Author's Notes:

Before we begin, I would like to thank a lot of people for helping me get my ideas and inspire me to get back on track. "Desert Rose" will be coming out shortly. The pairings for this story are going to be Mai/Jou, Serenity/Tristan, and as for Anzu, I'll let that be a surprise to keep you guys checking. As an overview, the first few chapters are just to introduce the girls and give you a bit of background. I'll then move into the juicier parts, so keep reading!

Gladiator

A light breeze blows by in the cold desert night. The sun's fire has finally diminished, and the night creatures come crawling out. The vast, barren land is a beautiful, isolated place. Few frail, tall cactus plants are still standing, relaxing from the heat of the sun. Unexpectedly, light rain begins to fall. The rain is but a small drizzle, falling down and immediately soaking into the sand. Small kangaroo rats and burrowers emerge from the dark. They chatter among themselves, foraging in the cool desert night.

            Short, ground-hugging shrubs sway in the breeze. The yucca plants and the turpentine bushes open their stomata* to the rain. Everything is born, renewed by the long drought, now followed by a short drizzle. The world is calm, and the circle of life in the desert continues – predator against prey, with the survival of the fittest.

            A desert snake crawls by, venomous black eyes fixed upon its prey. The prey, a small lizard, unknowingly ventures even nearer towards its predator. Stealthily, the slithers up to the lizard, and in one sudden move, it pounces on the lizard and begins to feed hungrily. It sharp fangs sink into the flesh of the lizard, and the snake swallows it. Meal done, it begins to search for more, now greedy with an urge for more food.

It never got the chance.

            Pale hands snatched the snake. They twisted and choked the snake until it lay still, calm in the night. The drizzle stopped. An eerie silence cloaked over the desert.

            A woman stepped from her dark, grungy cave. Her hair was untidy, yet a soft, shimmering brown color. Her soggy hair drooped in front of two pale blue pieces of ice. In her hands she held the snake. She was clothed in ripped rags, made from tough snakeskin. The snakeskin molded against her slender body. She was like a candle illuminated in the bright moon overhead. Her presence spoke for all the silence in the desert.

Her lips curled in a cruel smile. Only one word came to her mind.

Kill.

*          *            *

            "Go to hell, you bitch!" One hit was always followed by another hit. One slap was always followed by another slap. One kick was always followed by another kick. It was an endless repetition that had grown routine.

            The blonde-haired woman struggled to get up. Her left eye was bruised and her lip was cut and bleeding. Her face was streaked with tears, the drops plowing through the powder on her face. The rouge on her mouth was smeared, conjoining in with the deep, ghastly cut on her right cheek. Despite her injuries, she was a beautiful woman.

            Her mussed yellow hair was spun of golden sunshine, and her eyes were the color of a purple petunia flower. Her clothes were tattered, and beneath them was the skin of a beaten woman. The skin was rough and delicate, gentle to touch yet marred by scars. She was heavily powdered, with heavy black eyeliner tracing the tears around her eyes; rose-red rouge painted on her lips, and assorted colors of blush against her cheeks.

            For all her beauty she was a despairing woman. She was a hurt woman – hurt by he whom she loved most. Keeping her bruised eye shut, she opened one violet eye and a single tear dropped. She bent her head and whispered quietly, "I'm sorry."

            Those of anger and fire replaced sad, despairing eyes. Purple fire burned inside the crimson of her heart. Standing up with renewed strength she sent a roundhouse kick at the man. "I may be a prostitute, but I am not here for you to beat up. I am your wife, and I deserve respect. I became a prostitute for us, dammit! And I will not throw it all away – I will not throw away everything I have for you anymore! You are a bastard, Suth! And you know that you are. You know."

            The drunken man rose. "SHUT UP! Tomorrow, we leave this dastardly planet. It's been playing tricks on your mind ever since we got here. Please…a woman standing up to a man? That makes a whole lot of sense. We leave for Caire**. You'll see what the men do to you there."

            "You are not taking me to Caire, Suth." The woman's voice was deep and firm, adrenaline rushing through her blood.

            "You will die without me, Mai." Suth's eyes raged. His skin was brown from the sun in the hot planet Seflon, but Mai started seeing the blue rushing in his hot red veins. His fist clenched and unclenched, ready to assault her.

            Mai was faster. Without responding, she jabbed Suth with her left elbow and punched him with her right fist. Mai wasn't very strong, but using her full body force, she managed to hit Suth's gut. Suth's eyes bulged, and he gasped. His squinty eyes grew large. From his mouth he extracted the bittersweet scent of blood.

            Mai's eyes grew large with excitement. Her entire body was intoxicated by the sight and scent of blood. Fresh, human blood of he whom she hated. While Suth was still weak, she took two delicate fingers and dipped them in the trickling blood. Lifting her fingers to her eyes, she stared at the blood like a deranged puppy to a piece of meat.

            She smiled. Her pink tongue met her red fingers halfway in the air, and the bittersweet taste of blood roamed her mind. She became hungry for the wretched scent, for the exquisite taste of blood. She grew excited, her own blood pumping harder and faster. "This is for me, Suth." Mai took the same sharp blade that he had cut her, and plunged it into the depths of his stomach. Suth gasped in a horrible, grunting sound, and he fell back, dead.

            Mai was corrupted. She had touched blood. She had tasted it. She had killed. Now it was time for the rest of the world to pay for her sorrows.

*          *            *

            The young girl quivered slightly, lower lip trembling and body shaking. She raised her head, big hazel eyes weak and full of remorse. Her thick eyelashes cried a river of silent tears. "Mommy," she whispered, hazel eyes exalted large tears. The fifteen-year-old cradled her mother in her arms. "I love you, Mommy." She whispered.

            The woman opened her large, grey eyes, the same shape as her daughter's, but a different color. Her eyes were sad, large like the moon and kindled by the wolf. "Shizuka…run. They're coming. They will…devour you. Devour you. They will catch you and set you on fire…they will torture you. I love you…" She trailed off, eyes beginning to fade as she held her daughter's hand. Her breathing grew deep and haggard, sweat coming out of every pore of her body. She closed her eyes, and opened them one last time to say, "Run."

            Shizuka's eyes widened. Her heart jumped to her ears, every beat echoing and racing through her mind. She bent her head, kissed her mother one last time, and left her there, running. She ran. And ran.

*          *            *

*stomata – microscopic openings in the epidermis of leaves allowed for gas exchange

**Caire – pronounced Kai-AIR

Author's Notes:

Well, as you can see, I've made quite some changes to Gladiator. This is just an introduction to the beginning of a piece that I hold dear. This story…is going to have three mini-stories, each within each. I'm going to start off with Shizuka's story, and then Mai's story, and then Anzu's story. In this story, Anzu will be called Teana or Anzu – I'll decide later. I'll conclude with third person, so this story should take at least a year or two. Well…I've started. I'm going to try and update every two weeks or so, but I can't make promises. I spend time on my work now, and I have midterms coming up in two weeks. I hope you enjoyed the intro. Please leave some comments on your way out!

--I'm looking for a pre-reader to beta my stories; so if you'd like to help, e-mail me at frenchfryaaa@hotmail.com.