I woke up, lying on a bed, like those in hospitals, with a heavy head and aching body, in an overly lit white room.
'It looks like a hospital room, well, vaguely ...'
I looked around; I was the only one there.
From the wall to my right, a door, at first difficult to notice, opened.
A woman in her thirties entered the room.
She was dressed almost completely in white, at first glance I thought she was a doctor, however, there was something odd about her…
It was as if her blonde hair had a life of its own, and her eyes… had pupils in the shape of a Greek cross!
I thought maybe I wasn't fully conscious yet ...
"Who are you? And, wait... Who am I?"
Thinking about it, I didn't even remember who I was, or in any case, I didn't remember my family, my childhood ... my name ... many things were as if clouded in my head, indeed ... they were really absent as if they had been replaced by white patches.
She introduced herself to me as my manager, her voice was calm and enveloping.
"I understand you may be confused at the moment, but rest assured, I'm here to explain the situation you are in."
'Strange...' if my mind had been clearer at that moment, I probably would have thought <
A sense of unease ran through my body.
"First I introduce myself... my name is Ri, faithful servant of the intergalactic empire of Slter ..."
From there she continued speaking of the greatness of her people, the Slters, intelligent shape-shifting beings similar to what we would call slime.
"We were immediately fascinated by the culture of your people, especially by your numerous forms of entertainment, so we decided to conquer it."
'Conquer?! I remember absolutely nothing, what ... so ... ' the way she had said that her "people" had conquered the earth gave me the creeps, it was as if it had been a trivial office practice.
"S-so... I-I am your prisoner ?!"
She smiled, still maintaining that icy, eerie calmness. it left me restless.
"No no no, you see, as I said earlier we were impressed by your forms of entertainment, that's why we chose the earth as a basis to carry out a project that the Slater empire had in hand for some time: A HUGE ARENA"
She exalted herself. Not catching enthusiasm in me, she continued.
"We have terraformed your world by uniting continents and creating the largest "play area" in the universe. You must feel lucky, we have chosen you as one of our gladiators!"
'Madness…'
I looked down, too much information all at once.
'A gladiator? Better to say a toy of theirs ... fighting with other toys for them, for their amusement ...'
I got a severe headache. At that moment I wanted to make a scene, refusing to become a gladiator, and reclaiming the memories I'd lost back. However, the more rational part of me made me give up on it.
"Oh, it seems that you have aches due to your long sleep, after all, you've been dormant for more than 2 years ... well, but there's no time to waste ... here"
She gave me a transparent pill.
I took it in my hand and looked at it suspiciously, however at that moment I would have done everything to stop the throbbing in my head, which was growing more and more over time, so I ate it.
After a couple of minutes, I felt like new.
She looked at me smiling.
At that moment I couldn't think of anything I could do, even though the pain in my head was gone, I was still full of questions.
"So ... you changed the whole world in 2 years"
"Less than 2 years actually, others like you have already woken up and are fighting for their glory right now"
'2 years ... so now I'm ... 18, right? Ah, I don't remember. '
"And, instead, what became of those who were not chosen as a gladiator?"
"I am not allowed to give you this information"
"..." *gulp "And... were my parents chosen as gladiators?"
"I am not allowed to give you this information"
'In a certain sense, I expected such an answer from her.'
"Ah, and your name from now on will be Zeto, I personally chose it ..."
She motioned for me to get up and follow her. We left the room, she led the way and I followed her.
We walked along a corridor that was also white but with gray parallel veins from time to time.
We reached the exit door of the building, I was still dressed in hospital ways.
"What ..."
"Oh, I wanted to show you how your world has changed"
It was different, even if my memories weren't clear yet, it was certainly different.
It was like watching a science fiction movie.
In front of me, there was a park with a huge statue, about 100 meters high which represented a humanoid with a luminous sphere above its head. In the distance, there were huge buildings of reflecting glass and even more in the distance there was a mammoth structure that covered almost the entire horizon, due to its size, this structure appeared to me only as a huge wall.
'That must be the arena she was talking about'
The thing, however, that most left me speechless, were the hundreds of spaceships flying above me and above all the enormous triangular spacecraft, the size of a moon, which could be glimpsed, probably outside the atmosphere.
After a while, Ri, seeing my surprise, smiled showing her white teeth, and took me back inside the structure, to the room where I was previously.
I have been given some other clothes: black trousers which, I did not understand how, but were at the same time stiff like jeans and elastic like sweatpants; a white t-shirt and a brown jacket with more resistant parts in the most fragile points of the body; some very comfortable brown boots with white laces.
'I thought she was going to give me more... how to say... more futuristic clothes...'
After I dressed, I noticed how Ri had returned, now dressed in a blue jacket, gray pants, and white shoes. These dresses of hers sometimes reflected the light creating very particular geometric patterns.
"Oh, you look really good dressed like this, I have really good taste in these things ... well, now we have to move to your new home."
During the trip, made with a spacecraft, I started trying to rethink my past, I still didn't even remember the faces of my parents, and it made me sad. I tried to ask Ri for this information but she avoided the question. They probably wanted me separated from my previous life.
"At least ... could you tell me what to do from here on out ..."
"I told you, you will be a gladiator of our kingdom."
"Yes but ... more in detail."
"Hmm, you'll see, I'm taking you right now to one of the sub-arenas. Where the gladiatorial games take place"
I started thinking about what I should do, and what goals I should set for myself, now that I didn't even remember who I was...
'They eliminated the "me" of 2 years ago? Or is he just trapped somewhere in me? Or maybe even now I'm "me" without realizing it? ...'
___
Zeto - information
Age: 18
Height: 174 cm
Hair: brown with reddish highlights, wavy.
Physical: athletic, improved by the Slters.
Power:???
Ri - information
Age: ???
Height: 175 cm
Hair: blonde with green highlights, wavy?
Physical: slender but sporty
Power: ???