It was the tallest thing that he had ever seen. It was taller than even the cathedral in Daath. He stared up at it, admiring the grandeur and feeling the sense of foreboding as smoke drifted lazily from the top. He dug through his memory, trying to figure out what it was. It couldn't be a mountain, since he knew that there would be no way for smoke to be coming from it. It had to be a volcano. Yes, Daath was said to have been formed near a volcano. Mt. Zaleho, if he remembered correctly.

The boy felt a tug and his arms and he began to walk forward. He was devoid of clothing, but the warmth from the volcano brushed away any cold he would have felt. His wrists itched from the manacles around them, which kept him chained to the others. These others looked exactly like him, with four of them ahead and one more at his back. He felt the one behind him shiver despite the heat and felt himself nearly do so as well. The child continued his march forward.

After a short walk, the group was allowed to rest. Him and the others weren't the only ones walking up this mountain. With them was the floating man – Dist – and Van. The boy looked up at the sky, and watched as the sun made its way up to bring the dawn. The group had left early in the night, but late enough so that everyone else was asleep. He recalled being pulled out of his near sleep state by the sudden cries of the others in the cages – the same others that he was linked to now. The floating man had placed the manacle on him and had marched them all out of the room and out of the cathedral. At the entrance to Daath, Van had been waiting. He had joined the group, staying near the back, and looking behind as if afraid of anyone following. The boy had pondered on the lack of guards on their path to the entrance, but had given up when he couldn't figure it out. The group had marched their way to the base of the volcano, occasionally lagging as one of the boys accidentally tripped or fell asleep, but never stopping.

Now, sitting on the ground with the others, the boy watched as the myriad of colors crept their way up from the horizon, followed by the great yellow orb of the sun. It would have been a beautiful sight to most of the people, but the green-haired boy sitting a little ways up the volcano, it was nothing. He didn't really care about the new day. It didn't seem as if it were going to be any different from previous ones, except now he had a chance to walk instead of lying in the cage. In fact, the light from the sun hurt his eyes and he turned his head away. All he wanted to do now was catch some sleep, and maybe eat something.

He was to get neither. Just as his eyes began to droop, a voice called out.

"All right everybody!" Dist shouted, startling all the boys out of their sleep, or near sleep, "We must continue on until nightfall!" He floated up the hill, not looking back to see if the others followed. The boy looked back at Van, but the man's eyes were closed in sleep or meditation. So he reluctantly got up with the others, and they began their march up the mountains. Behind them, Van got up and followed.

"Hey, watch it," the boy muttered as the one behind him accidentally kicked his ankle. The other merely looked at him, wide eyes staring. He cocked his head as if confused about what was happening. He tripped over a rock, and crashed into the one before him.

"What do you think you're doing?" growled the boy, causing the other to recoil back as far as the chain let him, "You better be more careful." Seeing that the other was properly cowed, the boy grumbled and continued walking. The lack of sleep was taking its toll on him, and he was becoming more irritable with each step. As he tripped along other the other boys in the line, he couldn't help but think that this whole thing was that Ion person's fault. If that mirror-like version of him hadn't been so rude and beaten him up, none of this would have happened. He could be back at the cathedral, in a more comfortable room. Yes, and maybe it was a bit of Van's fault too, for introducing the two. Satisfied with his own strange reasoning, the boy continued the march.

The group stopped a few more times, and was approaching the top of the volcano when night began to fall. The boy suddenly wondered why they were marching up. Was it to get some exercise? But, no, they could have simply done something in the courtyard around Daath. He was broken out of his reverie as he heard Van's voice call out to the front.

"Dist! We should stop for the night." The floating man at the front turned back to him.

"But, we are so near the top! I need to get back to the lab and – "

"Who is in charge here?" Van asked, raising one prominent brown eyebrow. Dist glanced down at the ground.

"Fine," he muttered. He floated off a bit to the side. Curious, the boy moved his head to see what the white-haired man was doing, accidentally bumping into the boy behind him but ignoring his whine of protest. Finding a spot where he could see around the back of the chair, the boy watched as the Dist man reached underneath the cushion of the chair. From it, he brought out an unremarkable small book and quill pen and began scribbling words into the book. Seeing that nothing interesting was happening, the boy decided to get some well-needed sleep.

He woke abruptly to incessant shaking on his shoulders. Thinking that it was just one of the other boys, he shrugged the hand off roughly. He felt the hand again and was about to brush it off once more when he realized that it was much too large and too rough for it to be one of the feeble other boys' hands. He peeked one eye open, seeing a bleary picture of a face. As he slowly opened his other eye, he saw that he was looking into the blue eyes of Van Grants.

"Get up," the man whispered to him. The boy did so, glancing around to see that everyone, even the floating man, was asleep. He stared back at Van, who was now holding the boy's arms up. Pulling out a key from somewhere, he clicked it into the on the manacles, unlocking them and releasing the boy from the chains. The small noise caused one of the other boys to stir, and both of those who were awake stopped their actions, waiting for him to stop.

The now freed boy stared as his hands, flexing his wrists to get rid of the soreness in them. He looked up at the man.

"Why?" was all he could manage to say.

"You will see," the man responded, "And you are different. Now, go and hide somewhere along the path. Wait for me wherever you are. Let no one see or hear you leave." Van then moved away from the line, sat down, and fell asleep. The boy looked after him, envying that ability to sleep so quickly, then got up and scampered away down the path. He had not thoughts about running away from the man, despite his prior convictions about his responsibility in causing everything that had happened. The boy knew that he would not survive long without the help of Van.

After a small distance, he located a small crevice that he had spotted on the way up. He crawled into it and, after a time, fell asleep.

He awoke this time to light shining onto his closed eyes. The green-haired child opened his eyes, and was nearly blinded by the sudden shine. He looked around, expecting to hear the voice of the man in the chair and feel the tug of the chains, then recalled that he was free. He got up, hit his head on one of the walls, and sat back down, rubbing the place where he hit his head. When the pain had lessened, he got up again, more carefully this time, and crawled out of the crevice. He took a short walk around, did his business, and made his way back to the crevice.

"What to do now," he murmured to himself, "I guess nothing but wait now." He crawled back into the crevice, and sat watching the entrance, waiting for Van.

A few hours later, he heard the voice of Dist. The white-haired man seemed to be complaining, as usual.

"Where could that one boy have gone? Grr, if Ion finds out…"

"Ion has lost his memory, remember?" came the voice of Van. Moments later, the boy was able to see both of them.

"That is why we had to get rid of the replicas."

"Yes, 'lost his memory'," the boy heard Dist say. He wondered at the strange way in which the floating man had said the words, and slowly became aware of Van looking at his hiding spot. The tall man stopped.

"Van?" Dist said, turning after realizing that he could no longer hear the crunching of volcanic soil over his complaints, "Is something wrong?"

"This volcano has many secrets," Van replied, turning to face the other man, "I think I'll stay here to see if anything appears." Dist stared at him for a moment before turning back to the path down. He left Van without another word. Van smirked as he watched the floating man continue on.

"Come out," he said after a sufficient time passed for Dist to get out of hearing. The boy followed his command. He took a spot, standing to the left of Van. They stood for a moment their, the hot, ashy wind blowing the hair about.

"So," Van said, breaking the silence, "You are alive now. You need a name. Not Ion, as there is already one with that name. You must have a name that is…harmonious, to symbolize your purpose."

My purpose? the boy thought. The two stood in silence for a while, before the boy looked up at the man and was startled to realize that he was to come up with name by himself. Was he? Did it matter now?

"Harmonious," he muttered, "Harmony, in…sync."

"Yes, Sync," Van said, "So shall be your name. You will be one of my subordinates, a general in the army of Daath. You will obey my orders, Sync, and as long as you do, you will become a…" The boy, now Sync, did not learn what he would become, because at that moment, he fell forward from exhaustion and lack of sleep. In his stupor, he felt his body falling, and then stopping when a hand reached out to catch him.

"Rest then," came Van's voice, "We have time before we must return." Sync curled up into a ball and slept again, eyes drawn tight against the sun's rays.