I really should be updating my other stories, but I just couldn't stay away. And I hate how my pieces get formatted now so that I can't do actions...hmm...I'll have to think on it. At any rate, here's chapter two. I hope you enjoy it.

A belated realization- Gemini Star01 reviewed my fic! That's so cool! I've read 'The Story of Andromeda' and 'Among the Amazons' so far, and they're really really well written. I've not yet had a chance to review, and I suppose I really should. That's what I'll do just after this. xjumps for joy!x

I've fixed (if you can call it that) this chapter since I first posted it. Now the time/scene changes are marked with o's, and my actions are x's. At least it's something- not my favourite, but a solution is a solution.

xhugs Shunx

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Chapter Two: Separation Anxiety

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It was dark and at moments he could see the sky, dotted with shining stars. But mostly it was just shadow after shadow, melting shapes that swam before his eyes. His head hurt and his face was beginning to sting as he was dragged along, but there was nothing he could do; it was hard to even stay awake to watch the shadows.

Voices continuously whispered around him, but the words were so soft he couldn't understand. The noise blended with the shadows and soon he didn't care what was being said. He just wanted his head to stop hurting and maybe to be left alone to sleep. Yes, he decided, sleep was a good idea.

A distant thump alerted him moments later that he had been dropped and was no longer moving. The voices had grown louder but he still didn't care what was being said. Sleep, that's all he wanted. Sleep...

"On your feet, bronzie." Hands grabbed the back of his shirt and pulled him forward. He swayed on his feet and nearly fell over again. After that, the hands stayed on his shoulders, and he stayed on his feet.

"Look at him, can't even stand. And this is part of the threat we're here to eliminate?" Rough fingers slid under his chin and pulled his head up. "Little Andromeda, the weakest of the bronze." Their faces were hazy but he could see their armor, picked out by the light of the stars. "Let's have a little fun."

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It was late, but Dragon Shiryu hadn't slept since they'd reached their current checkpoint. He was lost in thought, trying to determine how everything had happened. Why hadn't they felt another cosmos or had something inhuman attacked Shun? The soft sounds of the other knights' breathing filled the room. Close by, the shallow, troubled sleep of Andromeda began to pick up.

When Shiryu realized what was happening, he quickly shouted to wake Hyoga and Seiya to help him. Shun was thrashing in a fevered delirium, crying out softly and saying something unintelligible to an invisible dream figment. Pegasus and Swan held down their friend's shaking shoulders, as Shiryu pressed a wad of bandage rinsed in water to his sweaty forehead. When this didn't seem to work, Hyoga placed one hand in place of the wad and Shun fell quiet. He shivered occasionally but had dropped back off into his dreams. The three sighed.

"He's getting worse. His fever has gone higher." Hyoga frowned down at his hand. They had tried many things to get Shun's temperature down, but nothing short of freezing him- which they weren't considering- would work.

Seiya stood, frustrated, and began to pace around the small room. His footsteps thumped dully against the floor. "I don't like this." He was quiet, not looking at any of the others. "I don't like feeling so helpless."

Shiryu busied himself by checking the bandages bound to his friend's form. Some were beginning to soak through with blood and needed to be replaced. He was glad that he couldn't see how battered and bruised Shun was, but could well imagine.

"What will we do tomorrow?" They glanced to Hyoga, who had positioned himself more comfortably with his hand on Shun's forehead. "We only get one night to rest, and then we have to move on. The question is, should we?"

Shiryu shook his head. "We could make him worse if we try to move him. Besides, we'd slow down with him and would probably have to camp out. I don't think that's a good idea, either."

"But if we get to the next point, we may be able to contact the princess for help." Hyoga regarded the useless communication's equipment in the corner with an icy stare. "I do agree with Shiryu, though. Moving could be bad."

Pegasus took a seat on the floor, close to the other three. He looked at them seriously and then sighed. "One of us should go ahead, while the other two stay here to take care of Shun."

"That person could end up the same way, if whatever did this is still out there."

"Then two can go ahead and one stay behind. This cabin's easier to defend than the middle of the jungle." The words weighed heavy as Swan and Dragon considered the possibility. They knew it was important to get help for Shun, but could they risk any of the options?

"I'll stay." Hyoga neatly avoided the eyes of his two waking companions and looked out a window at what pieces of the starry sky could be seen. He could feel their gazes burning into his profile, but refused to meet their muted concern and doubt. This was the only option and they couldn't back out of it by listening to their hidden fears.

It was a long moment before either Dragon or Pegasus moved from their positions in the room. Seiya clapped Hyoga on the shoulder roughly. "Be careful." His voice was tense, and Hyoga found it oddly amusing to realize the brash knight was hiding worry from his voice.

Shiryu, already with his cloth strapped to his back, stood silently behind Seiya, waiting for his turn. His blind eyes were clouded as he smiled down at both Swan and unconscious Andromeda. "All will be well. Take care of Shun, and yourself."

The blonde knight watched his friends step through the door and get swallowed to the jungle night. He sighed quietly, the new silence feeling almost oppressive. To keep his attention focused, Hyoga observed Shun. His green hair was plastered to his sweaty forehead and he was shifting every few minutes, as if seeking a more comfortable position. He quieted marginally when the cool hand was replaced against his fevered brow.

It was going to be a long night, but somehow, Hyoga couldn't imagine being anywhere else. He made himself comfortable, adjusted his cosmo to keep his palm cool and calming to Shun beneath it, and prepared to wait.

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If Hyoga had thought keeping track of an unconscious Andromeda was going to be easy, he was sadly mistaken.

In his fevered sleep and fleeting wakeful moments, Shun seemed determined to never lay still. He would turn and make small noises of discomfort or fear, sometimes even making it to his knees and shakily crawling away from an invisible enemy that was too real for him. Hyoga tried to keep him quiet, constantly adjusting pillows, blankets, and anything else he could to make his sick friend more comfortable. But his nightmares... that was something the Knight of Snow could not fight.

"Nn..." Shun thrashed violently, startling Hyoga awake from a brief moment of sleep he'd managed to grab. "They...I can't...everyone is... gone..." He whimpered softly and tried to reach toward something far away. "Why can't I... see?"

Hyoga carefully pulled Shun's arms back to a less strained position and replaced his hand. Andromeda, however, didn't quiet this time, instead becoming more agitated. Delirium fogged eyes slid open halfway and looked around the room, uncomprehending.

"Ikki...?" Shun fought with the blankets covering his small form, trying to sit up. Hyoga, as gently as he could, kept him on the floor. The green haired knight struggled weakly, tears beginning to flip down his flushed cheeks. "Ikki!" He moaned softly, which soon turned into a near silent sob.

Watching this, Hyoga felt his heart wrench. He could only imagine what terrors were plaguing the mind of Andromeda. An uncommon feeling of helplessness settled over him then, and Hyoga vowed that- if only for himself- he would correct this concern.

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After calming from his first real bout of fever madness Shun stopped reacting to Hyoga's cold touch. He would even try to avoid it, burrowing down into the warmth of his blankets and shrinking away whenever Hyoga got too near. After hearing the whimpers and seeing the pained expression on his friend's face, Swan had decided to let Shun sleep off his fever. The only time he'd venture near, would be to get Andromeda to drink some water or to prevent him from getting too warm. Though to Shun it seemed like nothing was 'too warm'.

Andromeda's obsession with warmth continued in whatever fashion it could. Shun tried to snuggle up against a very surprised and dozy Hyoga- who had been taking a quick nap- for warmth, only to shy away again an hour later when apparently he wasn't enough.

Once, after returning from a brief moment of fresh air outside the small cabin, Hyoga had found Shun trying to make a fire with trembling hands and a shivering body. It had taken a good effort by Swan to pull Shun back to a laying position and to abandon his ideas of making a campsite out of the middle of a wooden building. Shun's strength as a knight was not hindered by his fever, it seemed, when he was determined to get something.

"Ikki..." Andromeda's calls for his brother were a not uncommon sound. Over the few days since Seiya and Shiryu's departure, Shun had desperately tried to find the only person who seemed to always offer him protection. Occasionally, he would even call for his missing companions- Pegasus and Dragon- or Hyoga himself. Swan tried his best to comfort the flailing knight whenever he was summoned, and found that mostly Shun would fall into a deep, calmer sleep. But deep in the back of his mind, Hyoga knew he was no replacement for Shun's older sibling.

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The jungle remained as deep and impenetrable as it ever had since they'd first arrived. Hyoga couldn't figure out why Sienna had chosen this place as their final testing ground, but suspected the reason would be all to clear at the finish. Or, he hoped it would.

He was taking a moment to himself, the responsibility of caring for his sick friend bringing his mind to beg for a moment of peace. It wasn't that he didn't like taking care of Shun, or regretted his decision, no, he was tired and was not used to being in such active close proximity to someone for so long. He needed some time to think and brood on what had happened.

It bothered Hyoga to know that someone- or something- had managed to sneak up on one of their group and launch an attack that left the victim so helpless. And Shun... Shun was normally the most sensible one, preferring to hang back instead of charge blindly ahead. This tactic had served him well in the past, their encounter with the pseudo-knights upon arriving to this point being a good example, so why was he the one battling imaginary foes instead of Seiya, or even himself? Just what were they up against?

As he reflected, Hyoga realized that maybe their group wasn't as strong as they had all believed. Sure, in their own right they were strong knights and dedicated to serving Athena. But as a group, while they acted in group strategies and fighting maneuvers, they seemed to be lacking. There just wasn't enough to pull them together outside of fighting; no one had really tried. Except Shun.

And, Hyoga mused cynically, it took him getting hurt for anyone to realize it.

A sudden thump brought his attention sharply back to the present. Turning, Hyoga cursed himself for not daydreaming while inside. A crash and the tinkling of broken glass was all he heard before he threw open the door of the cabin. The darkening twilight spilled through a broken window. Shun's cloth was scattered through the room, his breastplate having dinged the floor when it tipped over. That was everything he could see, aside from the other items that had always been there. Only...

...Shun was missing.

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It was hard to fight the deep black that called so sweetly to him. But he knew it wouldn't be black for long. He would be assaulted with images, terrible visions, of what had happened and things that hadn't, but seemed so real; his brother and his friends, all leaving, drifting slowly away like they were being blown by a gentle breeze. And they all looked so sad...

He fought hard and wrenched himself out of the coaxing black, blinking slowly against the harsher light outside the backs of his own eyes. Already he was being sucked back down, but this was important. Slowly, painfully, burning from a thousand gashes and cuts, he crawled across the room toward a silver box that was waiting for him, warm.

Shun reached out a trembling hand and carefully touched the box his cloth was stored in. He pulled away the sides and top, exposing the true Andromeda that was asleep inside. It danced against his senses; its cosmo warm and comforting. For a moment, he was almost lulled back into his world of dreams. But he had something to do, too important to be stopped now. He had to find his brother and find out why everyone was so sad.

With fumbling clumsiness due to the haze over his mind and his chilled fingers, Shun carefully disassembled his cloth. He pushed away the pieces he didn't need and took others off. Finally he was able to unwind the signature article that defined Andromeda: the chain.

He pushed himself up using the torso piece of his cloth. He wobbled slowly toward the nearest window, fingers tangled in the comfort of the cool metal links. Behind him, the breastplate teetered and then slowly began to tip. It hit the floor with a loud thud. He jumped shakily and picked up his pace, every moment of concentration focused on making it to the window. The nebula chain jingled quietly, trying to accomplish what it's master wanted but not finding the strength behind it.

Shun slumped against the wall and began to focus on his chain. It shot out, nowhere near its normal speed, but hit the window with enough force to shatter it and clear out most of the sharp debris. He shakily heaved himself over the sill and out into the humid air beyond. The undying heat seemed to clear his fogged mind slightly, for which Shun was grateful. With careful steps Andromeda hurried out of sight of the window and disappeared into the thick foliage around it. It was time to find Ikki.

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This chapter was more focused on Hyoga than Shun, but I think it works to tell the story. I'll include more on what's happening with Seiya and Shiryu in little bits, or maybe even side chapters/ chapters. You'll just have to see how the story will progress! That's all for now, R&R!