Atropos had just finished brushing off the last of the gray dust from her clothing as the helicopter landed. After she got out of the helicopter, it lifted back up and began to fly away. The people managing the tournament had warned her that if another helicopter met a disastrous fate after dropping her off, as the last one had, she would be stranded here and they wouldn't bother picking her up again. Reluctantly, she let the flying machine get away without harm, simply watching it as it disappeared over the horizon. She wanted to make sure she got back to the city after all this was done, it was as much a home to her as she'd ever had.

She had already passed the first round of the tournament, and the second was about to begin. What had become of her previous opponent she wasn't sure. For all she knew, her last attack might have killed him. Either way, apparently the tournament judges had proclaimed her the winner. Without letting her aggress the opponent any further, they picked her up in a helicopter and sent her on her way to the next location. That was easy enough, Atropos thought to herself as the helicopter flew her out of the abandoned city. The next round should be even more fun.

Looking around, Atropos assessed her current situation. The referee of this round of the tournament had already visited her while on her flight (how he got on and off the helicopter without it landing Atropos wasn't sure) and told her what her task was. Supposedly there was a goblet deep inside an underground labyrinth underneath an ancient temple in the middle of a vast desert, and she was supposed to retrieve the goblet before the other two participants did. Atropos figured that the best way to get the object before anyone else was to kill everyone else. In front of her stood a very large building, built from sandy colored bricks. Being the only building she could see, surrounded by otherwise featureless sand in every direction, Atropos determined that this was the temple. The helicopter had conveniently placed her right in front of a large open door.

Atropos looked at her map, and then at her compass, both given to her by the referee. The map was a complex drawing of passageways and tunnels, with a simple X marking the treasure and an arrow marking the entrance. The compass Atropos wasn't sure how to read. The little red arrow always pointed in the same direction, no matter how Atropos held the device, quite unlike a clock, which she did know how to read. It was currently pointing towards the entrance of the temple, so that must be where she was supposed to go. She glanced at the watch on her exposed left arm. Her sleeve had been torn up in the previous fight, so she had simply removed the tangled remains, leaving her arm bare. With the sleeve on her right arm, she rubbed off a layer of dried blood (her own, dark indigo blood) from the face of the watch, so she could see the hands. It was noon.

Following the compass's red arrow, Atropos walked into the dark chamber beyond the open door, entering the temple.