Disclaimer: I do not own Saint Seiya/Knights of the Zodiac and as such I am making no money off of this and I am only borrowing the characters and storyline for some good old fashioned ogling and oogling. Does anyone know what Cartoon Network did with the Knights of the Zodiac they used to show on Saturday nights? I know they moved it but haven't found it yet. It's not that it's all too great as a dubbed version goes, I just love to listen to the voice over actors in this version of the show.

Now on with the story....

Restless And Reckless (Part Four):

By Rekkanotara

The night had passed slowly as though time were slowing. Shun was getting restless in his sleep as he was assaulted by another nightmare.

Seiya simply slept on peacefully unaware of his friend's situation as he was in an oblivious unconscious state. The kind that did not allow for anything except for darkness and more darkness.

Shun was beginning to toss and turn in his bed, drenched in a cold sweat as he dreamed...

start dream

'Hello?... Is anybody here? It's so dark in here... Hello.....?' He glanced all around himself but all he could see was black.... 'Ikki, I'm scared! I need your help....Please....Where are you?' Feeling a bit helpless and frantic after searching for other signs of life in this dark world of shadows and coming up empty handed, Shun fell to the ground and pulled his knees up to his chest and hugged them tightly. Burying his face in his knees, he began to weep thinking to himself, They finally did it. They've left me alone. I'm so pitiful... I can't even keep from crying at every little thing. Ikki told me that I cried too easily. Maybe they were right about me... Maybe I am nothing without my big brother. I don't deserve the cloth of Andromeda.

Becoming a bit more frantic, Shun looked up through bleary eyes as he noticed something beginning to glow on a far wall.

He yelled out into the darkness, "Please! Is anybody here?!" The young saint pulled himself up and started to walk toward the glowing object. He figured it was a better idea than to sit on the ground and cry all alone in the dark. Staggering along and batting at his tear streaked cheeks, Shun stopped just in front of the glowing beacon.

Suddenly, he heard an eerie voice, "That's right little one; all your friends have left you alone. Even your brother has forgotten about you. If they really cared, they'd be here right now helping you out of the darkness. Except they are not around....are they? But I am my child. I have been with you since you were a baby and I'm not about to leave you."

Shun stifled a whimper and asked, "You have?...." Shaking his head a little as if to regain some sense, he continued, "No! Ikki... they would never intentionally try to harm me.... They're my friends."

The ghostly voice responded once more, "Then where are they young one? There is no one else here but you and I..."

Shun's depressed mood increased as the loneliness he had recently been experiencing took hold once more as he began to sob again, "M...Maybe your r...right... Ikki should've been here by now... That is if he still cared..."

The invisible owner of the deep voice laughed a little as he continued taunting the crying saint, "Yes, but I'm here right now and I will never leave you. I have come to lead you out of the darkness..." He laughed a little at himself at the ironic statement he had just made as he thought to no one in particular, the fool...I am the darkness and soon the world will know what it's like to live in an eternal night. Coming back to the task at hand, he continued, "All you must do is touch the source of the light in front of you."

Shun's fingers slowly reached towards the glowing green light before him as he extended his arms in a desperate need for any way to get out of this dark place. Suddenly, he felt a shockingly cold surface considering that this object was creating a large amount of pulsating light. Before he knew it, Shun found himself standing in front of a lighted pentagram on the wall which was emanating a green light throughout a large cavern filled with coffins. Some were standing straight up and others lying down. It was as though the rocks that you'd normally find in a cavern giving said cavern a natural design through erosion and other natural occurrences, were replaced with coffins of all sorts of shapes and sizes creating the same kind of designs. But he didn't seem to notice the coffins nor the vastness of the cavern in which he now stood as the pentagram had completely engulfed his attention.

end dream

Bolting up in his bed, Shun grasped at the thin blankets that covered his form trying to steady his breath. Slowly coming out of his daze he pulled his forearm across his forehead in an attempt to wipe away the sweat drenching his pale face.

Not understanding where he was, Shun combed his hand through his straggly green hair. It wasn't until his eyes had adjusted to the dark room that he realized that he was in his room.

Technically, it was his and Ikki's room, but most of the time, Ikki was rarely ever around. But then a thought entered his mind as he turned to look at his brother's bed. He squinted a little and could make out someone sleeping in Ikki's bed, but something didn't seem right.

This person was much smaller than his brother. This much he could tell as the mass under the blankets was less muscular and indeed smaller in stature than that of his brother who was incredibly muscular and well built.

Shun threw the sheets aside as he started to walk across to the adjacent bed. Stopping at the foot of the bed, Shun realized that the person in the bed indeed wasn't his brother but was his friend and fellow saint, Seiya.

Recollection seemed to dawn in Shun's mind as his eyes began to water. He remembered going on the trip with Seiya for the gold helmet but it wasn't until an hour into the helicopter ride that Seiya had explained to him that they weren't really after the gold helmet and that everyone was concerned about how he'd been acting lately.

How had he been acting? Shun thought to himself... Yeah, they don't trust me with something as important as the gold helmet of Sagittarius! They pity me because I'm weak. I mean I'm the only saint that needs a weapon, if you can call it that, to protect himself. I don't even have a physical attack. Even Shiryu has a powerful punch to go with his shield. I couldn't even stop that woman when she attacked us.

Remembering the events from earlier in the day, Shun remembered landing on some island by Seiya's prodding of the pilot and being told by Seiya about the rouse when a strange woman with long, raven colored hair, confronted them and had said that she was after the gold helmet.

Shun couldn't quite recall her attacks as most of them were mental in nature and Seiya seemed to be getting the full force of the attacks. It wasn't until he had decided to charge the woman that she had focused her attentions on Shun.

She shocked him with strange purple electricity and took great pleasure in tossing the Andromeda saint into nearby rock slabs and trees as she spoke in a seductive but still taunting manner, "It's not your time yet my dear Andromeda. Your skills have been tested this day and I have found that you are still too weak."

At that moment, his weary body no longer moved to his own wishes. He moved as though under a spell as he picked up the unconscious Seiya and boarded the helicopter in a daze. He must've told the pilot to take off because they were home now and at least Seiya was home.

One thing that bothered Shun was that while he had been fighting with the female warrior, his chains wouldn't react at all despite all his efforts. They just laid at his sides and it wasn't until he got out of the helicopter again that he realized they were working again. And in his battered state; he really couldn't tell who or where he was.

The only sure thing in his mind was that Seiya needed help badly. Before he knew it, Shun was wrapping his arms around his shivering body. He hadn't realized it, but he had walked clear fro his room and down the stairs, through the front door and was now staring at the stars in the sky. He had been too deep in thought to realize what he was doing, but had decided that he was better off staying away from the others at the moment as he was just a nuisance to them in his mind.

"The others can take care of Seiya and they probably wont know that I'm gone." Shun mumbled to himself. He then proceeded to fall against a nearby tree as his vision began to blur slightly and he felt pain burning in his chest as he began to breath heavily. He figured that he wasn't fully healed from his fight with that blasted woman and decided to sit at the base of the tree he was leaning on. Slowly, he felt his eyelids growing heavier and heavier; he found that he just couldn't keep them open anymore and that he was just too tired to care.

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Author's Note: Well, I'm slowly dwindling down the little stack of papers I had started writing this story out on....I'm just curious if you guys think I should continue this story? hint hint—-review please There is a really cute scene coming up next that I wrote about Shiryu and Ikki sharing a bed, but not in a smutty way mind you. Hope you like the story so far and I'll be waiting for the reviews.