From the Timeline of Dark Crystal Tokyo

Chapter 2

The "Peaceful One"

Author's Notes: Okay, I hope you guys forgive me, but this one is going to be a little short. I tried to think of ways to expand it, but nothing I thought of really came out the way I wanted it to. I jumped ahead a few years in this chapter, and the story will henceforth continue in the year 3107. Jadeite/Ryu is 18 and his counterpart, Yasou is 17.

Good luck guessing which Shitennou Yasou is going to be. If you know the Shitennou at all, it shouldn't be all that difficult. The next chapter should be more interesting, because we get to see where Mamoru/Endymion has been all this time. I will introduce the Underground City, and I may even get as far as allowing Mamoru to meet up with some of his Shitennou.

Even though it's short, I hope you enjoy this chapter. And as usual, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE REVIEW! I would love you hear your opinions on Yasou's personality.

(Story begins here)

Three years had passed since Ryu first discovered the Jadeite stone and the powers it awakened inside of him. He was eighteen now and still serving the same cruel master he had been stuck with for the past five years, Hymann. Leaning back against the wall of the porch, Ryu sat and watched the early morning sunrise, enjoying some of the few peaceful moments of his day. Holding his hand out in front of him, he closed his hand into a fist and recalled the Jadeite stone from out of his subspace pocket. He focused his powers on the stone causing it to hover a couple of inches above his hand; Saffire eyes studied the stone lazily for a few long moments. He recalled his vision once again, the image of his prince playing through his mind. He could see the images as clearly as he could see the chains linked around his ankles. 'Just one more day,' He told himself with a sigh. 'Just one more day and I'm ditching this dump.'

Hearing sounds from inside, Ryu promptly dropped the stone back into his palm allowing it to disappear. The young man pulled himself to his feet just moments before the screen door opened. Stepping out onto the porch was a sixteen-year-old with flaming red hair and cool green eyes. He studied the Terran slave suspiciously for a moment. There was just something about him that was off - - different - - something he didn't trust. "What is it about you?" He questioned hardly. Ryu didn't say a word, but lifted his gaze narrowly to meet the young mans smiling curtly. "Whatever do you mean, young sir?" Ryu questioned back, with a hint of mockery in his voice. Scowling, the young man shoved a plate into Ryu's hands and turned back to enter the house. "I hope you get scourged." The young man remarked shortly, before re-entering the house and slamming the door behind him.

"Yeah, same to you," Ryu muttered once the door was shut. Sitting back down, he proceeded to take down breakfast quickly, knowing that the peaceful moments of the morning were almost over. . .

(Yasou)

The story continues on an early autumn morning in the year 3107, with a slightly feminine-featured seventeen-year-old male with abnormally long pale-blonde hair pulled back into a simple ponytail at the base of his neck. His emerald-colored eyes were bright with a well-hidden intelligence despite a life-time in the worst slave city on the entire earth. He stood on one side of the master's bed with his head focused downwards, thin arms rigid at his sides, as he waited patiently for the master to finish his morning routine and come to give his first orders of the day. The master's surname was Takeshi and he had bought this particular slave at the fresh age of nine from a child's slave camp.

The child was born solely for the purpose of replacing the current shortage of slaves, and was raised in the slave camp having no idea whom his mother or his father might have been. At a young age, Yasou caught on to the purpose of the slave camps; they wanted to break you . . . make you easy to handle so you could be sold. The more outgoing you were, the more life you had, the worse the punishments that would be dealt out. His stomach burned angrily as he watched one child after another get their spirits broken, but there was nothing he could do – not from here in any case. Wisely, he focused on appearing as timid and as yielding as possible.

It might not have been the proudest method, but it was probably the smartest. Though he hadn't any particular surname to call his own, the leaders of the camp gave him the name Yasou, which means "peaceful one." Having a reputation as one of the "easier to handle" slaves, he was quickly picked out by the upper class dark lord, Takeshi, and was released from the camp almost a year earlier than the usual age set for release. As he left the camp, Yasou was one of the very few to turn and look back. His emerald-eyes flashed as they narrowed with determination. He wouldn't be broken. Someday he would escape this prison for good, and then . . . someday again he would return . . . for the others. And when he returned the second time, he wouldn't come as the "peaceful one."

In the years that passed, Yasou's reputable personality served him well. He had worked his way up until Takeshi finally assigned him directly underneath himself. He primarily worked inside of doors doing minor labor and serving the master in any task that was given him. He slept in a small room, almost the size of a small walk-in closet actually, right off from the master's bedroom. He knew that he was one of the lucky ones, but that didn't change his thoughts about the dark moon and their methods; they would still pay for what they had done to the people of Earth. . .

The young man was pulled from his thoughts at the sound of the bathroom door opening. Although his gaze was focused humbly downwards, he stood in a straight and rigid, almost military-like fashion – one of the few traits that would give hint to the unbroken passion hidden beneath the submissive front he wore so well. Takeshi-san came out in his typical military garb, studying the slave coolly from the doorway. Yasou raised his head only partially, enough to note the man's actions but not enough to quite meet his eyes. When the man nodded, Yasou turned away heading to the closet to bring out the armor he wore atop his clothes and proceeded to silently help the man into it. "After breakfast, I am going to the marketplace to do some business. You make sure all the others have their morning chores finished before we leave, or its going to be your backside AND theirs."

"Hai, sir," Yasou studied each piece of armor as he applied it, recalling its functions as well as the strengths and weaknesses of the particular type his master chose to wear. This type had quite a few weaknesses, but it was mostly just for show . . . not meant for actual fighting. Each piece of knowledge he had collected over the years would come in handy when he was finally ready to make his escape. As he hadn't a book or journal to keep his information in (not that he would be dumb enough to write something the master might find anyways), he simply had to review it in his mind as much as possible. Once the task was finished, he stood back waiting as the man checked his work before turning to leave the room, Yasou following a few steps behind. . .