He stared at them.
Then he noticed an old photograph of himself as a teenager.
He remembered being terrified.
He remembered an instructor who had once told him that fear was weakness.
He had spent twenty years trying to become the opposite of that frightened teenager.
Somewhere along the way, he had confused cruelty with strength.
The next morning, Marcus requested a meeting with Elena.
She agreed.
“I owe you an apology,” he said.
Elena listened.
“I thought embarrassing people made me look powerful.”
“It did,” Elena said.
He looked surprised.
“For a few seconds.”
Marcus laughed quietly.
“That might be the hardest thing anyone has ever told me.”
Elena closed her notebook.
“You don't have to become perfect.”
“What do I have to become?”
“Responsible.”
Marcus nodded.
Then he asked the question that mattered.
“Will you help rebuild the program?”
Elena looked at him for a long moment.
“Yes.”
“But there are conditions.”
“I expected that.”
“No humiliation training. No unsafe demonstrations. No judging people by how loud they are, how they look, or where they come from.”
Marcus agreed.
“And one more thing,” Elena said.
“What?”
“You don't get to call yourself a champion because you won fights.”
Marcus waited.
“You earn that title by what you do with the people who can't fight back.”
He nodded.
This time, he understood.
CHAPTER 6 — SIX SECONDS LATER
Three months later, the arena reopened.
The same six hundred seats were filled.
But the atmosphere was different.
Young fighters trained under new safety rules. Coaches were evaluated. Complaints were taken seriously.