You have forgotten..

A dainty figure stirred in her sleep, rolling in the loose blankets until she could bury her face in the plush face of the pillow. She let out a soft groan, legs curling up beside her, and tried to hang onto the dream that was slipping away.

Forgotten.. Memories.

Everything had been a void, and then there was sense of self, a presence, though not a true entity. She had been awakened, but she was not herself, and that early, she did not even know yet that she had forgotten anything at all. In those first days there had been nothing but wonder, curiously, and a desire to please. Her core, her heart, had glowed a deep, burning crimson.

I borrowed these from you..

That desire had not lasted. With every task completed she regained more, learned more, and so much of what she'd earned had been painful, or confusing. She had gotten odd flickering fragments of memories or feelings involving those she ran into, but they were limited, unhelpful, and did little but feed the doubt in her mind.

You have my word. I will return them.

The petite figure groaned as the last clinging fragments of the dream began to slip away and she sighed into her pillow before sitting up on her knees to stare at the far wall. Deus Ex Machina. Her home, her entire future. She was Peyton Creedy. She was a Sun hunter. She had a mission.

Something clicked into place, some piece of a half finished puzzle. She remembered being approached. Men in white coats seeking her out and assuring her she wasn't crazy, that the things she saw were real. That she could make a difference.

It had full lips pressing into a momentary pout, brows pinching as she wondered how she'd even forgotten that in the first place.

Alarms blared to life, and any further confusion was washed away as she threw off the covers and raced across the room for her boots and coat. Training kicked in, and she was out the door and moving, though she wasn't sure where. It didn't matter, someone would know what to do, where to go. She ran down the hall as she pulled her coat on, summoning Warrick-- Her hand sank into the tablet, and it disappeared. Her fingers curled around the sudden weight that had come to them, and for the first time in a long time she felt whole. -- to her hands as she reached the doors.

She didn't immediately notice the lock, or the way her shadow twisted unnaturally. Not until after she'd been pointed towards the eastern shore.

The rattle of the chain that wrapped around her hand was loud, louder then it should be, but it was Warrick that pulled Peyton's attention to the things that were very, very wrong.

<Peyton, look down. Peyton?> She tried to tell him to quiet down. That right now there were more important things to worry about, but he roared in her head and it made her skid to a halt with pale eyes wide. He'd never yelled like that, not at her, and that, more then the weight of the chain, more then the sound, made her drop her gaze to the lock that hung from her left hand and the weapon clutched in small, thin fingers.

Her voice was high and thin. "What is that?" It hadn't been there before. "Warrick?"

He didn't know, and that was more alarming then the lock itself.

Darkness rolled at her feet, and she watched in slow dawning horror as her shadow contoured and twisted. It wasn't her small frame reflected in the diffused moonlight. It was nothing she recognized.

You are bound perhaps for greatness.

She already knew that..

Take these memories and become more than you ever were, greater than you can possible imagine.

The void, awakening, fragments. Names that didn't fit with the faces they belonged to. A sparse, crumbling world. The wall.. The wall was important..

The haunting thump of a telltale heart. The shnick shnick of scirrors as you ran. The swirling steam of brewing tea that brought with it only pain.

Pain...

She flinched, fingers tightening around the solid rings that circled them.

She remembered pain. She remembered hurting.

<Peyton?> He sounded worried.

"It's alright." Hurting was important.

It shaped you, molded you into the person you would become. She was better for the pain she had suffered. stronger, more resilient. She had to believe that. Had to believe it was all worth it.

As long as there are still heroes in this world, as long as someone calls for me, for the need to Protect this world, I will be there.

She blinked, and the fear began to leak away. Hero. Was she a hero? Had her memories made a difference? had shemade a difference?

<You did.>

Her lips twitched, not quite a smile, and then she was off again, running for the eastern shore.