"Again." Bryan repositioned himself accordingly, placing the strapped on punching mats up and towards Fiona. He was covered in equipment, a mouth guard shoved in between his teeth for him to bite down on. He was covered in a gleaming layer of sweat, his hair matted to his forehead.

Fiona dropped her foot back, bending her knees slightly, raising her hands in a fighting stance. Squaring off with her jaw, she gave him a blank stare. With a second's hesitation she ground her teeth and lashed out.

Each hit was powerful. The air around them moved too slow to keep up, the blows reverberating, the sound lost in the time. Bryan was forced back, his arms aching as her kicks and punches drilled him into the soft dirt ground. A sizeable hole had already been formed from the backs of his heels, his body trying to stay upright.

With one last twirl, and one last kick, he collapsed, and Fiona stood triumphant.

"I don't see why she makes you do this with me." She relaxed, lending a hand out to him, offering him help up. He took it. The pads that had been on his arms were cracked, the hard leather exterior warped. They had seen their end just minutes ago. He pulled them off, dropping the parts on the ground around him, their weight being lost a relief. He would have bruises on his skin, his muscles tender for weeks.

"She wants you to be prepared."

"I was fucking born ready. I'm tired of waiting."

"She'll tell you when you're ready."

Grumbling, Fiona flicked him the bird, heading off across the field to the bench that sat on the far end of the sparring field. The entire outside effect was fake, the world they were in now just a simulation designed to bring to the people a warmth, a comfort. This particular space was a park during normal hours, but Bryan had clearance to claim it for themselves five days out of the week span.

Just looking passed the computer-generated horizon, one could see the faint glow of the universe outside its grasp. The stars, the moons, the planets, the ships, the vast darkness of everything was out there. They were inside a simulation dome, one of the biggest and best, it floated in space, tethered to a massive port. A fake and glorious world.

Fiona sighed, taking a drink from her water. Her mind was wandering, reminding her of sun shine stuck between trees, eyes glowing in the distance, a chuckle brushing on the back of her neck. She ached for those days. She missed the freedom of a real planet, the uncertainty of the wild life around them.

"How long has it been?" She always questioned him of this, hoping that one day he would cave. He hadn't so far, but she was stubborn.

"You know I can't answer that question."

"I don't understand how you tolerate being her bitch boy Bryan, you of all people. Aren't you tired of being a servant?"

"I liked you better in the coma."

Fiona rolled her eyes, gathering up her few items. Bryan surveyed her for a moment, making sure nothing new was going back in. Without a word they started across the field towards the distant image of a blue house. They couldn't get closer, they couldn't touch it, an illusion to create a focal point for exit reference. Fiona felt the edge of the illusion before Bryan did, slipping right through the finely painted graphic mesh. He was hot on her heels, the hall in front of them leading down into the station.

She wasn't a prisoner, but she wasn't free. She had spent the better part of the last couple of years happily running from this nonsense. Trying to get rid of the bodies around her, trying to escape into a world where she could just be. Images of Johns, of his father, of Dahl... they all circled in her head. She let the memories attach her as she continued forward into a large open space, lockers spanning the two walls.

Bryan took her arm, leading her towards their things. He allowed her to gather her bag before he placed a small ring on her wrist. Its purpose was hidden behind the glamour of jewelry. She couldn't go more than four feet away from him as long as it was on her wrist.

"I would say two years." The words, part of a conversation she had thought they had left in the arena, were whispers. She felt their gravity as he continued to put his things away. He wouldn't look at her, wouldn't acknowledge her pleading eyes. She had been asking him for ages now, unsure of how long she had been stuck in her own head.

Two years.

She fell into line as they headed out and into the busy bustle of the metropolis they called home. Fiona stayed her required distance from Bryan as they followed the bustle of people. He would take her back to her room. When she was there she would be locked in, allowed to shower, and then she would be forced to study. Hours spent going over lore, over history, over the past. All things she had happily researched back when she was unaware of freedom and it's reach. Now, as it were, she was always guarded.

Two years. She frowned, stepping around a lady and her child, feeling the tug of the electric cuff that Bryan had on her wrist. When she had finally woke from the darkness that was her head, she was alone. It didn't entirely feel like being awake, the room a spitting image of what her mind had bathed her in. No lights, just blackness, and endless blanket around her; she hadn't wanted to see anything else for an entire life time after witnessing what she had.

A day did not pass where she did not think about those moments. His life, sitting on the edge of his being, his soul slipping from between his fingers. She had watched it leave him, watched a new kind of death sink into him that was all too permanent.

She shook the thoughts off, slipping into the hall on the far side of the quad behind Bryan. They walked past many doors, making their way just a little further before turning right and heading into a separate bay. Brian waved his hand before a sensor, a door unlocking just in front of them. Fiona watched as the large circular door slid out of the way, metal plating on both sides. She was faintly reminded of something dirty, something deep underground, but she pushed those memories away. She didn't want to compete with her old memories; she didn't want to see him.

"Get yourself cleaned up. I'll be by shortly to take you to class." Fiona nodded, watching as Bryan undid the bracelet on her arm. The giant door locked tightly behind them. She didn't hesitate heading off away from him, making her way through the halls to her little room. She let herself in, the door locking behind her after the room recognized her presence. She couldn't get back out if she wanted to, only Bryan could open the door when she was inside. She didn't waste time, the shower calling her name.

"I want you to put those memories in the back." Aereon's soft voice echoed inside Fiona's head. She sighed, her eyes pinched shut, face scrunched up. They did this on the daily, taking the two separate parts of Fiona's past and pulling them further apart. The memory loss up until her rekindle with Riddick, her past before she was converted, it all mixed together like two different people. Her brain had trouble piecing the time line together, it struggled understanding the emotions that connected the memories.

So Aereon simply showed her how to move them away. After what had felt like decades of hiding in that vast darkness of a room, curled up in a ball, memories walking around her talking and calling out to her, Aereon had had no choice. Some things had to be forgotten to make it easier.

"Did you see him today?" She asked this casually, Fiona opening her eyes instantly, shaking her head.

In the beginning, when she had woken up, he was there. She had thought him real, his skin felt real, his smell all around her. But when Aereon had come to visiting he vanished, leaving her staring at the blankness that she had been talking to. And so it was then that she started moving her memories around. Discarding some, tucking them away so they couldn't bother her. And he was still there, but as the time moved forward he stopped showing up so much. He had been angry at first, and she figured it was her subconscious trying to hold onto him for dear life.

When he no longer spoke, just stared upon her with his shined eyes, glowing in the shadows of where ever she was, she knew. It was in those moments, when she was alone, and he was watching, that she came to terms with it. She wasn't going to see him again.

And so, he vanished completely.

"That's good. Now, I think it's time for some rest. Tomorrow is going to be a big day for you."

"Yeah, am I sparring someone a little bit more complicated?" Fiona watched as Aereon flicked in the space around her, a small smile gracing the old woman's face.

"You'll soon see, my child."