Prologue

His rain soaked clothes hung tightly to his skin as he stood before the four glossy, gray tombstones that stood in front of him as he mourned at the graveyard. Time didn't matter to the young man as he stood there and looked at the four. Time had no meaning any longer for him and it hadn't for a long time…. The ones who laid beneath his feet had died before their time. Each of them only just being able to make something of themselves in school and nearing the end, but that was taken from them…. They'd all been killed within a few months of each other with the last one dying only a month before. A funeral still to be held, but postponed for some reason….

First to go had been Yumi Ishiyama, the silent observer…. Next had been Jeremie Belpois, the group's computer wizard and pillar of strength and support…. The winged princess, Aelita Stones, had been third to die…. Last of the four was Odd Della Robbia, the group's light-hearted goofball who seemed to know everyone….

Each of their deaths sat at the front of his mind, taunting him. They replayed over and over just to see how quickly they'd cause him to slip into madness. They tormented him day and night, forcing him to watch those people die…. With his own hands he'd killed each and every one of the four…. They were people he could vaguely remember knowing, but didn't know if that was the guilt talking….

Everyone around wanted to comfort him, but he blew them off. He didn't need to be comforted…. He didn't deserve their kind words of condolences for the loss of them. He was the reason they were gone…. If it weren't for him, they'd still be here.

When Aelita had died, so had any hope he had of remembering why those four were so important to him…. The boy named Odd had almost got him to remember…. It had been on the brink of coming back to him, but then the blond had met his end, just like the others…. His master had ordered him to kill these people…. They were in the way of his bringing about peace. He'd shown them injuring innocent creatures and other things that made his blood boil. Deep down in the depths of his mind he knew that something was amiss about the whole situation. They'd treated him as an equal and as a friend at times. As if his existence meant something to them….

He sighed, holding his head. Every time that he began to think too deeply like that his head began to ache and he couldn't focus on any one thing for a few minutes. He'd lost his train of thought…. It had been happening every since he killed Odd Della Robbia.

Suddenly he fell to his knees and cried. His torso fell forward seconds later and he caught himself on his hands. As thunder echoed and lightning struck the ground he let out a strangled cry. They were kind to him. They'd told him they thought of him as a friend and that he needed to come back to them and yet he MURDERED them! People he didn't even know himself…. People that seemed important….

You have done what had to be done, young warrior…. You must learn that the end always justifies the means…. You have helped save this world…. His master's voice whispered to him from the deepest recesses of his mind. He held his head as the tears continued to flow as he remembered something he nearly forgot….

"Is this what you've been planning all along? Is this how you're going to play? What's the point in killing them?" an ebony haired boy yelled, glaring at him as the boy held Yumi Ishiyama's body close.

"War is war, boy. People die for the ones they love in war. She loved my warrior, but he's working with me…. She chose to die and give him a chance to be freed rather than to save herself. Do you not understand that? Can you not comprehend that she would sacrifice herself for him? Whether it was all in vain didn't matter to her. I now understand humanly compassion and love, though I'll never feel it for myself," his master spoke, using his mouth to communicate with the other boy.

"Xana, you're a monster that should have never been created. One way or another I'm going to bring you down and avenge our friends. I'll save him, too…."

His master laughed and said, "You think that the three of you can take me and my warrior down?"

"We've done it before and we'll do it again. I won't let another one of them die."

That boy lied that day. They did all die until only he was left standing. He didn't know what had become of that boy, but it seemed irrelevant. He wasn't going to just pop up again out of nowhere….

Looking up he saw that the headstone was Aelita's. It pained him to think back on her funeral…. There were so few people there, most of them being classmates and friends, and he heard one of the people saying that her parents had died before her. She died before her time with barely any family at all…. At least, that's what they said. Parents and family were new terms to him. He was curious what they meant, but he wasn't going to go searching. He might get in trouble with his master.

Yumi's was the next one to catch his eye. Fresh tears started to flow as he remembered what she told him…. It wasn't fair that she had to go…. Killing her was one of the hardest things he had had to do through this whole mess…. It was hard in every way, shape, and form…. He didn't know if he would have been able to live through the heartache, but his master reminded him he needed to press on….

There was so much pent up pain inside him he just wanted to scream or kill himself to get rid of it. It wouldn't go away. He wanted to remember everything terribly. He didn't care if his past before joining Xana was bad. He didn't care if it would harm him to know or if it would make him upset. He wanted to remember everything. He'd never get the chance to remember why they all treated him kindly. He'd never get the chance to remember why they called him a friend. He'd never get the chance to talk to one of them, even for a little while, to apologize. To say he was sorry that they were on opposite sides and he had to kill them…. To tell them how much it pained him daily…. Why couldn't they have just surrendered….?
"Long time no see, buddy…."

A/N: there are some parts that I changed and some parts stayed relatively the same. A lot of this is showing that over time his memory was basically completely wiped. He only knew how to fight. He didn't need terms that Xana deemed useless like the word "family" or "parents". Ulrich didn't need those to fight so they were trashed. That's all I can really explain for now, but this isn't the end of this scene. We'll be seeing an extended version (with bits cut out so that it's not as long and you're not re-reading the same crap again) a bit later in the story. =3 Also, this takes place around the time of Nobody in Particular, so they can virtualize straight to Carthage. =3

So, new version or old version of this chapter? XD

Also, for a little bit until I get some sort of routine done I'll be updating weirdly.

~MoonlitxAngel