Hi! I just have a few things to say. First of all, this my first story so please be respectful. I would always like for you to speak your thoughts, even it's criticizing and rude, shoot! That's all, I'll let you enjoy the story, I hope you enjoy!

-Karma

Ryu could hear the whispers about her. How she was lucky to survive this long, how she was a failure, how she was a disgrace to her family and Quill alike. Ryu was glad to hear everyone quiet down, even if that meant that the High Priest had arrived.

Her parents were hiding away in the crowd, they couldn't face the High Priest with their failure of a child with them. Surely they wouldn't be able to produce another child, not with the memory of her in bended in everyone.

Ryu barely heard the High Priest talk, she was lost in her thoughts. She briefly heard Justine -she was never one to show respect to the warden of her prison- start naming the Unwanteds.

She already knew she was an Unwanted and she could hardly care. She wasn't afraid of dying, she was going to wear her title like a badge of honor.

Ryu held out her hands to let the Governors clamp the rusty cuffs on her, she couldn't see the point of this, where were they going to run? The crowd of Quillens weren't going to let them past anytime soon and even if they did get past they were trapped in by the dull gray walls climbing into the sky. The Unwanteds fate was sealed.

Ryu noticed how all the heads of the Unwanteds were down and avoiding everybody's eyes, not daring to look anywhere in the direction of the High Priest. Cowards, she thought, wear your title like a badge of honor, we had the courage to stand up and show our creativity, our imagination. She can't recall if she ever heard the words creativity or imagination but the meanings came to her without explanation and it oddly felt like she did hear the words before.

Realizing she was quickly approaching the rusty tin can they called a bus, she threw her head up high, looking everyone in the eye and eventually coming face-to-face with the High Priest herself. She was looking down at them as if they were trash, dirt under her feet. She found Ryu's heterochromia eyes and glared, trying to prove she was more powerful than her. Ryu glared right back and after a moment Justine had to look away.

Ryu smirked at her silent victory, the high and mighty High Priest was no more powerful than the Unwanteds.

A Governor roughly shoved her onto the bus and led her to her seat before plopping right down beside her. Her smirk widened, they didn't trust her enough to leave her alone.

"Can I ask a favor?" She asked sweetly, nudging the Governor, knowing it would tick him off.

"Silence." He said simple, not even sparing her a glance.

Ryu pouted. "I was just going to ask if you could take these off," she raised and jingled the cuffs in empathise. "It's hot and they're biting into my skin."

"Silence." He said again, this time a wave of annoyance rolled off of him. Ryu's smirk turned into a huge grin. They were so easy to annoy, it was almost unbelievable.

The bus jutted to a stop, cutting her thoughts off and replacing them with new ones. Ryu sighed, the fateful execution was growing ever so closer. At least she was able to get some fun out of the Governor, maybe she could annoy the Eliminators too.

The Governor removed the cuffs while Ryu examined the land beyond the walls. Well isn't this nice, she thought sarcastically, a barren wasteland and the smell is wonderful too.

"Goodbye! It was nice talking to you!" She called back to the Governors, the one that sat with her stopped and muttered something under his breath before continuing on, causing Ryu to laugh out loud.

The Unwanteds sent her concerned looks, probably thinking something along the lines of, she'll be thrown into the Great Lake of Boiling Oil faster than she could say may Quill prevail when the strong survive. Good land somewhere out there, you would think that being sent to their deaths would have knocked some sense into them.

Ryu's attention was caught by the Eliminators. "Hi!" She greeted. They simply glared at her with their beady red eyes.

Stoic. The four Eliminators simply stood there, watching the Unwanteds and doing nothing, as if they were waiting for something. The thing that they were waiting for soon arrived and Ryu was slightly surprised to find that it was a flying tortoise. The tortoise looked over them over before looking behind him and grumbled out very slowly something that sounded like. "Marcus, it's time."

A man soon stepped out of the rundown shack and muttered something. Ryu supposed this was the famous Death Farmer. The world around Ryu suddenly shifted and turned, making her slightly sick.

The oil turned into the sea, the barren wasteland into soft green grass, a jungle came into existence and the shack turned into a giant mansion.

Ryu barely heard the man introduce himself as Marcus Today and welcome the Unwanteds to the colorful world of Artimé.