We were all lined up against the wall, Nataku, Connor, Chris, Daniel and I. We were frightened, our day of fun turned into a day of misery once our parents all left. We were beaten if we did something wrong, we were forced to kill people, and we weren't allowed to eat anything.

Connor looked down at me, fright in his eyes. "What are we gonna do??" He mouthed soundlessly. I could understand him. I shrugged my shoulders and we both quickly turned back to our former positions as General Zechs walked in.

"Now listen!" He commanded in a harsh tone, his long blonde hair swinging back and forth behind him as he walked in front of us. "You are all now soldiers of war, no ifs ands or butts, no teddy bears, no blankies, nothing, your play toy will be a weapon and your bed will be the ground you walk on. You're soldiers! Act like one!" Then he stopped and looked at me with his icy blue eyes. His gaze was terrifying, but I gulped and held back all of my emotions, giving him a straight face.

As if in a chorus we all responded, "Yes sir, General Zechs!" and we all saluted.

"Well, you must be Jennifer, my niece." He replied looking at me coldly. "I expect great things from you, don't ruin this for me." He replied walking back down the line of children. "Now everyone outside for your exercises!!" He commanded.

After all of us did at least three hundred or so push ups, sit ups, chin ups and any other exercise ever invented we fell onto our backs on the ground exhausted. "Hey Connor.." I asked breathlessly.

"yeah?"

"Did you think that this is gonna be any fun at all?"

Nataku butted in. "This sucks....has general Zechs no honor?. No dignity? No pride? .... we're only children for Gods sake!...."

Daniel joined in also. "Calm down Nataku.....I'm sure there's a good reason why we're here......we just have to figure it out....."

" I overheard my mommy and daddy talking about saving the universe......" I chimed.

Chris was the only one who didn't say anything, he listened for a while with his eyes closed. Then I realized he was sleeping.

"Maybe that's what we're doing......Saving the universe...." Daniel replied honestly.

"I highly doubt it...." Nataku stated matter-of-factly.

"Well. Why else would we need to kill and do all these exercises?" I replied. "There must be something at least close to that logic for us to have to do all of this...right you guys?"

They nodded and we all got to our feet. I kicked Chris lightly to wake him up.

He answered me with a weird look.

"you were sleeping." I replied.

"No I wasn't." He said getting to his feet. "I was meditating.."

I didn't know what he meant but I decided to agree with him.

General Zechs walked out of the building carrying swords and handed one to each of us. "Now you will all fight one another, whoever dies, wasn't worthy of this honor. Those of you who survive will be sent away to war. There are other children here too. You will battle with them as well as yourselves." Then he walked over to a chair and sat down, watching us as we stood there. "let the games begin.."

Pretty soon the five of us were surrounded by at least three hundred other kids. I looked at my group and gave them orders. I had played chess against my dad many times, maybe this was the same. "Okay, Connor, go over there, Daniel, go that way, Nataku, stay with me and Chris, go over there." I barked the orders and they obeyed, I had sent them all after different groups of kids, and they surprised me at how well they were with weapons. Nataku and I went for our group.

About an hour later there was only my friends, me and a few miscellaneous others still standing. We didn't get away in perfect condition. Connor had black eye, a sprained ankle and his hair was out of its braid. Nataku had been slammed into the wall several times and hit with the handle of a kids sword in the side of the face and stomach. Daniel had blood running down the side of his face from getting his head slammed onto a wall. Chris was barely hurt at all; all he had was a cut across his cheek. I on the other hand was sitting against the wall, I was probably the most hurt out of all of them, but not severely. I had been stabbed in the shoulder, punched in the stomach several times, and even had some type of log crush me underneath it. I was still alive, that was all that mattered at the time.

I wiped blood from the side of my mouth and stood up, walking over to my friends. It hurt to walk, but I had to be strong if I wanted to make it out of here alive and get back to my mom and dad. "are you guys okay?" I asked them.

They all nodded with an added moan except Chris who stood silently watching me.

"I didn't know war was so harsh..." Daniel cried. "I want to go back to my mansion.."

"You guys are better than I expected." Zechs replied with a smile. "Now go in and get some rest. You'll be leaving tomorrow." He watched us all walk into the building. "Oh! And your rooms are down the hall and to the right!" He called after us.

I opened our bedroom door, there were five small beds, I laid on one, it wasn't very comfortable, but it was better than the ground.

Daniel groaned loudly and fell back onto a bed holding the side of his head, "Man! I have such a headache!" He rolled over onto his stomach, covering his face with his arms. "Can't it go away???"

Connor sat on the edge of a bed and started braiding his hair. I looked over at him curiously. "Connor?"

"Hmm?" He answered softly concentrating on getting it right.

"Why do you keep your hair like that?"

He looked up at me. "Well, my daddy told me it was because of a lady that he knew...Sister Heelan I think.....Well, she had braided his hair, then she died so my daddy had promised never to cut his. So I promised I'd never cut mine. I wanna be like my daddy when I grow up." He replied looking back down at his hair, finishing the braid and tying it with a ribbon.

"Don't you think the ribbon's going a little bit too far?" I asked looking at him oddly.

"It's the only thing I could find around here to use. The jerk out there cut my hair tie." Connor answered irritated. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. Just need to sleep." I answered looking around the room.

Nataku was sitting in the far corner of the room hiding her face in her hands, I guessed she was crying. And Chris was "Meditating" again while laying on a bed on the other side of the room.

Finally I closed my eyes and went to sleep.