Cold white walls broken only by a tiny window. The view beyond was more white, snow covering what little was visible. White sheets on the bed, a white curtain to go around it. White bandages on his wounds. The white was broken only by the glint of chrome on the bedrails, and the tiny patch of blue sky seen through the windows.

He concentrated on his hair, the only thing in the room that didn't seem to belong. Blue-black, like the bruises covering the otherwise pale body hidden beneath the white sheets. Long enough to touch his upper thighs, now that it had been cleaned and brushed. Braided, it didn't seem quite as long.

The doctors were going to cut it. He'd heard one say so, because it would interfere with the readings of a machine they planned to use on him.

The window was small, and he was weak.

Bandaged fingers stroked down the braided mass. Blue on black eyes estimated the distance to the window again.

"He did WHAT?!" Shun exclaimed in dismay. "Need… yes of course. I was on my way over anyway."

He dropped the phone in its cradle and turned to face Shiryu. "Iryu climbed out his window. He's in bad shape."

"Let's go."

The two arrived at the hospital some twenty minutes later. Shun checked at the desk to be sure Iryu still had the same room before the knights continued on.

"Iryu?" Shun stopped short in dismay. The dark knight was restrained, wrists fastened to the bed. He realized a moment later that Iryu's ankles were also restrained, and that a strap was fastened over his waist. Shiryu didn't stop. He went straight over and unfastened the wrist restraints. Shun followed, stunned at the difference in the man. "I… Iryu?"

Iryu didn't answer. Stiffly, his body aching, he moved. He'd been restrained before, knew what came next. He drew himself up as much as he was able, not bothering to hide his fear. Or his shame. And waited for the others to punish him.

"Iryu?" Shun said again, reaching out to touch the other's hand gently. "It's us. Shun and Shiryu. We… we aren't going to hurt you."

Shiryu left his gentle lover to bringing his double out of his nightmare. He walked out the door, intent on reaming the doctor in charge of Iryu's case, and arranging for the other to be taken back home.

Iryu flinched away from the touch, unable to help himself. A soft whimpering left his throat, sore after the screaming he'd done when he was being tied down. Helpless as he'd felt, he fought them. They were back now, back to punish him. The gentle cajoling was familiar… he knew this routine too.

Ranome would calm him. His friend, once his lover. Ranome would calm him, in spite of everything. In spite of him knowing that the moment he was calm, Sugase would come in with the others. He'd calm, because Ranome knew how to make him feel safe. "Why…?"

"Why what, Iryu?" Encouraged by the response, Shun settled carefully on the edge of the bed. "What's wrong?"

"Betrayed me…" Yet he was already less fearful. Ranome had always had that effect on him.

"No! Oh, Iryu! We thought the hospital would help. You weren't healing, I thought maybe you had internal injuries we couldn't see. This is my fault…"

That wasn't what was supposed to happen. Iryu turned to face the other, peering dimly at the bright green. "…'romeda" he whispered at last.

"Yes, I'm Andromeda. My name is Shun."

An easy name. Bright, bright green. Not right. But Andromeda. That meant… that meant… "Dragon?"

"Shiryu? He's…" Shun turned, realized his lover was gone. "He's gone to make arrangements to take you back home with us, where no one will tie you up."

"No… punish…ment?"

"For what?" Shun reached out, slowly, to pick up the other's hand. He examined Iryu's wrists. "For trying to escape? Of course not. Nobody explained what was happening, you were sleeping when we decided it would be better to have you checked over properly."

Iryu tried to pull away, but gentle as he was, the bright green - Shun - did not release his grip. Then the words penetrated. "Checked?"

Shun put his hand down, patted it gently. "You haven't been healing," he repeated patiently. "I thought maybe you had internal injuries that needed care. I guess I was wrong. You just… you don't feel safe, do you?"

"Ranome? Where's Ranome?" Iryu pressed a hand to his head, whimpering when it hurt. He'd cut himself on the window glass.

"I don't know," Shun answered quietly. "You thought I was him."

"Ranome? He always comes… I was wrong…"

"Iryu?"

"Was supposed to… kill him. Punished me… for helping." Iryu began coughing, a harsh hacking that tore at his damaged throat.

"Here! Easy! Easy, there. Easy." Shun cradled the fallen knight. "I've got you. Here's water. Drink some, Iryu."

He drank, the swallowing hurting, the water helping. He trembled in the gentle embrace, no longer remembering what it was like to be held without the threat of pain to come. He let Shun's voice wash over him, a constant melody of soothing sounds, gradually coming to realize that this man wouldn't hurt him. Understanding that he wasn't like Ranome, and wouldn't turn on him.

Bandaged hands crept uncertainly around Shun's waist as Iryu burrowed closer to him. He let his tears fall, shivering under the gentle caresses of the bronze knight, soaking in the soothing words. He cried, too weak in every way to fight the pain anymore, the heartbreak, the still heavy sense of betrayal. He cried, remembering his past, and how he came to be the wretched creature he was.

Tears still streamed from his eyes when Shun placed him carefully back against the pillows when Dragon appeared. His double. He was limp with exhaustion, but still he tried to reach out.

Shiryu caught the faint movement, crossing quickly to the other. "Iryu. Don't worry. I'm taking you back home with me. Princess Sienna will have a room ready for you. And you'll have a private doctor, not that… thing that tied you down."

He did get his own room. Smaller than the one he'd woken in the first time, and shaded in muted blues. He had stopped fighting against them, forcing his wounds to reopen. They healed.

He wasn't sure he would. Most of his memory had finally returned. He'd chosen to help a man he was supposed to kill. Sugase had known, somehow, that he hadn't been beaten, like the others, but that he'd sacrificed his energy so that Dragon could help his friends. Sugase had been the one to find him, lying helpless in the snow.

The others had had various wounds, but had lived - even Cyn, whom he thought he'd seen die. Sugase had never allowed him to forget that he should have finished Dragon - he'd been winning - and taken care of Pegasus and Andromeda. He remembered the sneering tone. "All you had to do was break the chain before you went back to beating on your double, but you wouldn't do that, would you? No… you left them because you had to talk with him! You had to let his words and his touch and his kisses sway you! You betrayed us, Iryu!"

The edge of the cliff hadn't been far behind him. Sugase had pushed him over, but Ranome's chains had saved him that time. He curled in the chair, looking out the window. Ranome had pulled him back up, sick, dizzy, and nearly unconscious, for the brief love they'd shared. A love he had known was dead, never to get the chance to grow, when he finally roused enough to see the disgust on the other's face, to recognize the distain in the way he was held. In that moment, he'd wished Ranome hadn't caught him.

Ranome had been the one to nurse him until Sugase decided what to do with him. Had been the only one who hadn't participated. He'd tried to escape, thinking to find his double and join him as he'd suggested. But, he'd still been weak from the day on the cliff, and wounded from the rapes. He hadn't gotten far.

Sugase had caught up with him. He'd managed to defend himself fairly well, but not as well as if he'd been strong. Sugase's blows had felled him. He'd been well worked over by the time the others had arrived, and by the time he'd been strapped to the bed, he'd had several broken bones and a severe concussion.

He'd been occasionally fed and frequently raped, beaten daily. He'd tried to escape again as soon as his bones healed enough, knowing somewhere else was better than here. He hadn't made it out the door. There, his memory became more fragmented. He remembered pain, lots of it, and screaming. He didn't really know what they'd done to him, only that it had hurt worse than anything else they'd done.

He'd gotten away again because they hadn't tied him back up. He could still move, and he had. He'd found a place, small and dark, and stayed curled up in it until his head didn't hurt as much. Sugase had been waiting for him when he'd crawled out.

It had become a pattern. He'd escape, Sugase would catch him and tie him down. Ranome would tend to his wounds, calm him down. Then the others would come and the pain would start over again. As time passed, Ranome had seemed to dislike his part more and more. Iryu remembered hearing raised voices, hearing Ranome protesting.

The next time he'd escaped, Ranome had been the only one to rape him.

Iryu stared out the window, at the fresh green grass and the myriad of flowers, and hugged himself tighter. Violent tremors wracked his thin frame. From then on, Ranome had participated as well. The last time, it had been only Ranome and Sugase, and when Ranome had finished with him, Sugase had come up behind Ranome, snapped his neck. Iryu had screamed. Sugase had released Ranome to fall limply forward over him. "He said you'd been punished enough." Then he'd left.

"I brought your lunch!" a cheery voice announced, shocking him out of the memories.

Iryu's head whipped toward the door. His eyes widened in absolute terror. "No!"

"It's okay, Iryu. I've just got your lunch. Shun's bringing your drink." Seiya stepped inside, set the tray on the small table. Shun followed him in with a tea tray. "There you go! I'll see you later."

Shun stepped aside for him, deposited his tray on the table as well. "It's not soup today!" He looked up, his cheerful smile fading instantly to concern. "Iryu? Iryu?"

Shun hurried to the huddled, trembling figure trying to disappear into the chair. "Hush, honey, it's okay. What's happened? Are you hurt? Or did Seiya just scare you? He's got a bad habit of not knocking."

"Seiya?" Iryu drew a shuddering breath. "The Pegasus knight?"

"Yes."

"Sugase… looks like him."

"OH!" Sudden understanding dawned. Sugase had been the cause of more than one interrupted night's sleep for Shun. "Okay, I'll tell him he's got a bad resemblance to your nightmares, and not to just pop in."

"They aren't nightmares. Sugase… ordered this. Because I didn't kill when I should have, and let the three of you live."

"Suga… you mean… the other dark knights did this to you?!"

"Yes. I remember now." Once he admitted that, he couldn't stop. He told Shun the entire story, as well as he could remember it. Partway through, Shun wrapped him in his arms, openly crying for what the other had been through. Iryu was petted and stroked, caressed and cosseted. "I left… to find Dragon. To take him up on his offer."

"His offer?"

"To join him… to fight Phoenix."

"That fight was over long ago, Iryu. My brother came back to us."

"Came… back?"

"Phoenix is my brother, Ikki, a bronze knight. Didn't you know?"

"He was… dark. Like we were."

"Ikki is a bronze knight. He's here. Would it help if you saw him?"

"Does… he know… about me?"

"He knows you're here, and that Shiryu and I are taking care of you."

Iryu looked out at the flowers again. "I would… see him."

"Okay. He's down in the library. I'll be back in a bit. You try and eat your lunch for me, okay?"

Iryu nodded, feeling bereft when the other released him to leave. He almost reached out again, but reminded himself sharply that the pretty Shun was not Ranome… and that Ranome had not been his long. Not even a full week… over so swiftly because of his interest in his bright double.

He ate the sandwich left for him slowly. Why had he been so interested in Dragon? Was it merely because the other was a brighter reflection of himself? Was it because the other had held to his honor and his loyalty even in the face of defeat? He had felt comfortable with the other, even when taking advantage of his weakness - a weakness belied by the strength of his character.

Iryu had allowed himself to relive their kisses, brief and fleeting as they had been, as a contrast to the pain, as proof that someone cared. He'd lost the memory of who had given him those kisses, knowing only that it wasn't anyone who was with him, someone who had promised a way out. He'd dreamed of escaping and finding that person, of being with him.

And now he'd found him. Now, he had that chance. A glimmer of hope lit in his strange eyes, a faint smile coming to his face. He would recover first. He would not approach Shiryu in this condition. He saw the other rarely, and he thought it was because he was so different, so much weaker, than he had been.

"Iryu?" Shun called, "I've got Ikki."

"Come in." Ikki stepped in, followed by his slender brother. "Phoenix?"

It wasn't the same man. This one, he was bright, like Shun and Shiryu. He looked just like Phoenix, but his aura was wrong. Iryu backed away a step, shaking his head. One hand raised to his eyes, dropped when Ikki's voice rolled over him.

"It's been a long time, Dark Dragon." Ikki's gaze raked over his form appraisingly. "Time that hasn't been good to you."

His lips trembled as he tried to form the words he needed, but nothing came. He backed away another few steps, found himself against the wall. He pressed himself against it, cold sweat covering him.

"You're still afraid of me, little one?" Ikki laughed. "There's nothing to fear, Iryu. My brother and your double have staked their claims on you; you're under their protection."

His eyes darted to Shun, staring up at his brother with a bad case of hero-worship. Shun noticed, stepped between them, and poked his brother in the chest. "You've been seen, big brother. I'll have to tell Hyoga that he didn't react to your spectacular charm."

Ikki laughed, ruffled his brother's hair. "You take care of him, squirt. And don't worry, I won't bother him. I'm hunting Swan."

Shun closed the door behind his brother, turning with a rueful grin. "He and Hyoga are interested in each other, and both determined to make the other make the first move."

"Hyoga?" It took effort to pry himself off the wall.

"Swan, you probably know him as. The blond you've seen me with occasionally?"

Iryu nodded, accepted the support that Shun offered to get back over to the bed.

--------------------------------

Iryu's had it rather bad. I skipped quite a bit of time there, I know, but I needed the poor guy to be a little bit better before anything else happened. I haven't been able to see anymore of the show scowls at mean old father who went down to basic cable which is nothing more than 14 channels most of which should be antenna channels so he's wasting money, and then cancelled it entirely… oops, rant because of technical difficulties, so keeping the knights themselves in character and in voice is a trifle bit hard. Yes, even in AU, I do try to kind of keep in character (minus one or two specific creatures not in this anime).