Disclaimer: I don't own Saint Seiya or any of the characters, places, or whatnot associated with it. That all belongs to Masami Kurumada. Please don't sue me.

Note: Hyouga's timeline really doesn't take place anywhere specifically, though I'd like to think it's after they get their first real upgrade to their Cloths. Seriously, I wasn't really concerned about that part, but for good reason. I can't say more without spoiling things.

WARNING: This chapter alone contains violence, character death, implied torture, and a seriously twisted alternate timeline. Oh, and mildly implied one-sided Hyouga/Shun. You've been warned.

Chapter 1

"Watch your back!"

"I got him!"

There was really nothing like an early morning fight between good and evil to get the blood pumping.

"Pegasus Ryu-Sei-Ken!"

The rush of battle, the camaraderie between fellow warriors…

"Hyouga, look out!"

…the feeling of being hit in the gut by a man twice your size and hurtled into the space over a deep ravine.

"HYOUGA!"

"Shun, quick!"

"NEBULA CHAIN!"

Knowing that despite their best efforts it was too late for you. You made a stupid mistake, and now you were going to pay for it with your life.

"…can't reach…!"

"…will be okay…!"

"…so sorry…!"

And knowing he'll never know how you felt about him now.

"HYOUGAAAAAAA!"

()()()()()

"…Hyouga…?"

The blond Saint groaned, but didn't open his eyes. What just happened?

"It can't be… Hyouga…"

He remembered being in the middle of a fight. Getting hit. Hurtling into nothingness. Was he dead?

"Not again… please, no, no, no…"

No, he couldn't be. His body hurt too much to have gone to heaven. But pain was good, right? Pain meant life. So he let out another groan and forced his eyes open, looking around. He only caught a glance at the person standing above him before the shadow retreated with a yelp to some dark corner of… when did he get into a room? And why was it so dark?

Every muscle in his body objected as he sat up, looking around the room. It was made of stone, as if underground. It was bare of light except one desperately clinging light bulb hanging from the ceiling. There was no furniture, not even a stool. His head swam and he reached up to touch it. His headpiece was missing, and he looked down to discover his entire Cloth had at some point either been disbanded or destroyed by the fall. He hoped it was the former, though it begged the question of where it went and where he was.

There was a whimper from the corner where the one whom was calling his name had retreated, muttering something incoherent and rapid. "Hey," Hyouga called to them, keeping his voice as gentle as possible. This person was obviously frightened. "It's okay. You can come out; I'm not going to hurt you."

The figure's wide eyes were the only thing the dim light bulb reflected off of. Green irises flashed with fear and confusion, the shadow tucking itself further into the corner away from him, muttering becoming more rapid and panicked.

"Come on," the Cygnus Saint tried to encourage, moving towards him slowly. He couldn't have moved faster if he tried with the state his body was in. "You have me at kind of a disadvantage. You know my name, but I don't know who you are. Come on out into the light so I can see you."

The person stopped muttering, turning their head away, eyes disappearing from view. After a moment, they finally objected. "You're not real! Go away, you're not really here!"

"What do you mean? Of course I am. Though, to be honest, I don't know where 'here' is. Can you tell me that?"

Another pause and they responded, though it was too light and hesitant for him to hear.

"I'm sorry? Look, it'll be a lot easier for us to talk if you come over here."

The figure looked back to him, wide eyes even more confused. "Why haven't you gone away? Why haven't you disappeared like the rest of them?"

Finally, the shadow left its hiding spot, crawling over on hands and knees. Hyouga gasped, falling back on his backside in shock. It couldn't be but… there was no mistaking. "…Shun?"

It had to be him. It looked too much like the Andromeda Saint not to be. The sad green eyes. The long green locks of hair, though they were longer now, seeming to have been kept from a good haircut, or cleaning for that matter, for what had to have been months. The pale skin covered in dirt, lacerations, and dried blood. His already small frame was emaciated, almost starved looking. Upon hearing his own name, the boy rushed forward, grabbing Hyouga by the front of the shirt. His emerald eyes traveled over the Russian boy's body in disbelief.

"You're here…" he finally muttered. "You… you can't be here but you're here… but this is really you… and you're really here…"

"Shun…" Hyouga repeated the name, reaching out and touching his sunken cheeks. The Japanese boy flinched away, but didn't let go of his shirt. After a moment, he finally let Cygnus take his face in his hands, running his thumbs across the tear trails, both old and fresh in the layer of dirt upon on Shun's cheekbones. "What happened to you? Who… who did this to you?"

There was a moment in which the Andromeda Saint looked fearful, eyes darting around the dark room as if something was there. Hyouga felt no presence, though, and suspected paranoia onset from whatever experience had caused the youngest Saint to become suddenly so skittish. Shun, while being the least willing to fight, had never been a coward. In fact, there were times when he demonstrated courage and power that exceeded any Saint he knew of.

Once the paranoia subsided, Shun finally looked to him again. Tears welled up in his eyes, voice hitching. "He… he's not… it's not his fault, Hyouga… he… he didn't mean to… it's this place… it's terrible, painful… it changed him…"

"Shun, you're not making sense. Changed who? Where are we?"

"…Death Queen Island…"

"Death Queen… you can't mean…" Hyouga's mind clicked the pieces of what Shun was saying into place. But it didn't make sense. None of it did. The least of which being that Death Queen Island was supposed to have been destroyed. The biggest problem with this story, though, was, "Ikki would never hurt you! You're his precious brother!"

Shun flinched away, letting go of his shirt and pushing his hands to his ears as if to stop hearing the accusation he himself was making. "It's not his fault!" he cried out, sobbing. "It's not his fault! He doesn't know what he's doing, it's not his fault! It's not his fault!"

Hyouga understood now that this wasn't just any room. It was a prison. Whatever had happened, from what Shun was telling him, he was being held prisoner on Death Queen Island by his own brother. That meant there were likely guards outside they didn't want to alert. So he grasped the thin hands in his own, pulling them away from Shun's ears. He held them between them, making shushing noises. "Shun, it's okay… stop screaming, it's okay…" he whispered, reaching up with one hand and petting the other boy's soft though dirty hair.

Shun suddenly threw himself into Hyouga's arms, sobbing loudly into his shoulder. "I hate this place…" he hiccupped, Hyouga hugging him and continuing to pet his hair. "I hate this place and those Black Saints… they completely changed him… I want my brother back…"

"Black… but there are no more Black Saints," Hyouga said, confused. "We killed them all."

Shun shook his head. "We didn't… one still lives… you're confused… being dead is likely very confusing…" he muttered.

The blond was only mildly taken aback by the last statement. That would explain why Shun was so afraid of him. And why Death Queen Island was still there. It seemed impossible, but there was no other explanation. This wasn't his world. "Tell me what happened, Shun," he said gently. Shun whimpered and shook his head. "I know it's hard, but I need to know. Please tell me how you got here."

At first, Shun said nothing. Hyouga didn't push again. It was unfair of him to ask this, but he had to know. Were the others alive? Were they prisoners too? Finally, the captured Saint startled him by beginning with, "It all started with the Grand Foundation's Galaxian Wars…"

From there, Shun described all of the events through the Galaxian Wars, having the Gold Cloth stolen, and going to confront Ikki and the Black Saints to get the missing pieces back exactly as Hyouga remembered it. At least, until he told of Shiryu's battle against the Black Dragon and Shun's job pulling the dying Seiya out of the ravine where he had fallen.

((FLASHBACK))

Shun fought and struggled but refused to let go. He could never abandon one of his friends, even at the risk of his own life. So he continued to pull himself up the ravine by his chains, Seiya upon his back. The sounds of Shiryu's own struggle continued above him, loud, clashing, and almost jarring him with every sound of a successfully landed attack. As he reached little over halfway up, the sound of the battle ceased. He stopped his ascent, his heart catching in his throat, as he strained to hear any sign of life. After a moment, a head popped back over the ravine, long hair cascading down around the figure above.

"…Shiryu?" Shun called, afraid of the answer he knew to be true.

"Not quite," the Black Dragon called down, grinning. He once again took grasp of the Andromeda chains. "Now, where was I? Oh, yes. Your impending deaths. Have a nice fall."

Before the Andromeda Saint could unleash his 10,000 volts through his chain to stop him, Black Dragon finally pulled the chain loose of its hold on the cliff, giving it one good pull up before letting go.

They fell too fast for Shun to try and catch them again with his chain. Seiya was a great weight upon him as the ground rushed up to meet them. He had failed.

()()()

Everything was blurry. Every part of his body was screaming bloody mercy. It hurt to even breathe. How he was even conscious, Shun didn't know. But he couldn't stop staring at the body next to his. Seiya was dead. His lifeless stare gazed accusingly at him, now black-tinted blood seeping out around the piece of cliff they had landed on. They were so far down that he was surprised he could even see Seiya, let alone anything. His head was the only thing he could move besides one of his arms. Even his neck objected to being turned. He wanted to close his eyes, to stop staring into those lifeless eyes. Yet he just couldn't stop watching the dead Pegasus Saint beside him.

At first he'd had hope, because he had heard a straining, whistling breathing sound nearby him. He had thought maybe Seiya had survived the fall. Then he had realized that sound was his own breath. A rib was probably puncturing his lung, causing the bubbling sound that was present with it. He would likely die soon as well. A darkness descended upon him and he for a moment thought it was finally his time.

But it wasn't death. It was Ikki. After everything that had happened, those two words seemed synonymous. Even though he could only turn his head far enough to see him through the corner of his eye in the darkness of the ravine, he would know his brother anywhere. So Shun reached out with the arm he could move, fingers numb. "Nii…san…" His voice came out weak and bubbling, confirming that he definitely had punctured a lung.

The Phoenix Saint reached down and picked his brother up. Shun screamed as broken bones and battered muscles objected. Ikki said nothing, remaining silent even after the screaming finally subsided. Under the stress of the pain, Shun blacked out, almost certain he was about to cross into death to join Seiya and Shiryu.

((END FLASHBACK))

Shun went silent as he finished his story. Hyouga waited anxiously, but when no more came, he had to ask, "Wait, what happened? By what you've said you should be dead! I don't see any signs of even one broken bone!"

The other Saint shrugged, watching the floor. "I dunno… the next thing I knew, I was here. You're supposed to be dead, too. Yet here you are… maybe we're both dead. Maybe this really is Hell."

"Shun! Who're you talking to?"

Hyouga jumped at the voice. He quickly scrambled out of the light into a dark corner as Shun, instead of acting as skittish as he did with Hyouga, simply looked to the door. As the Cygnus Saint hid, someone unlocked the door to the dark cell. Sunlight filled the middle of the room, causing Shun to cover his eyes for a moment. Out of the light walked…

Wolf Nachi?

The Cloth-clad Saint squinted into the cell, senses perked. Hyouga held his breath, trusting nothing and no one in this twisted world. When Nachi was satisfied they were alone, he strode to where Shun sat on the cold floor and sat cross-legged next to him. "Been seeing things again?" he asked softly.

"Hyouga was here. But he wasn't our Hyouga."

"Of course he wasn't. Hyouga's dead. We've been over this."

"I know. But he wasn't… I think. He didn't feel dead. Then again… I think I'm dead, too… I couldn't tell if he was dead if I am, could I?"

"For the thousandth time, Shun, you're not dead."

"Could you check again?"

"Shun…"

The Andromeda Saint reached out and touched Nachi's arm, looking sad and pleading. "…please?" he whimpered.

The Wolf stared him down a moment before sighing. "Fine… come here…"

Shun scooted toward him, letting Nachi pull him into his lap. He rested his head on Nachi's shoulder, wrapping emaciated arms around his neck. The black-haired teen buried a hand in soft, green locks, the other pressing against the right side of his neck gently.

It was so… different from the Nachi he knew. Everyone here was different. Shun was a lost, whimpering child. Ikki was still supporting Ares' evil schemes. And Nachi…

The Nachi Hyouga knew was cocky, filled with attitude, and never got along well with Shun (which was in itself amazing, as everyone got along with Shun). He was the one when they were kids who poked fun, tripping him, and on at least three occasions pulled his hair. Ikki beat Nachi up more than any other kid who made fun of his little brother, yet Nachi kept insisting on doing it. Even now the Wolf Saint made fun of Shun's "girl Cloth" and his pacifistic ways. But Shun just laughed it off, saying he knew his worth, so it didn't matter what others thought.

This Nachi was the complete opposite. He was gentle to Shun, spoke softly, made sure he felt… loved. He had become the older brother Shun needed at a time when his own was the one tormenting him. So Hyouga came to a decision and left his corner.

Nachi, whose back was to him, finally affirmed. "There it is. A perfectly good pulse. See? Alive and… well…" he trailed off, resting his chin on the green hair under it.

"'Well' might be an arguable term," Hyouga pointed out from behind him.

Nachi was the one to jump this time, nearly dislodging Shun as he twisted to face the intruder. For a moment he just stared in complete disbelief.

"I told you he was here…" Shun whispered.

Nachi finally reacted, pushing Shun off his lap and jumping to his feet. He grabbed Hyouga by the front of his shirt. The blond offered no resistance. His appearance was likely even more shocking to a sane man than the broken and delusional boy on the ground, watching with wide green eyes. He wasn't even surprised when Nachi slammed him against the wall, closing the door with his foot and plunging them back into dimly lit darkness. "You… you can't be real. What are you? A trick? An illusion? Is Pope Ares testing us?"

"No," Hyouga answered calmly. "I'm real. Believe me, there's no one more confused about what's going on than me."

"How? How could you be alive? We saw your body! The Pope made sure we saw all of them! You… Seiya… Shiryu… Ms. Saori…"

"Wait!" Hyouga grabbed Nachi by the front of his armor, turning them and slamming him into the wall this time. "Athena is dead?!"

There was no answer for a while. Then Nachi balled up a fist, punching the wall behind him. "I knew it! Son of a… we all knew it! When Saori died, it felt like something inside all of us died!"

"What about the others? The Bronzes, Mu-sama, the Elder in Rozan?"

"The Elder… we don't know," Nachi confessed. Hyouga unhanded him, both finally sitting next to Shun who'd watched quietly. "He just… disappeared. Shunrei was taken to Jamir, where the rest of the Saints who are resisting Pope Ares are hiding. Every couple of months, I think the Saints are just… waking up. I mean, we can all feel it. Athena is gone. We have no purpose now but to purge Sanctuary of the threat there now."

"That's why you're here," Hyouga realized, looking thoughtful. "You're spying on him. More specifically, on Ikki. He must have become one of Ares' favorites after…"

Shun flinched, pulling his knees up to his chest and hugging them. "It's not his fault…" he muttered again, tears prickling at his long lashes.

Nachi reached out and rubbed Shun's bony shoulder with an armored hand. "I know, Shun." Hyouga could tell by his tone and facial expression that he didn't really believe that Ikki wasn't at fault. But he likely had already experienced the same traumatized screaming as before. While he kept a calming hand on Shun's shoulder, Nachi continued. "At least, that was what I was originally sent here to do. Then I found him."

"He told me what happened. How's he still alive after everything he's been through?"

The Wolf Saint shook his head. "I don't know. We all thought it was suspicious that his body wasn't among those who were killed by Ikki and the Black Saints. Most of us thought he'd been so desperate to be with his brother again that he'd betrayed you guys. We should have known better, though. If we'd known he was being held captive, that he was enduring what he does here, we would have organized a rescue."

"What did they do to him?" Hyouga asked, reaching out and stroking the green-haired Saint's cheek. Shun didn't flinch away, his gaze drifting back up to him. It was heart breaking to see the glimmer of light that was always there extinguished so thoroughly. He was staring at a boy whose entire world ended violently at the hands of his own brother, and whose psyche long since gave up trying to defend him against it.

"I don't…" Nachi sighed, trying to think of how to answer that question. "I can't say it in front of him. I don't think he should be thinking about it in his few moments of respite."

Hyouga nodded, pushing too-long locks of green hair from the Andromeda Saint's face. "It's okay, you don't have to. I just… I can't believe any of this, it's all so wrong."

"Tell me about it. Where have you been all this time?" Nachi finally asked, staring at Hyouga suspiciously again. "Where did you come from? How did you get here?"

"I…" it was Hyouga's turn to hesitate. How could he explain this? That he came from a world so much better than this one? That he just fell off a cliff and next thing he knew he was in this twisted reality? "I'm not the Hyouga you want me to be. This isn't my world. I'm from… I'm from a world way different than this. One where Athena is alive and Seiya, Shiryu, and I never fell in battle. Ikki is our comrade in arms, and Ares was long ago defeated."

The Wolf Saint scrutinized him, looking disbelieving. As if Hyouga was as crazy as the boy sitting next to him.

"…what's he like?" Shun whispered, emerald gaze never leaving Hyouga's face. It was as if he were afraid that looking away from Hyouga would make him disappear like the delusions he thought he was speaking to when he first appeared. "Nii-san… what is he like in your world…?"

It broke Hyouga's heart all over again to be reminded of the betrayal he was still enduring. That he'd never known again the loving hand of his older brother, or the comfort of being safe with the people who he considered family. "He's… he's wonderful to you. The you I know. I've never seen you so happy as when he came back. You cried like you used to when we were little, but it was a good kind of crying. We teased you, but you insisted that even men can cry when they're happy." He smiled gently at the memory, standing around in Saori's cabin together as a team for the first time. All five of them, as it were meant to be. As it should have in this world. Why wasn't it? What could have possibly happened between Shiryu and the Black Dragon Saint to change everything so thoroughly?

Shun leaned forward suddenly, arms outstretched. He wrapped them around Hyouga's neck and leaned forward, placing a dirty cheek against Hyouga's. The blond felt tears from Shun's eyes run between their cheeks. "Hyouga…" he hicced, shoulders shaking. It seemed the boy with tear-stained cheeks still had plenty to spare. "Please save him… I want my brother back…" It was the same pitiful begging as before, but this time there was something added into it. A desperate plea for something Hyouga just didn't know he could fulfill.

The broken Andromeda Saint wanted him to save Ikki from himself. To undo whatever kept him from being the same loving brother he remembered from his own world. "God help us all…" the Cygnus Saint muttered, hugging the shaking creature to himself and cautioning a glance at the disapproving gaze of the dark haired spy across from them.