"I hope I don't die this time." That was the last thing he remembered saying before descending into darkness.

The next thing he knew, he was seven again.

The night was seemingly peaceful, but off in the distance one could hear the sounds of battle. Though it was not this that awoke the young boy, for he was used to these sounds. No, it was the crackle of fire growing ever closer. Upon hearing these noises combined, the small child knew only one thing, they were under attack.

As this shot rushed through his head, he climbed out of bed and got dressed. Then he heard the sound of footsteps on the wooden floor approaching. When he heard this, the young Connor grabbed a knife, a sword to him, from under his pillow. Then he stood ready in front of the door to his room.

The door burst open and hit the wall behind with a loud crash. With the opening of the door, flames crept into the room, and Connor launched himself at the assumed attacker. Connor's charge was met with a parry of the blade, and a swift kick to the ribs, causing him to launch back. Looking up with tears in his eyes, he found his father standing above him, sword in his hand and fear in his eyes.

The man was quick to kneel by his son, checking to see if he was okay. "What's going on?" asked Connor. As he asked this, his mother appeared in the doorway, Hope held in her arms.

"We need to get going!" said she with a tone of urgentness in her voice.

"Understood," said his father, rising. "Connor, get your knife," he commanded. With a quick nod, Connor scrambled over and retrieved his weapon. When he got back to his parents, his father raised his right fist and punched towards the wall. When he did so, a giant black fist flickered into being and destroyed to wall. "This way," said father, and they followed him out into the chaos.

As soon as they stepped out onto the cobblestone streets, Connor was struck by how big and terrible this really was. Every building within sight was ablaze, people were fighting in the streets, there was dead and blood everywhere. Connor stood there shaking, it was the first time he had seen anything like this.

He heard a roar and turned slowly to see someone with a sword above their head, ready to kill him. As the blade descended, all Connor could do was stare. He was saved by his father, moving in quickly to parry the blade, then run the attacker through with his sword. "Pay attention!" he yelled in irritation. "Now move!"

Connor did as was told, and they proceeded through the streets of the once peaceful village. They stopped very little, only to hide or allow the small Connor to rest. Eventually the sounds of battle began to recede, though they could still see the raging fire in the distance. The strange thing though, was they were going deeper into the city. At one point, they ran up to a building made entirely of stone, the only one in the city.

His father knocked on the door, a slot opened at eye level, then quickly closed. After this, the great wooden doors opened just enough to let them in. Once inside, a brazier was lit. Around this were several other kids, ones he had never seen before. Father and mother began conversing with the man that had let them in. He only caught bits such as, 'Are the others not here yet?' 'What are we to do?'. And something about, 'The golden pyramid...'

But none of this concerned Connor, so he went with the more interesting option and went to talk to the seven kids. They were all huddled around the flame of the brazier, with hollow looks in most of their eyes. Everytime he tried to talk to one of them, they either didn't notice, or looked at him in anger. That is until he tried to talk to the one with a shirt made of dull yellow fabric. "Hi, my name's Connor. What's yours?"

Glancing at him, the kid muttered "Drew."

"Drew? That's a nice name." Upon hearing this, Drew looked at Connor, confusion clear upon his face. "How did you get here?"

Before responding, Drew curled up and stared into the fire. "My parents were taking me here. Along the way they died, and I would have to. If not for her parents." As he said the last, he pointed at the girl with the red hair. "Then they died as well. Their parents saved us." At this, he pointed to the boy and girl wearing purple that looked alike. "Then their parents died and so on, and so on," he said.

"Oh," said Connor, his joy of meeting new people suddenly gone. And he stared solemnly into the fire like the others, thinking about what he had just heard.

"We all would have died," continued Drew. "But he saved us." This was said with a finger pointed at the man his parents were talking to. The man was tall, muscular, and had skin as dark as night.

'I wonder why he looks like that,' wondered the small Connor. How ever, he was pulled from these thoughts when his father called them all over.

"Alright, we're moving out. That means stay close to us and stay together. Got that?" said father in a harsh tone. They were all silent except for the lighter of the two purple twins.

"I want my mommy," she mumbled.

"Dear," said mother, lightly touching father's arm. "They are just children, you can not expect them to act as soldiers just yet." Glaring at her, father turned and stormed out of the vast empty stone room. Closely followed by the dark man. Sighing at the way father acted, mother crouched down and began to talk to them. "There there sweetie. Now I can't promise you much, but if you come with us, every thing will be just fine." Looking at them hopefully, she stood up and walked out with Hope in her arms.

After a bit, the girl with red hair stepped forwards then turned around to face them. With a look of determination, she spoke. "Well? The longer we stay here, the more likely we are to die. And I don't know about you but I'm going."

"What if it isn't safe?" asked the burly one in white.

"If there's even a chance of it being safe, we should take it. I'll be damned if I go down without a fight here!" At this some of the others started nodding their heads, and muttering words. But she didn't pay anymore attention to them, and walked outside. The rest followed her until it was just Connor and Drew standing there.

"They'll die you know," said Drew.

"Hm?" Connor responded, coming out of a daze.

"Your parents, they'll die, just like the rest." With that happy thought, Drew walked out. Connor just stood there for several moments, then walked out himself.

The first thing he noticed upon exiting was how quiet it had become. There was not a single sound in the village, not of battle, not of death, even the fire had fallen quiet. "I don't like this," said father. As they moved through the village, there were no signs of anything. The blood was gone, as well as the dead. The buildings repaired, and the flame was gone. It was as though nothing had happened, as though it was all a dream.

However, this was not the case as the illusion ended. The streets ran red with blood, the dead piled high, home in ruins and many more ablaze. And still came the cries of the dying. "MOVE!" yelled father, but it was too late. All around them was a massive group of creatures with fur darker than oil, and masks made of bone. With a great roar, father became the same color as them and charged headlong into the creatures.

He ripped many apart, but for each one he kill, another replaced it. "Run!" he yelled. And so they did, making a b line for the golden pyramid in the center of town. However after several blocks they were stopped again, this time by a group of people similar to the dark man, but with six eyes and masks of bone. Mother slowly handed Hope to Connor then drew her twin swords. "Aba, get them to the golden pyramid." And with that, she ran forwards to attack the strange men. That was the last Connor ever saw of his mother and father.

Making a detour, flame blocked their route many a time. They found a way through a burning a burning building, but Connor and Hope were separated from the others by a falling beam. The others continued on though, not even noticing his trouble. So the little boy ran, trying to find another way to the golden pyramid.

Running through another building, he ended up in a flaming courtyard. Only to stop when he heard the voice of his older brother, Brandon. "It wasn't supposed to be like this! You said you would only take what you came for, not kill anyone!"

"Complications arose," came the voice of a stranger

"Fuck that! As soon as you guys saw this town, they attacked. You brought an army."

"I will admit, the men were hasty to attack. But I did not order it."

"Bullshit! I asked one of your men, said they got an order right from you to destroy the town."

"I suppose you would have found out sooner or later," said the stranger with a sigh. "However, now that you know, you can not be allowed to leave." Connor could not see it, but he heard Brandon cry in pain. "I will not kill you," said the stranger, barely audible. "But instead, allow the flames to consume you. Now I really must being going. Master can be ever so cruel when he does not get what he wants."

After the footsteps of the stranger had receded, Connor slowly walked out of the smoke to see Brandon lying on the ground, bleeding from cut heels. When Brandon saw Connor, he reached out to him. "Connor! Connor help me!" he called out. All Connor could do was numbly shake his head. After a minute of this, he turned and ran back into the flames, leaving Brandon to die. All the while, he could hear Brandon calling his name in anger.

When he reached the pyramid, he spent several minutes wandering around it, trying to find an entrance. Finally getting inside, he found there was nothing, just emptiness inside. And of course the kids he had met earlier. When he said hi to them, they all looked up in surprise, as though they had not expected to see him again. "What?" asked Connor, not understanding the way they looked at him.

"We thought you had died," said the boy in dark purple.

Connor took the time to set down Hope before responding. "Well I'm not, so what now?"

"We're not sure," said the red haired girl. "The big man that led us here said he would be right back. That was over an hour ago."

"Oh," said Connor, his voice quiet. All was quiet for some time as well. They all just sat there on the floor, huddled in fear. At least, until Hope crawled to the center of the large room, and a large circle in the stone floor began to glow. "What the?" mumbled Connor as he got up to examine it. The reactions among the group were similar to his, as they all went over to look at the source of light.

When the light had faded to a dim glow, they could see the source. An outline of a circle lay on the floor, and in the middle were nine sets of hands, each different. Hope crawled over to the imprints that were her size, and placed her hands in. It was an exact match. Soon all except the girl in brown had their hands in the imprints, each an exact match. Just as she was about to do as the others, the doors to the pyramid burst open with a loud bang.

Connor was the first to react, on his feet with knife in hand. The others, more slowly, rose from the ground and balled their fists. Each had been trained in unarmed combat, and to defeat those stronger than themselves. However, it would do little to help them here. The men who charged through the doors held no weapons they were accustomed to. For while they had been trained with blades, these men had guns.

With a quick spray of gunfire, the children crouched as dust whized overhead. Momentarily distracted, they were quickly overcome and captured. There was the tap of footsteps on the stone floor, only heard because all else were still. The sound was coming from the doorway, and just before the person entered, one of the men holding Connor bashed him on the head, making everything become a blur.

Looking up, he could vaguely make out the shape of a woman with a cane in her left hand standing before him, and a beowolf by her side. "My, my, what do we have here? The last of the town here to defend the treasure inside?" She was mocking them, so many had died, and she was mocking them! "I will deal with you children soon enough."

Walking past Connor, she approached the circle in the ground. A new hand print appeared for her. But when she put her hand in, it flashed red and she recoiled in pain. Dropping the cane, she clutched her hand, screaming. The smell of burnt flesh wafted to the nose of all in the room. Once the pain had receded, she stomped over to Connor and smacked him. "You brat! What did you do to that door?! Tell me! TELL ME!"

"What are you talking about?" asked Connor, barely able to stay conscious. The events of the day were catching up with him.

"Fine then, want to play dumb? Let's see how you behave when one of your friends die. Kill the small girl." At hearing this, Connor immediately started straining against his captors, and they had a hard time containing him.

'Their going to kill Hope!' This was the only thought going through his head. As the beowolf that had stood by the lady moved towards Hope, he struggled even harder. Only when it raised it's claw to strike did he break free. And in an instant, he covered Hope, shielding her. (You know how he met Argo, so I'll skip that.)

He received blow after blow from the creature of Grimm, its claws raking across his back and tearing away flesh. Bending his head low, he whispered in the ear of a fearful Hope. "Don't worry, I'll protect you, no matter what." Then his aura burst forth and covered his entire body, and he let forth a mighty roar. All others stumbled back in surprise, but Connor acted quickly. Turning around, he stuck the Beowolf, clawing out its' left eye, leaving only a gaping hole from which the blood escaped. It fled in fear, the master soon following.

The remaining seven soldiers had to face the beast that was Connor. One tried to shoot Connor, he was the first to go, with a hand in his chest and a crushed heart. Three more were soon felled. Two tried to attack him head on, slipping behind them, Connor smashed their heads together. The final slipped while backing away, and soon found Connor on top of him biting into his throat. Standing up, Connor just stood there covered in blood as his aura receded, his friends staying where they were in shock, having seen the entire ordeal. Once his aura was gone though, he collapsed.

Suddenly, his view changed. He was eighteen years old again, but staring over his seven year old body. The world around him was gray and time itself stood still. "This has happened before, and shall happen again," said a disembodied voice. It lacked emotion, yet was oddly calming.

"What?" asked Connor looking around.

"Before I continue, know this. When this conversation ends, you shall wake and remember none of what is said here. That is until the proper time, when this knowledge is needed."

"Well that sucks."

Waking, Connor found himself in a room very much like a hospital. Though instead of a comfy bed, he was chained to a hard mattress. Upon finding himself in this situation, he desperately struggled trying to break free. Only to stop when he heard to sound of footsteps approaching.

AN : Okay longer chapter than usual, hope you like it. Apologies for it coming out late, but I was too lazy to work on it over the weekend. Also, I seem to do my best writing when I am tired. But you don't care do you? Sorry that you have to put up with the nonsense I type in this section.

Anyways, see any errors? Let me know and I will try my best to either fix it or work around it. Want to add to the story? Let me know, I may decide to put it in. Not much else to say so. Until next time, Bye!