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Available from AO3 - Archive of Our Own

by BhattZakharuk (natalya_chernyshevsky)

To Read

Alekha’s wanted to enter the Askold Combat Sports Academy her whole life. To refine her cyborg body and her exo-frame until she could contend with the best in the transhumanist utopia of the People’s Interstellar Republics.

Only utopia does not greet her warmly. After a harrowing immigration procedure, she learns she’s already become a controversy: a trans woman, in the Women’s Combat League? The moment she lands, she’s inducted into the brutal student hierarchy. Low-ranked combatants are nothing more than trade goods in games of status and public humiliation for those at the top. To ensure Alekha ranks low, her first fight is scheduled against the number one champion: Halych Radora. A cyborg so honed for destruction she barely resembles a person.

Alekha had been screwed since before she arrived.

Unless, inscrutably, the champion throws the fight on purpose, propelling Alekha to the top while rendering herself Alekha’s trophy. It’s a chance to succeed—but only if Alekha learns to swim with the sharks and play their cruel games. Already whispers are spreading: how could someone like Alekha possibly conquer a champion?

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