A/N: This parts gets a little graphic... just a warning. :) enjoy.

Chapter 6

I was still in bed a week after that damned fight with Yui, although, I had many visitors these days. For some reason Chen and a couple of other women had been glued to my bedside. They had told me that it was for my protection from the men after the fight. Which didn't sound all together like the truth to me; but it was all the answer I was going to get apparently.

What really got to me was that most of the men were on a hunt now, to fill up the remaining food stores, which meant most of the men were gone, right? I had been racking my head for the last three or four days and I still couldn't follow Chen's logic. There had to be something that she wasn't telling me.

"Ummm…Chen can I ask you something?" I asked the woman sitting next to my bed eating dinner. She had brought me my food and proceeded to shoo out the previous woman that had kept watch.

"Sure what is it?"

"It's going to sound rude and I apologize for it before hand, alright?" I cautiously stated. Chen looked up from her food tray on her lap and stopped eating.

"Spit it out."

"What the hell did I do to earn a pair of eyes on me at all times?" I quietly raged at her. I was pissed and tired of all the fake smiles of women who obviously hated me, sitting there professing that they would watch my back while I sleep. Which I never trusted, so I was losing sleep due to the fact that I didn't trust those women not to stab me while I slept. I was irritated that I was losing sleep. That fight was supposed to help pull me in to this place, not ostracize me.

Chen's eyes went wide as she felt my anger. I guess she thought that I would be happy for the company but, who knows. It hadn't felt like company. It felt like prison guards. Yui was the only visitor that I felt was actually genuinely worried. I guess he felt anger that he had been made to fight me in the first place.

Chen's face closed down. She was sitting in the chair next to my bed biting her bottom lip and wringing her hands, in what I can only call, frustration. When she finally looked back up at me her eyes were heavy, laden with concern.

"Rem, what do you think of Thor and Zagi?" She probed me. Honestly, I really didn't know either of them well enough to give her a justified answer. How did I feel? Grateful that I got rescued, and taken in, worried that I would be a hindrance, but there's also this lingering concern about why everyone was tiptoeing around me when it came to those two men. I heaved a sigh. I was irritated.

"Why?" I rebutted. Honestly, my feelings where none of her damned business.

"Why…well, um… the month of joining is coming and you are a strong woman so…well, how should I put this. The women here choose their mates…" I had heard this part of the spiel and didn't want to listen to it again.

"Yeah you've told me, women chose who they want to mate with in that month. Why are my affairs for that month any of your business Chen?" I got a gasp from the woman that was in the room with us. Apparently she didn't like the way I was talking to Chen for some reason. This was my business though. Not theirs. Who I slept with was defiantly my decision and didn't need any help or hindrance from other women.

Chen was visibly taken aback though. I guess she thought that I would open up to her. Not a fucking chance. I knew from personal experience that the only thing you could trust in life was yourself and a good weapon. Everyone else would get you hurt or try and kill you.

"I don't want any more fights here ok? You aren't in good enough shape either to fight off all the women that would kill to get a chance in Thor's, or Zagi's, bed for that matter." Chen was getting angrier now.

"I can't help you with the first one but; again, that second part that would be my problem not yours…right?" I posed it as a question. I didn't need sympathy friendships or people with ulterior motives. I wasn't sure what was going on with Chen but until I did I didn't want her close to me.

"You need friends here Rem… not enemies-"she was cut off by Yui walking through the door.

"YO! I come bearing delicious fruit for the injured…" Yui announced to the room, but stopped when he realized that he had walked in on an important conversation. I smiled. Yui was an incredible oaf but loveable and completely oblivious to plots. I guess that was what I liked about him. He was genuine about his intentions. No plotting. No ulterior motives. Just a really sweet guy; it was a refreshing change of pace from what I was used to.

"Learn to knock Yui." Chen threw him an irritated glare.

"Sorry, was I interrupting something important? I can come back later…" Yui stumbled over himself to make up for his rudeness. I smiled and waved at the air and turned to look at Chen in the face.

"No Yui… You didn't interrupt anything important at all. What fruits did you bring today?" I asked turning my attention to the man who was clearly confused about what he had just stumbled across. Chen stood up abruptly, knocking her chair over. She was trembling she was so mad.

"NO! This is important and you need to heed this Rem. I don't know where you come from but it intrigues the hell out of those two. Please just be careful with them and watch your back." She finally grumbled at me and stalked out of the room. Yui looked back and forth from me to the door trying to find the missing pieces of the conversation and apparently failing. I sighed as he walked over and picked up the fallen chair and sat in it.

"What was all that about?" He asked curiously.

"Month of Joining…she wants me to choose I guess…." I scratched my head in confusion. I didn't really even know why she only said Thor and Zagi's names? I mean Yui stood a good chance. He was cute, funny, and a hell of a good fighter to boot. I didn't understand… I mean, yes on one level I got it. They were the two most sought after men, so why wouldn't I want them; but still that is thinking like I had been living here all my life and I hadn't.

Although on Genesis the concept is similar to the one of Chimera, it was just…well; I certainly wouldn't be able to explain it to Chen or anyone else except someone who had lived on Genesis. Talk about unequal treatment. I sighed heavily thinking to myself, 'the women here have no idea how bad it can really be for them. They are treated like royals in comparison to what I lived through. On Genesis, if you weren't strong…'.I shook myself before those memoires could come back. I wasn't going to open that can of worms. Never again.

"You alright? You look a little worse for wear."Yui asked me in concern. I looked up quickly and after a moment smiled at him.

"Yeah, ya' think. I mean come on. Isn't bandage clothing the cool thing right now?" I joked back at him referring to my beat up appearance. He smiled, shook his head and threw the piece of bread that he had been eating at me.

"And here I was serious you little brat."

"Since when am I a brat?" I asked already knowing the answer.

"Since I'm way older than you." He laughed at me.

"Really? I didn't know that 5 years made that big of a difference, especially here?" I told him and the look he gave me was classic astonishment and then Yui burst out laughing.

"You got me there." He said through his laughs, "But seriously there are other guys that wouldn't lose to you in a fair fight. You should look to one of them for the month of joining."

"Ah, that's what this is about. It's 'cause you lost? Really, come on, do you know how hard that fight was." I said trying to catch his eyes. Yui wasn't looking at me anymore. I was pretty sure thought that he felt he wasn't good enough for me. Which was horse shit; I had never met a man that would willingly call a draw to a woman. But from the glare I was receiving from Yui he did not have that same thought.

"Rem, this isn't a joke. You need a strong man, not one that you can kick the shit out of…" Yui tried to continue but I cut him off with a hand held out. I was really getting sick and tired of everyone telling me who I should choose. Fuck them, this was, and always would be, my choice. I glared at Yui.

"Don't you think that choosing who I sleep with is my choice Yui?" I said as I lowered my hand. Slowly a smile crept over Yui's face.

"Yeah, I guess you're right." He chuckled softly.

"Finally, I get someone to agree with me." I laughed as I leaned back against the wall at the head of my bed. I was feeling a little better now that the look of complete loss was gone from Yui's eyes.

Yui reached over and picked up the cup that was on the table next to the bed. But, instead of drinking the wine that was inside the earthenware cup, he swirled the liquid around and around inside. I fell into that swirling liquid.

*~Flash back~*

I was twelve standing at the top of a pit looking into it; but instead of the put being empty and desolate there were men down there. It was my first time at the pit and I had asked my combat trainer why they were down there. He taped me on the shoulder lightly with a sad smile before he threw me in there head first. I had no weapon and there had to have been close to twenty men in there. I didn't comprehend why I was getting thrown in here.

I tried to ask my trainer why once I had landed in the pit; but he wouldn't answer me. He had walked over to his chair and sat down so he could watch what would happen. I was surrounded by crazed men and they were advancing on me. The men in that were placed in the pit were always criminals or crazies.

"Hey, hey, hey there pretty thing. Make sure you know how to fight now. We aren't gentle." One of them laughed at me. I swallowed hard and got in a defensive crouch.

I was fighting for hours and hours and none of these men would stay down. My clothes were torn and I was starting to feel my fatigue. The only advice from my trainer above was to kill them and not show mercy or I would regret it later.

I hadn't followed that advice. I didn't have the stomach for killing at that age. I looked up at my trainer and was about to shout something to him when I was choked from behind. I was pulled off my feet. I kicked and scratched to get out of his hold. Another man got up off the ground and socked me in the stomach doubling me over in pain and stopping my struggling for a moment.

They took advantage of my motionlessness and threw me on the ground kicked the shit out of me. Pain bloomed in my lungs and it became harder to breathe. I looked up in my pain haze from the ground. There were now six men surrounding me.

"Hummm…should we rock, paper, scissors to see who goes first, or just take turns."

"Nah, just take turns. I don't think she'll struggle much now."

"Yeah, but damn did she have a left hook." They were laughing down over me. I tried to find my voice and sit up. Pain bloomed again in my side and I slumped back over on the ground.

"What do you mean take turns?" I croaked with a raw voice. The men just laughed. The others held me down while the one behind me started to take off what was left of my tattered pants and shirt.

I screamed and bucked trying to get free. The laughing was just getting more maniacal around me. I knew tears were leaking out of my eyes. I was screaming for my trainer; for some kind of help. The man behind me ripping away my clothing jerked my head back by my hair, making me look up at my trainer.

"See, he doesn't care what we do to you." The man said in my ear.

He was sitting in his chair with his drink looking down at the pit with no hint of concern or sympathy. He sat there in his chair swirling his drink in his left hand and shook his head at me.

"I told you to kill them. This is your punishment for showing mercy to men who deserve no such thing."

I screamed and screamed while I was being raped repeatedly. I finally was left in a heap of torn clothes and fluids when they were done with me. then and only then did my trainer come down and get me out of the hole. As my trainer was going to pick me up one of the men charged him; trainer didn't hesitate a single second when he killed them all in one fell swoop of his Kusarigama, a sharp sickle on a chain. (Yes the same weapon from Inu Yasha that Kohaku uses. :P )

*~End Flash Back~*

I came to screaming long and loud while being rocked back and forth by Yui. He had crawled on the bed and held me. I had tears streaming down my face and I was howling in pain from my memoires. I had become more ruthless since then. I mourned for my innocence that I lost that day as Yui rocked me and crooned to me that everything was ok.

XXXXX

I had no idea what happened. One minute Rem is talking to me and the next she was crying and screaming out in pain… I was lost. I am weak against women and tears. But it wasn't just the tears that hurt me to see, it was the screams of pain that were being bellowed that got to me. It was like she just couldn't hold in the pain anymore and it just burst out of her in one big rush.

I did the only thing I could think of that might help her. I crawled behind her on the bed and held her. I rocked her back and forth trying to soothe her.

"Rem, Rem… It's ok. It's OK. I'm here Rem. No one's going to hurt you. It's ok, Everything's Ok. Rem…." I kept chanting to her over and over and over again.

Chen and the other women burst in to the room and looked from her to me and were about to yell at me to get away from her. I was about to explain that I hadn't done anything when Rem went berserk.

My sword that I had taken off so I could crawl on to the bed, was within her reach. She picked it up and chucked it at the women screaming wordlessly at first. Chen just barely got out of the way as it when sailing past her head. Chen gazed down at Rem speechless from what just happened.

"GET OUT! OUT! OUT! OUT! Leave me alone…"Rem raged and then fell in to a howling heap of tears. I was lost again. I looked up to Chen for a little guidance as to what I could do to make her feel better. Chen looked at me and a single tear rolled down her face.

"Yui, you didn't do this did you…" Chen asked me cautiously as the other woman walked out of the room.

"No Chen. I have no idea what happened. What do I do? She's in so much pain Chen…" I was so worried. None of the women I'd known had ever done this in front of me. I was lost on how to console her. Chen looked to me and nodded and another tear fell.

"All you can do is what you were doing. Hold her and tell her she's safe. I'll make her no one else will enter her room till she's up to it. Just be there for her Yui. That is what she needs at this moment." Chen explained as she backed slowly out of the room.

I looked down at the woman on my lap and wrapped as much of me as I could around her to make her feel safe. Her howling pain brought tears to my eyes as I rocked her back and forth. Who could have caused this much pain to this woman.

And if that person was still alive, and ever crossed my path, I would make sure that they knew this kind of raw pain.

A/N: Comments and critques are always welcome :) tell me what you think of it so far.