for a good cause, unlike everyone else here you're here to save someone close to you. Maybe that can change things. If you hold onto what makes you; you then maybe you can come out the other side unchanged."

"Is that possible?"

"I. I don't know. I hope for your sake. The second trial starts tonight. If you want to save Alton, you can't mess up. I heard he only had a week to live. Keep getting bedbound like this, and he won't make it."

Florence left looking slightly angered as Gale budged up closer to Zinnia. "Are you alright?"

She took his hand, trying to find the words to make herself feel better. She shook her head. "I don't know. That first trial it was hell. The others are harder, according to everyone. I don't know if I can do it."

"You do not doubt yourself, do you? I know you can do it. Alton does as well. If Percy was here. He would say the same thing."

Zinnia let out a small smile. "Yeah, he would."

"You just have to hold on to what makes you; you."

"What makes me; me?" Zinnia gave a long thought trying to figure that question out, that was when the picture presented to her on her birthday crept into her mind. Her mother. She gripped Gale's hand tighter nodding. "I am a hero, like my mother and father before me. That's what I aim to be. That is who I am. Zinnia Trost, daughter of the legendary heroes. I'll carry the torch and make them proud. That is who I will be, and nothing will change that. Not these trials and not that future I witnessed."