"Hey, Satsuki! ...Satsuki? Are you alright? What's wrong?"

Tsuki sat next to the fuming redhead in the arena. She didn't know what was going on, or what had gotten her so angry...

"Momma doesn't understand!" The girl raged. "She doesn't get it! She just doesn't get it.."

"What? Doesn't get what? Satsuki?"

"I... Ugh!!" Satsuki screamed loudly. "She just doesn't... she doesn't understand what this is like!! She doesn't understand how lonely I've been! I've finally made friends, and now she wants to take me away from them!"

"Whoa, whoa," Tsuki's eyes were full of worry. "She wants to what? She wants to take you away from us? From the group? Trust me, we won't let that happen."

"Not you and Scarlet, just Killia and Utari. I don't understand- they're not terrible! She thinks they're so evil, and mean, and-"

"What? Why does she think they're so terrible?"

"Cause of their past or something...! I don't
understand! It happened in the past- we should forget it ever existed, forget it happened! People change, just because someone messed up in the past doesn't mean they're terrible!"

"You're right, Satsuki," Tsuki agreed. "I'm sure Rosalina has some sort of excuse for it, but that doesn't mean she should force her opinions on you. She's just trying to look out for you, but she's doing it in the wrong way. People can change."

"Exactly!" Satsuki felt relieved that someone understood how she felt. "Killia and Utari are a little rough, but they're nice enough! I want to be friends with who I want to be!"

"Yeah, Rosalina shouldn't be able to control who you're friend's with. Besides, they're probably like this because we're in this prison," Tsuki nodded. "But it makes me wonder.... I wonder what happened to them?"

<><><>

Utari and Killia were sitting in their cell, clearly bored, and not really knowing what to do. Clearing her throat, Killia intended to end the silence.

"So... we know jack shit about each other," Killia broke the awkward silence between them. "What happened to you?"

"What happened to me?" Utari raised her brow. "What do you even mean by that?"

"In your past? What happened before you came here?" Killia questioned. "If it's not too personal."

"It is personal," Utari mumbled. "...but you're right, we don't know anything about each other... so I guess I'll tell you."

Killia nodded appreciatively.

"Well... my sister and I. We were abducted," Utari looked down. "We were still young, maybe like six. They raised us there to be fighters, and those who lost their duels against each other... were killed. I was lucky enough to not face her. My hand to hand combat is good because of that place... it was when Mario showed up that he took me away. I begged and pleaded for them not to take me away from my sister, but they wouldn't do anything... she's probably still there. I hope she's still... still alive."

"Geez," Killia breathed. "Damn. I'm sorry to hear that."

"Don't be. It wasn't a bad life. I had my sister, and I was able to fight. This place honestly isn't so bad anymore either... I just want my sister."

"I understand," Killia nodded. "Well, I guess I'll tell you what happened to me, then. It's really not that special."

"I don't care, go for it."

"Well... my parents died when I was at an early age, so I went to my aunt's house. They were nice and all.. to me. They had a son who... wasn't treated so nice. He was extremely rude to me... so one day, I put him in his place. To be honest, what creeped me out the most... was the fact that my aunt and uncle were okay with him dead."

"Damn..."

"Nothing bad really happened to me," Killia shrugged. "It happened to him. His name was Cameron. I'll never forget his rude ass... I know you're not supposed to speak ill of the dead, but... whoops. The worst thing that happened to me was the kids at school, and they weren't even that bad."

"I see."

The two sat in the silence, thinking about what they'd just said.

"Thanks for telling me."

"Thanks for listening."

Hey everyone, hope you enjoyed the chapter. It's a little shorter than normal, sorry about that.

Question of the chapter: Is there any character you'd like to see more of? Less of?

Thanks for reading!