Breath of Fire Lost Time

A/n: This is a revised version of a story I had started years ago with the same name. I loved the concept I had going, but I was just having trouble getting it to work the way I wanted it too, now I'm trying it again. It's a look into the life Rei lead after Sunder and Balio burned his home to the ground, and before he reunited with Ryu. It summaries quite a bit of the game.

Disclaimer: I do not own Breath of Fire, any of the characters portrayed here...they belong to the wonderful people at Capcom.

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"_**Time you enjoy wasting, is not wasted"-John Lennon**_

_"…I'm still a kid at heart you see, I just don't know when to quit….If I'd been as strong then as I am now... Maybe I could have saved Teepo... But I never wanted to hurt anyone... That's why I just kept goofing off, playing robber I was afraid of my own strength..."_ It would be a long time before he would speak these words. A long time before he could say he had awakened from the nightmare that had lasted for years, from the day Sunder and Balio burned the home they had built to the ground, to the day he stood tall and unafraid next to Ryu facing God. But really that's all it was, time. Every second, every minute, every time the second hand hit the twelve and another hour passed, had all that time been worth it? He believed so. At least the ending had been worth it, the time before had been fruitless. Someone once said that time you enjoy wasting is not wasted. He certainly didn't enjoy that time, so was it wasted?

He shook his head and laughed. From across the room Ryu looked up, his bright eyes staring at the tiger curiously. Rei smiled, and turned his gaze away from the ever quiet boy that made him feel like he could fly. It had all been for Ryu, Ryu and Teepo. They were his family, and he'd do anything for them. Most of all, he had proved that fact in that wasted, lost time.

He supposed it started even before the Stallion Brothers had burned his home down, he supposed it started the day he took Teepo in. The boy had been abandoned, nearly sold into slavery, and now had nowhere to go. He had clung to Rei like the confused child he was, and although Rei did not have much other than some shelter, his kind heart could not leave the boy to fend for himself. Suddenly Rei wasn't just living for himself. He was living for two. He imagined this was how a strung-out, down on her luck, drug addicted woman would feel upon learning that she's pregnant. Like that woman would do, Rei fixed his life, not for himself, but for the innocent child that deserved better. Teepo deserved better. His life depended upon Rei's just like the baby's depended upon the mother. Rei began taking more caution in his actions, being less reckless, before if he died, there was no shame in it, there was no one left behind to grieve or suffer. Who would cry at his funeral? Back then, he'd say no one, now he knew better. He began making sure he was home in the early afternoons and evenings to play and bathe and even teach Teepo to read. At night and in the mornings he'd rob the homes while the villagers were out or asleep.

Still it was not the honest living Rei secretly hoped for. The mayor was running the poor town to poverty and while children like himself and Teepo went hungry in the streets, the old pig lived a lavish life. The villagers were all fighting to get by as well; none of them would spare even a few zenny for starving children willing to do small jobs. Rei supposed that's why they never truly punished the boys for their crimes, because beneath the words, the villagers understood survival. Only old man Bunyan would eventually try to coach them into an honest living. Looking back on it, Rei realized, that old man Bunyan was always kind of there.

Rei supposed if things had stayed him and Teepo his life now would be very different, and he figured some things would've remained the same. He theorized that Bunyan would still punish them for thievery, McNeil would've still had their lives burned down, and he'd still have become that vengeful monster on Ogre Road, but things would've ended there. But things did not end there; it didn't just stay the two of them. Between the events that could've happened, and the ones that did happen; there was one crucial difference. Ryu. The tiny blue haired boy with bright eyes that shimmered and shined with dreams bigger than that farming hamlet. From the first day Ryu traveled with them, Rei could tell that that boy had his head in the clouds higher than the ones that circled the peak of Mt. Glaus. These ideas of his were only fueled by Teepo's hopes for the loving family he'd sometimes admit to when the candles were out and the moon shone brightly in the sky (Teepo would never admit to these things in front of others, he was too proud). Even until the day they stood before God, Ryu's bright eyes never once dulled. Those dreams never faded. Nonetheless, Ryu had found his way into their lives and everything changed. Instead of remaining that monster on Ogre Road and eventually being slain (as he knew he would've been had fate not grabbed him by the arm), Ryu came back from the dead, back from the burning ashes of their former home and saved him. Rei would quest with him afterwards, in search of answers, in search of a life, and through that journey he'd stand by Ryu and face God; they'd live to tell about it. At one point they'd find Teepo, only to lose him again, for good this time. But they had each other.

Regardless of how it had ended, the time he spent on that country road mercilessly killing all those he felt were affiliated with the black market town of Syn City, the city where the Stallion Brothers came from, had been cruel.

Rei felt that a part of him was still on that road, killing and dying a little himself. After the fire, Rei had awakened bloody and alone, the last embers of the house burning out, and all the familiar, safe memories burning out without. The next day he'd wander into town and find the villagers still scared, scared that the mayor would sick the market on them, as he'd done the boys. A woman had approached him eventually; he'd remember the conversation till the day he died. Her words still stinging at his heart strings.

"You had no right! You kids never should've done that, this was a good town! Things weren't perfect but we were comfortable with it, we were getting by! It was familiar! We're a small town that's all we had, familiarity! Then you kids came in with your silly ideas of justice and heroism…Robin Hood isn't real! You can't do those things! Now we have nothing! Nothing! Just fear and worry!" Her words had stabbed him deeper than the blade he carried that would later pierce Mikba. He had tried to explain to her, why they did what they did. That they'd been tricked, deceived, but her tears only increased. Finally, he couldn't keep it in anymore, and yelled in response to her tears that at least they had tried, that they had stood up for something and that that was more than she had done, more than any of them had done. That at least they had tried to get justice for the people instead of being afraid to venture outside their comfort bubble while they got swindled and tricked. She had started to scream at him by then, and the villagers ran him out of town. He would not return again for years.

Alone, he had decided to seek revenge. He supposed the idea came to him in anger, and he always told himself, one day he wouldn't be angry anymore, and he wouldn't want revenge…that day would take years, and even when he gave it up, he was still angry…he had just found another way to cope. The village did not care, they would not help him, why Rei never went to Bunyan for help, he didn't know, maybe if he had, he'd have found Ryu even sooner and they could've saved Teepo, but he didn't. And time kept clicking on. So he tracked the Mayor's dark activities north to Syn City, where the air was as black as the business.

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The city was unlike anything he'd ever imagined. And truth be told, it scared him. Women would offer him business they couldn't advertise, people would bump into him in an attempt to steal his wallet. He'd known better. Being a thief he knew that trick. He'd find the city too harsh to conduct his business in; he'd find it difficult to steal from thieves. He continued looking till he found the road. Rei'd traveled on it on his way in, but now he saw it in a different light. He could hunt there, not just for food. He could hunt for vengeance there. Surviving off the land as he use to. Other people were a triviality, Rei didn't need anyone other than Teepo and Ryu…and those horse brothers had murdered them.

And now it would seem, as he waited there on that road which reeked of sulfur and coal and chyrsm from the mine, that time watched him. It would stand there lurking just out of his vision, slowing to a painful rate. It would only speed itself up for him later with Ryu. During the time with Ryu the clock would never seem so alive, but not now. Now it passed slowly, and he'd watch his shadow grow longer as time ticked his life away, smiling.

Some days people would come, other days they wouldn't. In the beginning, he'd admit to being afraid, afraid of taking a life, afraid of what he was becoming. Afraid….."That's why I just kept goofing off, playing robber…." He'd say that eventually. A few days would pass and he'd be unable to attack. Finally, he'd give in. Remind himself of what they did to Teepo and Ryu. What they did was wrong he told himself, and those people with their dirt covered clothes and worn out shoes deserved to die. Didn't they?

_**Didn't they?!**_

He'd launch then, claws drawn screaming wildly like the beast he'd suddenly turned into. The man would never see it coming. His corrupt ears would hear the growl, he'd see the shadow briefly block out the sun, and that would be it.

Rei'd be sick later, and he knew it. But for now he swallowed the bitter taste of disgust, like iron in his mouth. Maybe the iron taste was from blood, he wasn't sure. He wiped the scarlet speckles from his face, and watched the man fade. Hours later after he'd bathed, he'd still feel the warmth of the blood and he'd most assuredly still hear the gurgling sound that man had made. The bitter taste returned, and he'd vomit. And time ticked another day away.

Time continued to tick, and those slow days turned into slow weeks and into slow months. Eventually time itself would lose meaning. It wouldn't be until Ryu showed up again that he'd learn how many years he'd lost here. But somewhere in that blur of second hands whirring forward and backward, Rei lost himself. The dying screams of men and thieves and fools and women would stop fazing him, he'd become deaf to them, and stop noticing altogether. He was on the path of destruction, to decay.

Word of him spread quickly to the people of Syn City. It was seldom that a thief would travel that road and not find a mutilated body ripe in the sun, and then go missing themselves. Rei had learned that keeping the body around was like luring moths to a flame. Stupid humans. That's all they ever were, all they'd ever be. Somewhere in that whirr he forgot too. Eventually that would bother him most. He'd forgotten his reasons. He'd forgotten Ryu and Teepo.

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Ending Note: Reviews=love! I know my grammar's a bit off in this one, it's been awhile since I wrote anything, and I'm a little rusty. But please read and reviews, loves!!


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Breath of Fire, Angst, Friendship