Disclaimer: Not mine

Notes: Post series, spoilers apply. My attempt to fill in the plot holes in 'Children of Tomorrow', so spoilers for that fic apply as well. Since 'Children of Tomorrow' focused heavily on Domon and Sion you can expect the same focus in this story as well, however, I plan to do something for each character. This chapter serves as a sort of a lead in to the fist chapter of the original, as well as a prologue to the entire series. So in other words, it's a prologue... to the prologue. Yeah.

--

He was all alone.

He had been since everyone and everything had faded into white light, and he had felt himself pulled to... wherever here was. It looked like it was where he was supposed to be, and at first he had almost convinced himself that it was where he belonged... but it wasn't. He could feel it.

The others were supposed to be here with him.

"Um, hello?" His voice echoed off of the walls. "Is anyone else here? Please... I don't want to be alone anymore."

"You should know by now that no one is ever truly alone."

A shock went through his body that was much worse than the last time-- when he fell, he knew that he wouldn't be able to get up again. He pushed back the pain long enough to open his eyes, and saw a man with a hauntingly familiar face... except for his eyes. He had never seen eyes that cold in his life.

The cold-eyed man smirked down at him. "You're the last one, appropriately enough. The last of your kind, the last to arrive here, the last to still remember what happened to the four of you... but that will be remedied soon enough."

Even as oblivion took over, even as he knew there was no way to change this, even as his eyes closed he tried to fight it off. No-- no! It's not supposed to be this way, this is wrong. I don't want to forget-- I won't forget! I won't forget the past, I won't forget my friends, I won't forget that I'm...

"Midorikawa! Midorikawa!"

Shin woke up with a start, half-eaten box lunch falling from his lap. It took him a moment to find his voice.

"... Yabuki?"

His classmate's features relaxed into a grin. "I was shaking you for a full five minutes. I was starting to think I was gonna have to slap you around a little to get you to wake up."

He smiled back at Yabuki. "Thanks for holding back." Shin rubbed at his eyes. "Did I doze off again?"

"Not quite. Snoring I can deal with. Screaming, not so much."

Guilt washed over Shin. "I'm sorry," he murmured miserably as he began to pick up what had been his lunch.

Yabuki rolled his eyes as he knelt down to help him. "Why do you always apologize? It's not like you planned to have a nightmare or anything." They worked in silence until Yabuki spoke again, his voice a little less sure than before."

"Midorikawa... do you know anyone named Ryuuta?"

"I don't believe so. Why do you ask?"

"Because you kept yelling at him in your dream."

"... Oh."

"B-but it's not like I'm trying to make you talk if you're that uncomfortable about it," Yabuki amended hastily as he tossed the ruined remnants of Shin's lunch in the trash. "In fact, let's change the topic. Do you have any plans this afternoon?"

Shin gave it some thought. "Other than my homework, no."

"Great. Because Kuroda and I and some other guys are planning to go out to eat this afternoon, and I think you should come with us, if only because you didn't finish lunch."

"Sure, why not? Where are we going to eat, anyways?"

"Well, there's this little coffee shop within walking distance of our school..."

--

Explanation: In 'Children of Tomorrow', Time Captain Ryuuta was brought back to life (in a pocket dimension) thanks to a blip in the time line after Yuuri and the others went back to the past to help Tatsuya stop Gien. However, before they could return to 3000, Ryuuta managed to re-direct them to his pocket dimension, and finally succeeded in altering their memories... so they would believe they were civilians from 2001-2002. He used the power of their Chrono Changers to tweak the time line so that they had families and people who remembered them well before the year 2000. He did all this after coming to the conclusion that the four of them had to die as well as Naoto if he was to live, and that killing four civilians quietly would be easier than four Timerangers (the fact that he was pretty much completely insane at this point might have influenced his decision). Eventually, however, Sion/Midorikawa Shin (whose alien anatomy didn't mesh well the memory changing process, not to mention Ryuuta trying to alter his hibernation cycle so that he'd have sleeping habits more in line with humans) met Kijima Daichi/Domon by pure chance, and after finding the other three, they stopped Ryuuta and regained their memories, and then enjoyed living their lives out quietly (or at least until fate decided to mess with them again).

Even though I mentioned that Yuuri/Ayase/Domon/Sion were Yuka/Akio/Daichi/Shin for a little over a year towards the end of the original fic, I don't think I explored this concept as much as I should have. Also, as mentioned previously, there are a lot of plot holes I want to at least attempt to fix. This series will be made of loosely connected one shots (I'll label what parts of the original fic each chapter corresponds to in an attempt to alleviate any potentional confusion).

More notes: The gacking of old school sentai surnames continue. Kuroda is, of course, belongs to Goggle Black (now we sort of have a matching set). Yabuki was stolen from Yabuki Jun/Yellow Four II. Quick trivia note no one cares about: Daichi's co-worker's name is Takasugi Asuka, like Takasugi Shingo/Green Two. Shin's classmate's name is Yabuki, like Yabuki Jun/Yellow Four II. I'm so witty and clever. Except when I'm not.