My world spun as life came crashing back into my body from an icy force splashing against my face. I no longer hanged forward in my seat--bound by thick ropes and my feet chained to the floor, for I sat up in fright to face the unknown. While doing so, my heart pounded against my chest as I coughed violently to help push out the water that went down my throat without my consent. I wished for the world to stop spinning, but a hand grasped the bottom half of my face and jerked my eyes up into another’s.

"Yes...you are the one..."

I merely stared in complete silence, for I was unsure of the husky voice belonging to a man because of the light beaming down on us, but he didn’t allow me to study his features. Almost immediately, he drifted away in the darkness around me, and I was left alone in the circle of light.

"The infamous Scarlet. Age: 21. Sex: Female. Birthday: Pisces 28th. Place of Birth: Old Chattanooga residing in the destroyed state of Tennessee. Current household: Within the walls of Grimwald at the center of Old North America. Occupation: None--just a bonafide Delinquent."

As the voice of the man echoed, I felt eyes on my body as I scanned the darkness anxiously. The terms he used was vaguely familiar, but my mind wouldn’t settle due to the dizziness. The voice came again, but it had a foreboding tone to it, "You are Scarlet. The one who is against us, and the one who knows of our secrets. You started a civil war between the remaining human beings upon this planet, and lead vulgar bloodhounds calling themselves Tempest against us."

"What...what are you talking about?" I managed to softly say. "Scarlet? Tempest? Delinquent? I don’t understand any of that."

"Well, you wouldn’t," came another voice--this one a bit prissy and well spoken from a woman lingering in the dark to my right. "We’ve stripped you of everything. We sealed away your precious memories and will hold you captive to show you the fruits of our progress. We shall command this world with our technology and awaken The One Who Sleeps."

"The One Who Sleeps...?" I whispered, but as I did so, a sharp pain banged against my temples and I yelped.

"Think nothing of it, girl," said another man, but his voice was abysmal and jagged. "Anything you seek to remember will merely hurt you in the process. You have no hope of recovering."

Another shock of agony came from my forehead and it made my body jolt and snap open my mouth, but only a silent cry forced its way out. Slowly, the cry transformed into unconnected groans and shivering breaths that reflected my bewildered nature. The voice of the man who grabbed me earlier suddenly shot through my ears, "We are NOVA. People will remember our names from now to the future, for our names will be embedded into history as the ones who saved the world from dying. You, a mere outcast, cannot ever witness the light of our world. It is not suited for those who lack order."

"I’m...an outcast...?" I managed to say. "W...What have I ever done to you?!"

"You, who bends order should receive no mercy," explained the man with an abysmal voice. "No matter what method we chose to practice on you, your mind continues to reject order. You dream of being free and living life as you see fit, but the world doesn’t abide by your wishes, girl. In truth, there is a selection from birth. There are those who are meant for a purpose, and those who were meant to be the stepping stones of others. Clearly, you were meant to be our stepping stone, girl."

"I’m not a stepping stone! I’m not who you say I am!" I rebuttaled. "My...my name is...it’s--"

The woman who spoke earlier dismissed my speech with her keen words, "You have no name. Scarlet is merely your title, but beyond that...you are nothing. A nameless, nobody girl who believes to understand our new world."

"You’re wrong!" I argued, denying the violent headache.

"Who are you to say that I am wrong?! There is no hope for you, and certainly no hope for those who follow your cause. They will simply perish and be reduced to mere ashes under our foot."

"If it’s me you want...leave those who concerned themselves with me out of it!"

"We will not sit back and allow them to do what they want," said the deep voiced man. "We will strike them down now that the head has fallen. There is no alternative."

"No..." my eyes dropped to my scratched up feet and black nails.

"You will--"

Boom!

A blast of light erupted from in front of me, and accompanying that light was a reckless rumbling that made the floor underneath me shatter. Instantly, I found myself swimming through the sky in my confined chair, and everything became bright. It wasn’t long until I had hit the surface of the world and realized that a thick blanket of snow covered the land. Slowly, icy tears from the dull, grey skies fell and added to the growth of the snow, but my attention was drawn to the atmosphere. There were no trees, no wildlife, no mountains along the horizon, no people, and no sound. It was as if life had escaped the environment. Still, my gaze started to fade and I grew tired. The snow enveloped my body in a matter of moments and I drifted away...far away from reality.

I’m going to die out here...

The frigid winter air pushed me away from my desired path, but I pressed forward as it landed its icy bites on my exposed skin. The bites were inevitable and fierce due to the fact that I neither had the right clothing or tools to survive in the winter barren land. I had a difficult time lifting my leather boots out of the thick blanket of snow, and my teeth chattered without rhythm as I trudged ahead. I managed to raise up my head as the commanding gusts of wind danced around me--teasing me with little bites, but my mission relied in finding shelter as I scanned the horizon. There was literally nothing of interest. No settlements, no trees, no wildlife, not even mountains in the distance. The land was utterly barren, lumpy, and scarred by the winds of time. It was then while I was looking for any life did my stomach growled, and I reacted expectantly by hovering my hand over my jet black blouse’s stomach where the crimson strings in the front kept together the tight frame of the blouse around my slender figure.

The world...everything is just gone...

I started to wonder if there was any civilization to begin with, and if I would end up surviving the harsh weather. Seconds became minutes, and minutes shifted into hours of walking--I covered miles and miles it seemed. My stomach continued to roar, and the weather continued to crawl up my skin. I couldn’t remember a damn thing about myself, but I knew for a fact that my mind didn’t bode well with loneliness. Being alone made you realize your weaknesses, and said weaknesses can try to break you from the pressure of feeling abandoned. As things stood, I was lost with no chance of grasping the reins of my fate.

I hugged myself while trudging through the knee-high snow and tried to revoke my worries, but all too suddenly, I was thrown ahead by a robust cleave of air. I found myself rolling down a slope--crashing against the jagged ice hiding underneath the blanket of snow and tumbling to the base. I wished not to move, for a ringing pain pounded against my right ankle and forearms, but the wind carried away my hope like a tidal wave and eventually I scrambled to my feet questionably while testing the depth of my ankle’s pain. It was sprained from the looks of it, and when I started to walk, I limped. Additionally, the fall from the top of slope drained me of conviction and exhaustion began to settle in as my breaths became spiteful out of frustration and ponderous. However, the sudden calming snow petals cascading from the dull sky remedied my frustration because of its innate beauty, and only then did I realize that the snowy floor glittered and a orange sun poked its head up from the horizon.

After a few steps, I saw my savior--my charming knight--residing on a flat surface ahead. He was dressed in the guise of a what seemed to be a settlement protected by towering, steel walls, and a cloud of gruffly smoke pumped out of the center opening. I couldn’t look into the settlement from my elevated position, but I noticed twisting diamond towers that resembled two fingers rubbing against it each that glowed an ominous lime color and stretched higher than the steel walls.

What are those...?

I found myself reaching closer and closer to the grand walls, and once I reached close enough, I realized that there was a huge iron gate entrance. From my distance, I saw individuals standing in front of the gate whom looked to be dressed in black suits of padded armor and visored helmets. I raised my hand and waved at them, but their response was hardly friendly.

"Get on the ground!"

I was drawn back by the yelling from one of the members, but obeyed carefully by slowly dropping to my knees, "I...I need help! I’m not here to hurt anybody!"

One of the members held up the strange tool shaped like a rifle they all were armed with and almost immediately, I heard a soft wizzing sound come from the tool and my chest was impaled by a small needle. Instantly, I dropped to the floor of the world with a loud thud as if I lost consciousness, but I was very much awake, and surprisingly, alive.

I can’t move...

I could hear the members ease up on my body as they jogged, and when they drew close, they circled me with the intention that I could harm them still. However, one of the members was bold and crouched before me--pulling my head up by my hair, pulling out the needle, and asking with a distorted voice due to his helmet, "Who are you and what are you doing out here?"

I didn’t realize I could speak at first, but the man or woman waited and I responded accordingly, "I...don’t know. I can’t remember what happened to me."

The member released my hair momentarily and turned me over so that I faced the sky, "We will see if that story holds up. Do you have any identification on you?"

"I--"

The individual searched my tight, but stretchy black pants’ pockets without my consent, and with mild interest pulled out a crystal that glowed a blinding lime green, "What the hell is this?"

"Captain! Could she be..." said one of the hesitant members circling me.

"Keep your weapon at the ready, private," ordered the captain holding the crystal I had in my possession. "You’re Scarlet, aren’t you? Well, it’s a given due to your hair."

He grabbed a tuft of my long hair to show me the radiant scarlet color, "You should consider changing your hair color for your line of work, rebel."

"Who are you people?" I glared.

"Don’t play dumb. We’re the Enforcers--hired hands of NOVA. We weed out troublemakers like you."

"Everything I’ve said to you is completely true!"

"Really? I’m supposed to believe you lost your memories?"

But it’s--"

"Even if that is true, do you think your enemies will show any concern for you? In their eyes, you’re a global threat to humanity, for you are disturbing the order. We will take you in and have our superiors deal with you."

There was no point in defending myself. The scar that I inflicted upon humanity overshadowed my current situation. The captain tapped his or her left wrist and a green light swallowed his or her arm swiftly alike wildfire. A holographic image hovered over it and the captain spoke into it, creating waves of lightning over the image, "Guards, I need you to open the gate. We caught a rebel straggling outside."

"We read you loud and clear, sir. Opening the gate now."

The captain looked down at me and spoke softly, "I want you to run when I give the word, you got it? We’ll meet at Balterossa."

Huh...?

"By the way, it’s nice to see you again, Scarlet," the captain quietly mentioned.

"Um...what?" I stared at the captain’s visor, but his or her eyes were hidden from view.

"Captain? Is everything alright?"

All of a sudden, the head of the group took off his or her helmet and shot one of the members in the head, but unlike my situation with a needle, they were actual live rounds that pierced the private’s helmet. The private fell back to the ground, and the other members frantically stepped back while managing to aim at their "captain". Instead of a captain, I saw a man with charcoal hair that was played with by the wind, and bronze irses that burned of confidence. He shot at another one of soldiers near the heart and strangely enough, one of the soldiers broke out of formation and pulled out a combat knife that dug into the neck of another.

The man with charcoal hair helped me to my feet saying, "The paralysis should have worn off! Run!" and shot live rounds to reduce the amount of threats against us while the guised soldier with a combat knife strayed not too far from us.

As we retreated, the majority of the soldiers were dead, and the others were injuired or calling for help. In a matter of seconds, we ran through the entrance of the opened gate and the man directed me down a empty morning street, but we found an ally within moments. As we came to a stop, he turned to me and grabbed my hand to place the crystal on my palm, "This is yours. We’ll meet you at Balterossa as planned."

"Balterossa?"

"That’s the one. Head down this alley and peel out of it when you reach the end. You’ll see the pub--"

"Noctis, we don’t have time for directions. I’m sure Scarlet knows how to find her own home," said the soldier who followed us.

Noctis smirked to himself, "I guess you’re right. See you then, Scarlet."

Before I could get a word in, they disappeared. Once again, I was on my own, but I felt better since I wasn’t out in the cold. The city gave off an odd warmth that filled my heart, and the crystal in my hand healed my soul. I took a step forward, but my right ankle throbbed from the action.

I must have made it worse by running.

I shook off the pain for the moment and focused on getting to Balterossa. From what the soldier said, it was my home. If I went there, I could learn more about myself.

Next Chapter: Chapter One: Green Ocean