**A/N: It's me again! :). Thanks for the reviews guys. Here is Chapter 4, hope you like it. Please, please review!**





Disclaimer: No. (That pretty much sums up everything).


Chapter 4



i He was submerged in jewel toned water gazing up at the surface that called for him to break through its seal. Cye...it sang, it's time.

Time for what?

Swim to the surface and see.

Cye frowned, he was happy enough where he was. The water was warm and comforting. He propelled himself through the water bringing his body to lower depths; he wasn't through exploring his underwater paradise yet. Whatever it was time for could wait. There were sunken treasures and pearls to find on the sea floor, and Cye wanted to see it all.

Cye...

Cye glanced up toward the surface again, light was starting to penetrate and seep into the depths of his ocean. He became curious then... So many things called to him from the surface, voices of different timbres and lights of various shades and brightness. What was up there, he wondered. More treasure?

He let himself rise a bit toward the surface, the light was alluring, and Cye for once would like to see its source. He pushed himself upward, the water grew warmer as he rose to the top. Closer and closer to the light's source he came, until he'd broken through the surface of the water. i



He opened his eyes and was staring into the face of a young woman with blond hair spilling over her shoulder in two large plaits in a white coat. She regarded him with curious caution before smiling at him warmly, and greeting him.

Where was he? A hospital of some sort...but why would he be in a hospital? Had he been hurt? His light blue eyes darted about the room taking in the white washed walls...and the small trinkets that he might have picked out for himself, had he had the chance. He got a sense of the objects being picked with care. Kento? Rowen? Sage? Ryo? Had they gotten these things for him? Just how long had he been there? For his friends to have purchased so many thoughtful gifts for him he had to have been in the hospital for a while, unconscious. He stretched out his mind toward his friends, he would let them know he was alright and call them to him.

He frowned when he felt the silence in the web. He could sense his friends, all 4 of them, but they were not emitting any...emotion. Even in sleep he could feel the others as they dreamed, or peace as they slept. And Sage, Sage always had nightmares... Fear filled him, there was something he should know...something he did know, but couldn't remember. Something had happened. He was in the hospital because of it, but it wasn't something as simple as just being hurt during battle. No, something had happened, something big...and terrible. He looked to the kind looking blond woman, eyes laced with panic that he was trying to ebb, he needed to make a request. He shut his eyes briefly trying to recall something, anything from before.... he tried to think about his friends. He heard voices, one soft and soothing, one enthusiastic and long winded, one kind and gentle, another low and rather flat... The voices seemed to be a constant in his recollections, those voices... Were they real, or auditory hallucinations? "Do you know where you are?" the woman interrupted his thought process.

"Nani?" Cye asked, his voice slightly husky. He coughed to clear his throat before speaking again. The woman had spoken to him in English he realized, "A hospital, I believe."

"Yes, can you tell me your name, age?"

"Cye Mouri, 16... Are you my doctor?"

"Yes, you can say that," the woman laughed lightly, "I'm Dr. Po. How are you feeling? You've been asleep for a very long time young man."

He'd thought so. How did he feel? In his panic at missing the rest of his group and trying to deduce where he was, he hadn't though about his physical state. He concentrated on his body then. Head, legs, arms, trunk... he was all there, and other than a feeling of general weariness in his limbs, he was functional. "I feel fine."

"Good, I'm going to ask you to..."

"Excuse me, Dr Po, but did I arrive here with some friends? Four friends?"

"Yes you did..."

"How are they?"

"Sleeping Mr. Mouri," Dr. Po told him gently. "All of you have been asleep for a very long time, you are the first to wake up."

"Did a woman bring us in?"

"No."

Cye blinked, and tried to sit up. His body groaned at the attempt of the movement. Dr. Po pressed a button on the side of his bed, slowly elevating his head and shoulders until he was sitting. From his sitting position he noticed the marine posters on the walls. "Tell me Dr. Po, if all of my friends are asleep, and our guardian is not present, who brought me all of these wonderful things?" He looked at the young doctor as he felt a strange emotion wash over her... "What's happened to me? If you know anything please tell me...or perhaps, you can find me someone who does." The ones who'd spoken to him, they'd been the ones to buy him the gifts he was certain of it now. "The voices, the ones who talked to me while I was asleep... Please tell me they were real." His voice was beginning to shake, something was not right, something was not right!

"Calm down Mr. Mouri, please."

"Please..."

"Four young men brought you here, and those same four young men have been speaking to you, to each of you, as you slept. They bought the gifts for you, and they will be more than happy to tell you anything you want to know."

Relief swam in his veins calming his hitching breaths, and slowing his heart rate. They were real, the voices, the ones that had made him feel strangely secure, were real people. "Where are they, these people? And can I see my friends?"

"Mr. Mouri, I assure you your friends are fine, and you will see them soon. And the people you wish to answer your questions are on their way to you now. In fact, I'll go out to see if they've arrived yet. They were quite excited to know that you were regaining consciousness."

Cye felt puzzled once again, why would they be excited about him? Why purchase him gifts, or talk to him...or save him? He shook his head, eyes widening as he felt an odd sensation on his back that stopped just below his shoulder blades. Slowly he raised a weak hand, one void of an IV site, and touched his back feeling along the thin hospital gown he wore until, "Blimey! My hair's longer than Ryo's!" Just how long had he been asleep?

Dr. Po paused on her way out the room to grin humourously at his discovery, then she opened the door to his room and jumped back hand to her chest,"I was wondering when you all were going to get here... Nice...Pj's guys. Come in, I've been trying to explain to him what's happened, but I think he'd take it better coming from one of you. Seems he could hear your voices as you spoke to him... he requested you."

Cye blinked, they were here. He sat up as straight as he could and ran a self conscious hand through his too long hair, and tried to void his face of any of the apprehension he felt.

He drank in the appearance of the motley crew that entered his room and rallied around his bed nervously. One was much taller than the others with vibrant green eyes and reddish brown hair that obscured one of his eyes...like Sage's hair tended to do. He was handsome in classic sort of way, his features and bone structure belonging more on a statue than on a boy. The one who stood nearly a head shorter close beside him was blond with the sweet features of a lost angel, and open aquamarine eyes that told of the pure soul that dwelled within. The boy shone... he was an empath, Cye realized at once, like Sage...like himself. He shifted his eyes to the next couple, a boy of medium height with unruly mahogany hair that fell into his eyes, gazed at him through cool deep blue eyes that seemed to penetrate his very being an analyze him much like a machine would. He was good looking in an exotic fashion, his Japanese heritage was reflected in his coloring. Next to him, Cye blinked, was a smaller boy who looked as if he'd crawled out of the pages of a book of Fairy Tales. His large deep set eyes were the color of amethyst, his skin fair, and his hair....Cye gapped as he scanned the rope of hair extending from the boy's head to mid thigh. He was beautiful and strange like a nymph from a children's storybook...though the shirt he was wearing was hardly appropriate for eyes younger than 30. The last boy had eyes dark as soot, and hair inky and shiny as polished onyx. He stood proud, his expression a little petulant. His Chinese heritage was apparent in the slant of his eyes and the alluring slope of his cheekbones.

They didn't speak, so he figured he should. He, after all, had been the one to ask them in, "I'm Cye Mouri, and I was told you are the ones who brought me here. If you don't mind my asking, just who are you, and where are my friends? And...what's happened? I get the feeling it was something terrible, but I just can't remember. Do you think you can help me?" He was proud of the way his voice carried without waver.

The small blond smiled, "Hello Cye, I am Quatre Raberba Winner, and I'd be happy to help you; it is what we're here for after all. Would you like formal introductions first, or would you like for us to explain to you how you came to be here first?"

Cye blinked, he wanted his answers....but it would be impolite not to ask his visitors their names. His mother would die of shame at his horrible lack of manners, "It is a pleasure to meet you Quatre." His voice...he was the kind gentle voice that had spoken to him. He looked to the tall one.

"I am Trowa Barton." Soft and soothing.

"Heero Yuy." Low and flat.

"Duo Maxwell!" Enthusiastic and long winded, he forced himself not to smirk.

"Chang Wufei," said the last, and Cye could not place his voice.

"Nice to meet you all...and I was told you purchased the gifts for me, the posters, trinkets..."

The one called Duo smiled brilliantly, causing Cye's eyes to widen a fraction, and surged forward fluidly to plant himself on the end of Cye's bed, "I picked out the posters! Sally said you could hear us, I bet you heard Quat and I fighting over just where to put them. He kept insisting that we..." Heero leaned forward to slip a brown hand over Duo's mouth to silence him.

"He would talk all day if we let him," Heero said offering an apologetic smile to Cye who blinked. The smile looked so forced on the attractive face, but the emotion behind it was sincere. He smiled back softly.

"Now that we've all been introduced I think it's time we told Cye what he wants to know," Trowa said calmly, his voice a cool breeze that lulled Cye. Trowa sat in a chair beside the bed, as did Wufei. Quatre, after asking for unspoken permission sat beside Duo on the end of his bed. Cye wanted to chuckle as Quatre's eyes roamed over his long haired friend's form and must have noticed for the first time what he was wearing, "Duo! I thought I threw that shirt out!"

"I found it," was the devilish reply.

"I don't know what we're going to with you.." Quatre was shaking his head, then he turned to Cye, "Cye... what we have to tell you is going to scare you, confuse you, hurt you, and beyond, you're not even going to believe half of it, and the only thing I am going to ask of you is your silence, until the we've finished."

Cye stared into the aquamarine eyes moved by the blond's genuine concern for his well being. He shuddered, what were they going to tell him? Something awful had happened, horrible... Why couldn't he remember?!

"What's the last thing you remember Cye, we can start the story from there?" Trowa asked from his chair.

Remember Cye...remember something.... He heard voices again, familiar voices. Kento, he heard Kento, and Mia... He was at the stove, making something, and Kento, the gorilla, was trying to steal some. Ryo...Ryo was at the kitchen table behind them, with Mia. They were in Mia's manor. Then something had happened, Cye remembered experiencing a great pain in his head... something had come, but what?

"I remember being home...with my friends, and our guardian, Mia Koji. Tell me you know of her? Where is she?"

"Shh..Cye..." he felt Quatre taking one of his hands and running his fingers over it. Oddly enough, Cye didn't snatch his hand back. He found he liked Quatre's touch, it was nice. "We'll tell our story now, and you will know the answer to that question."

"Cye Mouri, you have been asleep for over a century..." Cye choked on a gasp, he wanted to exclaim that they were being ridiculous, no human being could sleep for that long...but he felt nothing but sincerity radiating from the other empath, and from every person in the room for that matter. He bit his tongue and waited for Quatre to continue. "Your guardian, Mia Koji, left a diary for us documenting your last days with her."

Last days? He shut his eyes on a vision...

i "Cye, they're not letting up! Get the hell out of here!" Kento screamed. Cye couldn't see him, the bearer of Hardrock was lost within the jumble of blood thirsty dark warriors. He wouldn't leave him... "Kento, I'm gonna try my attack."

"No Cye it won't work! Forget me!" i

"There was a battle of some sort, she recorded, and you and your friends, Rowen, Kento, Sage, and Ryo went to fight."

i The blond Warrior of Light looked ill, and kept a tight hand on the bearer of Strata's shoulder. "We shouldn't be here. I keep getting the feeling that we're interrupting."

"We're supposed to interrupt evil demons Dreamer," Rowen had said softly. "This is our calling."

"Something isn't right."

Cye frowned at the exchange noting the uncharacteristic tension between the two. He held his tongue, for he could only add to the argument...Something wasn't right. i

"You..."

"Quat stop, um...maybe we should hold off on all of this until another time, when he's better situated," Duo interrupted, and Cye wanted to strangle him. He had been about to remember, he needed Quatre to keep going.

"Cye? I'm about to unload a lot on you, maybe it would be best for you to settle in, get used to your surroundings..."

"I'll never get used to my surroundings or settle in if I don't understand why and how I'm here! Finish the story please."

"I don't know about this Quat, I think we're taking it too fast..."

"You're not. You're taking it too slow, I must know or I'll go crazy. What happened that day. I'm starting to remember..."

"Cye...that day you died, you and all of your friends." Cye gasped and covered his mouth.

i "Kento!" Cye yelled stretching his hand toward his friend as he fell. He lie in an ungraceful heap, his iron staff broken, his armor cracked and seeming to bleed. The armor didn't bleed...so the blood had to be Kento's...and there was so much. Sage...he needed Sage, Sage could fix him! "Kento hold on, I'm going to get you help!" He fought his way towards him gasping as something penetrated his armor through the back...and....he choked, falling to his knees. He gazed down at his trunk to see the end of a long spear protruding from his middle. He coughed, and brought his hands to the invading metal, and screamed as the spear was roughly pulled from his stomach ripping through vital organs. He fell forward sputtering on blood that clotted his throat and filled his mouth. "K..K...ento..." he tried to call.. Hold on, I'm getting help. You'll see. Kento? Why don't you answer me? He felt for Kento in the web with the last of his strength.... void...nothing. Kento... i

"Gods..." Cye breathed, his face paling, his fists clenching his blankets, "My gods! The... Oh gods!"

"Cye calm down, remember you weren't going to say anything until we were done?"

"Gods!"

"I told you it was too fast!"

"I don't think he would have taken it any better on another day!"

"Oh gods... I knew it was all wrong! I should have... gods." Cye's hands went to his face as if testing the flesh to make sure it was actually there, then it went to his neck to check his pulse. He stared with wide unbelieving eyes at the 5 boys surrounding his bed looking at him in concern. He calmed his breathing... he had died, but yet he was alive...and according to them, more than 100 years in the future. He still needed to know what happened and the others! He could feel them nearby, he needed to know about them.

"Do you want me to go on Cye?" asked Quatre's gentle voice, and mutely Cye nodded.

"Dr. Koji...Mia, she couldn't accept your deaths, she kept writing about what a mistake it was, and how you were so young. So she sought out a way to bring you back, correct the mistake she blamed herself for..."

"It wasn't her fault.." Cye couldn't help but whisper. Oh Mia, what have you done to rid yourself of your guilt?

"She began to study science and do experiments in cloning. She kept samples of your hair, blood, even some skin cells, and she used them to give birth...to you. You are Cye Mouri in every detail and aspect of your mind, body and soul, everything from the original is in you. You have in all essence been given a second chance. Mia raised you in incubation capsules for most of your teenage lives. She was going to release you after you'd matured for 16 years. She was only a week short of the date. Right before she was going to let you out, special agents from the Japanese Military Intelligence Unit invaded her home and her lab, and terminated the project. Mia sealed herself in the lab and chose to preserve your bodies cryogenically in hopes that someone in the future would find you, and free you.

It's the year 197 AC, AC means After Colony. Human beings have created colonies in outer space in which they can inhabit. All 5 of us are colony born. After many years of war between the Earth and colonies, in which all of us have fought in, we have finally achieved a tentative peace. We are now agents in an organization known as the Preventers, and our job is to help keep this peace we've won.

On a mission, we were sent to Japan and we discovered Dr. Koji's lab. Inside it we found you all in suspended animation, and decided to bring you back with us. You are in a Preventer's hospital on base, and have been here for 3 weeks, as you've been thawed, and partially rehabilitated. You are the first to wake, but your friends will be waking shortly. We've been...watching over you, looking after you. You see, since we found you, we've been designated by our superior as your temporary guardians until you feel competent enough to function in your new environment. Everything has been arranged for you to come home with us, maybe start school....pursue your hobbies. If you ever need anything, we'll be right there."

"Quat stop, you're scaring him!" the long haired pixie complained.

They were staring at him again, waiting to see his reaction. Would he scream, would his head explode? He had died over a hundred years ago, he was a science experiment.... He was in the future, and these people wanted to look after him. He blinked owlishly before forcing himself to speak, "I'm nothing but a clone then? Mia's experiment because she couldn't let go? Why in the bloody hell would you want me saved and revived?"

"She wished it for you. She wished to give you a new life."

"She was selfish, and broke the laws of nature, to..to create...me! I shouldn't be alive. I'm unnatural!"

"That you are," the pixie agreed with him, as his friends hurled death glares at him. He held up a hand to silence them and Cye. "The project Dr. Koji conducted was impossible, it's success was a violation of natural law. I've studied her work and have replicated her procedures time and time again. It doesn't work. The project is not a valid experiment, there was no way in hell you should be here Cye, but you are. For some unknown reason, Dr. Koji was able to recreate you Cye. After looking at some of her work, and her books on old lore... I don't think the reason her project worked has anything to do with science. Something wanted you back, and it helped her. You're not a clone Cye, you're something else, something special."

Cye was frowning, as his body temperature dropped a few degrees. Something wanted him back.... he shuddered. The mistake, they weren't supposed to have fought the battle they died in. They weren't supposed to have died then. According to Mia their next battle was to come years after that unexpected blood bath. That means...the battle they were destined to fight, was never fought...not by them anyway. He blinked, could it be possible...? The link.... he should have known! He wanted to smack himself! He and his friends were linked by their armors, if they didn't have a purpose, if they were merely copies of themselves and not the real deal, then the armors would be gone from them. "Gods...the armor."

"The what?" the pixie questioned leaning in until he was almost nose to nose with Cye. Cye grunted under the slight weight of the pixie on top of him, "Did you say armor?"

"Duo get off!" Quatre yelled snatching the creature by his long hair and yanking for all he was worth. The long haired demon yelped and fell back onto the blond knocking them both promptly off of the bed and onto the hard tile floor.

Cye watched the scene trying very hard not to chuckle. This was possibly the most awkward situation he'd ever experienced, and was probably only going to get worse, but he couldn't help but take a liking to the odd bunch he seemed to be stuck with.

Quatre pulled himself off the floor and positioned himself back on Cye's bed, while the one named Heero came forward to claim the pixie and practically carried him back to where he was sitting. "Sorry about that, Duo gets....excited."

"I see," Cye said softly, smothering his amusement. Duo had asked about the armor. Since, according to Quatre, they had read Mia's books, they should then have extensive knowledge of the armors. "Yes...Duo," he said the name hesitantly, it was the first time he'd addressed one of them by name, "I said armor."

"Ronin armor?" Quatre questioned.

"Yes."

"And you think it may have something to do with...with all of this, and you being here with us?"

"Yes," Cye nodded. "If you say that there was no way Mia's project could have worked, then it had to have been the 'call of the yoroi.'"

"That's exactly what she called it!" Duo said excitedly, "Can you call it now? You're Torrent right?"

Cye blinked, he was Torrent right? He felt the mystical warrior connection with the others, but he could not sense his kanji ball nearby. Perhaps he would have to find it all over again, like he had in his...former life. "Cye? Are you alright?"

"Hmm..oh yes, I'm fine, and yes; I am Torrent, Warrior of Trust."

"I told you so, Duo!" Quatre looked about to stick his tongue out at Duo, who made a funny face at him. Tall Trowa chuckled at them both.

Cye blinked looking confused, had he misunderstood them. There was a haze of disbelief hanging over three of them, Heero, Trowa, and Wufei, and a questionable air around Duo. He had thought when Quatre told them about reading Mia's books that meant they had read and believed the legend. He didn't think of them not crediting it... did they think he was crazy now? He knew he would, if he'd been in their places....though they were the ones that were telling him he'd been asleep for a century and sitting around in his room buying him plush toys and explaining that he was in the future. He supposed there was a certain amount of leeway there.

"So... You really have power, all 5 of you? You really call on..battle armor, and it comes out of thin air? And you really fought demons and stuff from a Nether Realm? And did you really...?"

"Duo!" Everyone but Cye snapped.

"What?"

"So everything Dr. Koji wrote about and studied in her younger years was true?"

"Yes," Cye nodded.

"Hey! How come Quat gets to ask all the questions he wants, and I get told to shut up every time I open my mouth?" Duo objected looking unhappy. Heero chuckled and put an arm around him, patting his shoulder.

"Because Quatre's voice isn't as annoying as yours," Wufei offered dimpling at the braided imp. The Chinese teen had seemed to brighten once the bouncy Duo had sat down beside him.

"Ah, kiss off Wu-man," Duo grumbled looking downcast. Cye wanted to laugh, he really did, "I don't mind your questions Duo."

"Don't tell him that, he'll never shut up!" Heero said. Cye blinked, that had been the first time Heero had spoken besides to introduce himself. Heero seemed more talkative with Duo sitting beside him... and the stormy Wufei lightened up. He tucked the information away for future reference.

"He's telling the truth," Quatre vouched his blue eyes smiling at Cye warmly. He had the clearest blue eyes Cye had ever seen. Oh dear...he prayed he wasn't blushing. He sighed deeply, and an uncomfortable silence fell over the room.

"When will I get to see my friends? They're all alright aren't they?"

"They're fine, we told you. They are in rooms adjacent to yours. I do think you should rest for tonight though, and let what we've said sink in. When we leave I'll let Sally know to wake you in the morning so you can go and see them all."

Cye blinked. Quatre spoke as if he were his guardian. He spoke as if he'd said no, Cye would not be allowed to do what he wanted. Wait...hadn't Quatre told him as much when they'd first arrived? It really sank in then, Cye was in the future along with his friends, and Mia, Yulie, and his mother were all gone.

He wasn't surprised when the tears began to flow, he simply lowered his head into his hands to hide his disgrace from his strange caretakers.

"Oh swell Quat, you made him cry."

"Duo! Allah forbid...."

"Quatre calm down," Trowa rose from his chair and stood beside Quatre touching his shoulders gently. "Cye's just been told everything he knew is gone, perhaps we should let him weep for it in peace?"

"Leave?" Quatre whispered.

"I think it might be best," Trowa said softly. He touched Cye gently on the shoulder, "Would you like to be alone, Cye?"

Cye hurriedly tried to wipe stray tears from his eyes before looking up to meet Trowa's delving green eyes. Did he want to be alone? Wasn't he alone anyway? He didn't know these people....he couldn't talk to his friends...and gods, everyone he knew was gone; dead. He lowered his head back into his hands, nodding slightly, "Please."

"Alright then. We will make sure to tell Sally to prepare you to visit your friends in the morning..." Cye felt Quatre sliding off his bed, being undoubtably pulled by Trowa.

They were leaving... and he felt relieved, but strangely...distressed. Though he didn't know these strange boys, he felt that maybe one day he would, and he would come to love them all dearly. He didn't...what was this feeling... he wanted to be left alone, but he didn't... "Will...will you be coming back...tomorrow?"

He felt a comforting hand on his shoulder, "Yes Cye, we will be coming back tomorrow."

"Thank you."

They left then, and once the door closed for good, Cye let the slight control he kept over his tears slip and began to openly sob wailing like a small child.



**A/N: Next chapter _____ & _____ wake up. MWAHAHAHAHAHA! Please review, they really inspire me to keep my updates constant. Take care!**