"That one?" The man exclaimed with surprise. "Are you sure? She's a fighter." Rei recognized that voice. How could she not? It was that same, oil over gravel voice that awakened her most nights, and nagged her each day.

"I'm sure I can handle her." Another voice. It sounded familiar. Like a memory from too long ago. Just out of reach.

"Okay. It's your funeral." The sound of keys echoed in the darkness around her. She opened her eyes. Two figures were silhouetted against the hard fire light. The first figure with the keys was a short, pugly man. She didn't need bright light to remember his pig like features. Or his smell.

The other man, was a mystery. He was much taller than The Pig. His aura was more dignified and cool as well.

A customer? Maybe.

"Can't say that I'm glad to finally be rid of her. She was a handful, but she made me a lot of money over these last couple of months." The man said nothing as The Pig pulled open the cell door. "Don't get to close now. She bites." The Pig fingered his right ear. Or, at least, what was left of his right ear. Rei had to bite back a smile. So you could teach an old pig new tricks.

She listened to the man approach slowly, coming deeper into the cell and deeper into the darkness. She only sat and waited. Her arms were shackled in front of her and one leg was anchored to the stone floor. She couldn't run, but she knew a few tricks to put up a decent fight. Enough to make a man think twice about laying a hand on her.

The man stopped just a few feet in front of her. She lifted a brow in mild surprise. He was just out of her reach. Had he done it on purpose?

"I know you are awake." He simply said. His voice covered her like a warm blanket. That familiar tone. Strong and gentle at the same time. An odd combination in a world such as this.

"I have a cautious one today." Rei drawled. She remained seated on the floor, her hand hovering over the ground, and one leg bent under her, balancing her weight on the ball of foot.

"I was informed by Mr. Taffe that you were... wild."

"Such a compliment I might just blush," she spat instead. "So what did he promise you? Twenty, thirty minutes? Want me to lie back and spread out? Or were you planning on sweet talking me?" There was silence.

"Reign in your tongue." He spoke softly, but the hard command wasn't wasted on her ears. "I have purchased your freedom. Or, at least, your freedom from all of this."

"And in return?" Rei kept her voice even. Not daring to hope. Not daring to reveal said hope.

"In return, you do want you were born to do."

The man had spoken the truth and within the hour she was a free woman. Relatively. She was in the man's debt, but it was a much better situation than the pig man's farm. Or so she hoped.

She walked out into the desert heat, the sun beating down on her head. She stepped in a topless car and settled on the warm seats in the back as the man finished his transaction with The Pig. Slowly, she looked up at the place that had been her home for a long as she could remember. Granted, she could only remember what she knew as of six months ago.

The Colosseum, a white bricked, circular building that stood eight stories, was the home to many poor desolate souls whose only way to get a hot meal was to fight in the arena day after exhausting day. The Pig was the master and ruled with a leather whip, iron chains, dark cells, and promises of freedom if they worked hard enough.

Rei had been a fan favorite. The thought made her frown. How would one go about scrubbing memories from their mind?

"Saying your last goodbyes?" The man asked as he climbed into the driver seat. Rei turned around, silently vowing never to look upon the building again for as long as she lived.

"Where are you taking me?" She asked instead.

"Crystal Tokyo." She visibly flinched.

"It's open?" Her voice barely reached a whisper. The man looked behind him, then turned his attention back to the flat, dead space of the desert.

"You can say that." The memory flowed through her mind against her will. She had stumbled and dragged her weakened body to that God-forsaken place, only to be denied entry.

"I'm surprised you haven't asked me yet." A faint smile played on his lips.

"Asked you what?"

"Who I am." Rei made an acknowledging sound in the back of her throat. It wasn't that she forgot. It was more like, she didn't care to know. The man who had "owned" her before, was known to her only as The Pig. Yes, he had a name. She had even been told said name. But in Rei's mind, the man was beneath her, and thus she made no effort to remember him. Instead, she called him The Pig.

She was sure this man too would tell her his name. But he too was beneath her.

"Not going to ask?" When she said nothing, he continued the one sided conversation. "Endy. That's my name. Well, that's what you can call me." Rei almost laughed out loud. What kind of name was Endy? It sound like a child's nickname.

"Not a name I would have picked," she muttered. If the man herd her, he made no acknowledgment. Rei decided to call him Mr. Silent.

The rest of the trip was made in silence. Living up to his new name, Mr. Silent didn't ask any more leading questions. She made no inquiries of their destination, figuring that when they got there, she would be instructed on a need to know basis.

Instead, she turned her attention to the changing landscape.

It was three hundred years ago when the world went to sleep. Starting in Tokyo, a natural phenomenon placed the entire nation under a sleep spell. It didn't take long for the effects to cover the entire planet.

As every living thing slept, a dense crystal surrounded their physical forms, freezing them in time while the earth shifted and changed around them. The lands moved and merged into one large mass. Over time, the center of the land mass became a barren desert surrounded by mountains. This was known as the Dead Lands.

Mr. Silent drove through the scorching heat, stopping at nomad villages along the way for water and various supplies. At the edge of the Dead Lands, they abandoned the car to board the rail cars that would take them to the other side of the mountain.

Rei remembered very little after that. After emerging from the darkened caves, they were surrounded by lush over growth. Buildings protruded from the treetop, each one more overrun with greenery than the last. But it was the large crystal-like structure that eventually caught her eye.

It marked the center of Crystal Tokyo. The Diamond Palace, as it was known, had been surrounded by an impenetrable force field since the three-hundred-year-sleep began.

After three days, the rail car came to a stop a few miles from the Palace. Mr. Silent had another vehicle waiting for them. The sun was barely set by the time they reached the outer walls.

The car pulled up to a stop and Mr. Silent climbed out and opened the door for her. Slowly, she disembarked from the vehicle and stood before the castle wall. Indeed, the force field was gone, but her unease lingered.

"If you would follow me." Mr. Silent didn't wait. He walked right up to the gate and opened a smaller, man-sized door.

Just put one step in front of the other, Rei thought to herself. Her bare feet felt like led. With very little grace, she followed Mr. Silent inside the palace.

It was deathly quiet inside. There were no maids or servants bustling about the corridors. There was no music or murmured conversations. Not even the soft wind could be herd throughout the impossibly thickened walls. The only thing Rei could make out was the fleshy plop of her feet on the marbled floor.

Mr. Silent lead her down a long carpeted hallway. Probably the only hallway that showed an resemblance of having been occupied by a living creature.

He opened another set of door to a large meeting room. There were only three things in the large room. A platform. A chair that sat on the platform. And, a woman sitting calmly in the chair.

Mr. Silent bowed and stepped aside as he made the proper announcements.

"I have brought you Lady Rei, as you requested." Rei fought a smile. A lady? She was anything but.

"Thank you Endy." The woman's voice was like music complementing the sunny room. She stood with the grace of a bird and all but floated the short distance to stand before Rei.

Shame, an emotion Rei had long thought she abandoned, welled up inside her. This woman, who, like Mr. Silent, also felt familiar. But more importantly, she had the look of royalty and importance. Real importance. Like a princess or a queen. Someone who had been born to rule over others.

Then there was Rei. Rei who was still dirty from The Pig's coliseum and the long ride over. Rei, whose hair was matted with so much dirt and grime that it all but stuck to her shoulders. Rei, who wore tattered, drown, dingy rags and no shoes to speak of.

The woman smiled, as if sensing her unease.

"I've been waiting for you. It's felt like an eternity." Re could not speak. The words were lodged in the back of her head. This woman was so damned familiar. But who was she.

The woman saw the confusion in Rei's eyes. She turned sharply to Mr. Silent and pinned him with a hard stare.

"She does not remember."

"I was unable to recover her from her capsule state." He said simply. "She was already awake, and had been for months before I could locate her."

"Then..."

"I woke up six months ago," Rei stated, finding her voice. "I don't remember anything before waking. But after..." Rei's voice trailed off as she remembered that day. The woman watched with careful eyes, putting invisible pieces together in her mind.

"I see," was all she said for pausing. "I am Queen Selene. Di you truly not know me?" Rei shook her head. Selene sighed and ran a hand over her long platinum hair. What an odd color, Rei thought.

"Well Lady Rei," Selene took Rei's hands in her own. "Memories are overrated. Bothersome things that hold you back." Rei stared at their joined hands. Selene's creamy white to her own sun bruised leathery skin. It should have been a wonder how this pristine woman could touch her at all. Any yet, it didn't feel odd.

"This is your new home. You will have a bed, warm food, fresh cloths, and all the pleasures you can imagine."

"What's the catch?" Rei asked bluntly. Selene stilled.

"Excuse me?"

"What. Is. The. Catch." Rei pulled her hands away. "What price do I pay for this?" Selene looked puzzled at first. Then a slow smile spread over her face. It was the kind of smile that warmed you to your toes while chilling you to the bone.

"Why," she tiled her head just slightly. "You need only to do what you are told."