Ronin Warriors Fan Fiction ❯ Midnight Shadows ❯ Midnight Shadows ( Chapter 1 )

Midnight Shadows

By Mieren

 

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Sage blinked, head snapping up. Something had triggered his senses, standing the hair on the back of his neck on end. Noticing his look, the others froze, eyeing him askance.

 

Kento paused in shoveling food into his mouth, blinking at his friend from across the table.

 

“Something wrong?” Rowen voiced the question that they had all been thinking.

 

“Something's here,” he whispered, rising slowly. The others jumped to their feet without further question, thoroughly unnerved by the expression on their friend's face. They had never seen him so horrified.

 

Sage was in his full armor before reaching the front door, the others following suit in a mixture of worry and confusion. The five circled the house nearly a half a dozen times before Sage snapped.

 

“Where are you?” he shrieked into the stillness.

 

White Blaze roared suddenly, ears flattening to his head as he snarled at the thick trees beginning on the edge of Mia's property. The Ronins gathered behind the massive tiger, raising their weapons cautiously and eyeing the trees uncertainly.

 

A shadow detached itself from the darkness, the blurred figure resolving into a terrifying abomination before their disbelieving eyes. A long sinuous body decorated by long spikes and heavy ridges landed before them on its eight legs, triangular maw raising slowly to regard the five boys contemptuously. Blood red eyes narrowed as Ryo and Sage leveled their weapons.

 

“What the hell is that?” Kento shrieked, leaping back, arms flapping wildly.

 

“Flare Up Now!” Ryo screamed, unwilling to wait to find out the answer to his friend's question.

 

The greenish bronze abomination calmly stepped aside as the sure-kill shot by it, snarling at the boy that had unleashed that devastating blow in its direction. Scaled lips peeled away from pearly teeth lined in several rows in the massive jaw. Spitting out a few unintelligible words, a blast of energy shot towards the five boys in front of the beast, who nimbly leapt out of the way.

 

The twisted creature watched with interest as the tiger evaded his blast with ease, wondering idly what the great cat was doing here. It didn't have long to ponder the tiger's presence before a second sure-kill was thrown in its direction, immediately followed by a third and fourth. It sidestepped the blows calmly, hissing angrily.

 

“Guys!” Yuley called out loudly as he darted from the house.

 

“Yuley! No!”

 

A second blast from the creature shot towards the young boy. White Blaze, too far off to get to the boy, tackled the scaled abomination, sinking his fangs into the ridged neck. Yuley's scream echoed through the trees for a mere instant. A flash of blinding light erupted from the eight-legged creature as it thrashed from beneath White Blaze's furious slashes.

 

The five boys stared in horror at the sight that greeted them when the searing light cleared from the air. Yuley lay still on the ground, skin blackened and body incinerated beyond healing. A crater scarred the lawn where the beast had been before vanishing, taking the great tiger with him.

 

 

The funeral was held that night, Mia's cries piercing the darkness from where she clung to Ryo's shoulder near the small grave. The Ronins waited until she had passed out, with a little help from Sage's soothing powers, before discussing what they were going to do.

 

“I say it was from the Dynasty!” Kento insisted for at least the hundredth time.

 

“We know it was! That doesn't help!” Sage screamed at him in frustration.

 

“We need to mount a counterattack now before they can send another one of those things! We've already lost Yuley and White Blaze! What's next? Mia? Us?”

 

“We can't just attack without a plan, Kento! We don't know what we're up against! We didn't even scratch the thing! It just left, or have you already forgotten?”

 

“I think we should attack!”

 

“Guys, this isn't helping!” Cye wailed, trying to keep Sage and Kento from one another's throats.

 

“I agree with Kento,” Ryo said softly, drawing everyone's attention. This was the first time he had spoken since the battle earlier in the day.

 

“There must be a gateway somewhere that we haven't seen,” Rowen said calmly, relying on logic, as always, to solve any problem. “We should look for it so that no more of those things will appear.”

 

“Fine! Lets go!” Kento roared, leaping to his feet.

 

“This can wait until morning,” Cye cried out, grabbing his friend's arm.

 

“He's right. We're at a severe disadvantage in the dark,” Rowen murmured thoughtfully, chewing his lower lip.

 

Ryo pushed himself to his feet, storming off to his room. Sage immediately recognized the guilty look on his face and followed him, intent on forcing his friend to see some sense even if it killed them both.

 

The next morning the five Ronins started their search in the city, but it would be a long time before they found anything relating to the monstrosity that had taken two of their companions from them.

 

 

“Guys,” Kento said softly, poking Rowen in the ribs. “There's someone over there.” Rowen glanced in the direction he pointed and shook his head slowly.

 

“I don't see anyone. Are you sure you're not hallucinating? It's been a full hour since you've eaten after all. Really Kento, the city's empty.”

 

“I'm not hallucinating,” Kento griped defensively, “there's someone over there.” When the others continued to ignore him, Kento muttered something thankfully unintelligible under his breath and trotted over to the alley he had been staring at so intently.

 

As Kento neared the alley, he barely had time to shout before crumpling to the ground. A tall, lithe figure cloaked in solid black darted past him and tore down the street at a seemingly impossible speed. Cye took off immediately, the others following after a moment as Kento pushed himself unsteadily to his feet. Cye's eyes widened as he realized that he was losing ground. He was a fast runner, quicker than all of his friends, faster still in his subarmor, but he was falling behind.

 

The person in black pivoted suddenly, bolting down another alley. Cye spun expertly to follow, gasping as he turned into an empty alley. He glanced around furiously and was rewarded with a glimpse of a black boot leaving a fire escape for the roof. Not bothering with the fire escape, Cye jumped up to the roof. The black figure leapt frantically away from Cye, a vagrant breeze pulling the hood back from the shrouded face only to reveal a young girl.

 

She glanced at Cye, her green eyes wild, long black hair wildly disarrayed from the slight breeze and whipping about her slender form. As Cye opened his mouth to tell her that he wasn't going to hurt her, she bolted again, launching herself off of the five-story roof. With a bit-off curse, Cye jumped after her, latching onto her wrist before they had fallen more than a story. Tucking her deftly under one arm, Cye twisted in midair to land surely on his feet. Before Cye could even open his mouth time, he wilted to the ground as the slender girl proved to be very flexible by planting one of her sturdy boots into the back of his skull.

 

The girl was already on her feet and running before Cye hit the ground, only to be cut off at the end of the alley by Ryo, Sage, and Rowen. As Sage slipped past her to help pull Cye to his feet, the cloaked girl tackled Rowen, cracking her fists across his face three times in rapid succession. As Ryo moved to intercept her, she lashed out with one leg, kicking his feet out from under him. Ryo spun nimbly in his fall to catch himself, but grunted as he was thrown to the side as the girl's other leg lashed out, her boot heel catching him in the temple.

 

Kento appeared at the opening of the alley as the girl sped out, and was promptly decked as she passed. He tried frantically to grab one of her ankles as he fell, only to be kicked in the ribs forcefully with a steel-toed boot for his efforts. As he tried to roll to his feet, Cye and Sage sprinted past him, quickly followed by a bloodied Rowen. Ryo paused in passing to haul him to his feet.

 

As Ryo and Kento trotted unsteadily into the street, they found themselves in a scene of absolute chaos. Sage, Cye and Rowen had surrounded the panting girl, Sage on one knee clutching his forehead to slow the stream of blood oozing between his fingers. Cye and Rowen were leaping about wildly in futile attempts to dodge the stones and chunks of pavement flying through the air courtesy of the cloaked girl. Ryo barely had time to gape in shock before a blinding pain exploded between his eyes. Kento grabbed Ryo's arm before he could do a face-plant in the pavement, only to be immediately dropped by another rock himself.

 

Kento heaved himself to his feet, swearing loudly. Crossing his arms in front of his head, he charged the girl. Upon reaching her, he firmly tucked her under one arm to stop her infernal rock throwing and turned to Sage, offering his free hand to pull his swaying friend to his feet.

 

“Don't hold her like that, Kento!” Cye cried out, his warning coming too late for Kento as a heavy boot landed in the back of his skull.

 

The girl tried to slip away, only to have one arm caught by a glaring Sage. She rolled into his arm, swinging her foot viciously. Sage's eyes widened as he lifted a few inches off of the ground. He glanced down at his subarmor, swallowing as he considered what his chances with girls in the future would've been without it. His eyes snapped back to the girl an instant too late as her fist took him fully in the jaw.

 

As Sage crumpled, Rowen tackled her, the two of them rolling across the pavement in a tangle of arms and legs. Being the stronger and heavier of the two, Rowen quickly pinned the girl, kneeling on her wrists and holding her shoulders firmly to the ground. Tossing his head to flip a bloody lock of hair out of his eyes, Rowen opened his mouth to ask her what she was doing in an abandoned city, only to have his breath rush out between his teeth as a knee landed firmly in his back. A second blow flipped him over her head.

 

Cye grabbed her as she rose, holding her close enough that she couldn't use her legs to clobber him again. He wisely kept her arms pinned securely to her sides, understandably wary of her fists and elbows. “Now…” he began, stopping abruptly as stars exploded in his vision as her forehead slammed into his.

 

The girl staggered unsteadily to her feet, intent on running once again, only to go down for good as she was tackled by Ryo and Kento both. Ryo kept her arms pinned, glaring at her angrily while Kento laid across her legs, swaying somewhat unsteadily.

 

Rowen walked over unsteadily, more than half-supporting Sage and Cye, both of which were barely conscious. All of them were bloodied.

 

“Now, what are you doing here? The city has been empty for months.” Ryo tensed as she shifted in his grasp. “We're not going to hurt you. We just want to talk,” he said slowly.

 

The girl glared at Ryo, her eyes narrowing and lips peeling away from her teeth in a feral snarl. She bucked wildly in his grasp, one shoulder producing a sickeningly loud pop. At the sound she gasped and shuddered, the muscles on that side of her body going completely limp. Ryo winced, wondering how badly she had just hurt herself. He was abruptly snapped away from wondering as she snarled menacingly, nearly foaming at the mouth in her blind rage. Although her left arm remained entirely still, every other muscle fought against being held, quivering in his grasp.

 

“We are not going to hurt you,” Ryo repeated softly, glancing at his friends, knowing that the startled expressions on their faces must be mirrored by the one on his own. He glanced back down at the girl as she relaxed slightly in his grasp. Getting up slowly, he released her and motioned for Kento to do the same. She leapt to her feet, left arm hanging limply, and glared at them suspiciously, scowling. Watching them warily, she walked over to the nearest building and slammed her left shoulder into the wall, a loud pop drifting back to the Ronins, who winced at the sound. She walked back towards them slowly, her jade-colored eyes shimmering in an inquisitive fashion as she tapped his armor lightly with the tips of her fingers. Ryo gasped. She topped Sage by almost four inches, and he was far from short.

 

“We're the Ronin warriors,” Ryo said slowly in answer to her inquisitive expression, not bothering to elaborate as her eyes widened in recognition. She nodded slowly, chewing her bottom lip for a moment, deep in contemplation. After a moment of silent debate, she walked closer to Ryo, who shifted away slightly, still wary from their battle. As he edged away and she contently followed, Ryo couldn't help but sigh.

 

 

As the five Ronins walked slowly back to Mia's house, a silent shadow trailed them. Due to the blows he received to his back and the many to his head, Rowen was having trouble walking as was Sage, though for a different reason. Every few minutes Sage glanced downwards, eyeing the dent in his subarmor, before turning to stare at the steel-toed boot that was responsible for it. Kento walked slowly, holding his ribs for the most part, occasionally unfolding his arms to wipe the blood streaming from a gash in his scalp out of his eyes. Cye staggered drunkenly down the street, the two massive blows he received to the head leaving him unsteady and slightly delirious.

 

Ryo watched the others with concern. He appeared to be the steadiest among the group, and he felt as though he would drop at any moment. For the first half-hour the group had walked, he had all but carried a near unconscious Cye, who still looked as though he needed help to stay upright. Ryo glanced back at his new shadow, still trailing five paces behind him, and sighed again. They had all tried to get the girl to speak to them, but she wouldn't utter a word, not a single syllable. She hadn't even acknowledged that they existed after nodding to herself when they had introduced themselves. Except by following us, Ryo thought with a wry grin.

 

Cye tripped on his own feet, landing heavily on the pavement, completely unable to catch himself, almost appearing as though he hadn't even tried. Kento lunged wildly as Cye first stumbled, but was too sore to move quickly enough to counter his friend's fall. He moved to help the younger boy to his feet, crying out as Cye made no move to help pull himself up, then shifting quickly to carry him. Kento was promptly shoved out of the way as Ryo's living shadow moved forward to study the youngest Ronin. Kento opened his mouth to protest, but stopped short as she lifted Cye's unconscious form across her shoulders and took her place behind Ryo once again. Rowen and Sage shook their heads in resignation, motioning for a furious Kento to leave her alone.

 

Ryo only glanced at the girl for a moment before starting forward again. The others couldn't remain on their feet much longer and he doubted the girl could carry Cye like that for very long. In his subarmor, he was heavy. Ryo grimaced, closing his eyes. At the rate they were moving now it would take hours to get back to where they had left the car before entering the city.

 

Kento and Sage were suddenly thrown violently into the wall of a nearby building, cracks in the wall clearly visible. Ryo's head snapped up instantly, eyes locking on the forms of more than a dozen Dynasty soldiers.

 

“Armor of Wildfire! Dao Jin!”

 

Even as Ryo called his armor, his shadow darted past him, depositing Cye at his feet before physically tackling the nearest soldier. Ryo swore loudly. Rowen had already fallen, and neither Kento nor Sage made any move to get up.

 

Ryo spun his katanas wildly around him, too tired to fight properly. His graceless swings were barely keeping the soldiers at bay. One slid past his defenses, knocking him roughly off his feet to send him rolling across the pavement. A dark blur passed behind the soldier as he neared Ryo. He managed to turn aside the soldier's first swing, but didn't bother with the second as it fell well short of him, a spear broken across the soldier's head. The girl only glanced at Ryo before commandeering the soldier's weapon and charging into the thrall once more, treating the new spear much like a quarterstaff. Ryo barely had time to regain his feet before it was over.

 

The cloaked girl swiftly drug all of the fallen Ronins to the center of the street. Plucking Rowen's headband from his hair, she promptly tied his left wrist to Sage's right. Tossing Cye over her shoulders once more, she slipped Rowen's and Sage's tied arms across Cye and slowly struggled to her feet, glancing quickly at Ryo and Kento. Ryo positively gaped. He had been surprised when she had been able to carry just Cye, and now she was carrying Rowen and Sage as well, although her knees looked decidedly unsteady. Ryo quickly banished his armor and slipped Kento's arms over his shoulders, leaning forward as he stood to pull Kento well onto his back. He looked up, shocked to see that the girl hadn't waited on him, instead taking the lead in a slow lope that Ryo was almost unable to keep up with.

 

Ryo had no way of keeping track of time as they ran down the streets. At least two hours, he estimated. The girl had slowly increased her pace until he had to run frantically to keep up, nearly dropping Kento several times. After what seemed like an eternity, she slowed and stopped. Ryo stumbled to a halt beside her, dropping Kento on the ground in his haste to put him down, then collapsing beside him. He glanced at the girl and grinned ruefully as he noticed that she was breathing as hard as he was. She had deposited her load to the ground rather roughly, and was now glaring down at the three still forms.

 

After a moment she reached down to untie Rowen and Sage, shaking them both slightly. Pursing her lips thoughtfully when neither moved, she began to shake Rowen vigorously, who in turn issued a loud snore. With a vexed hiss, she placed one hand firmly over his mouth while the other pinched his nose shut. Ryo's lips twitched. He had tried to wake Rowen in the past and knew full well the impossibility of getting his friend up any sooner than two in the afternoon. He couldn't help but grin though. Despite everything he had tried in his past attempts, he had never thought of this. Ryo watched in amazement as Rowen tried to breathe through her hand for a moment before making an odd sound deep in his throat and lurching upright. As Rowen first began to move, she calmly released him and turned to Sage.

 

“What the hell…” Rowen trailed off as he peered around, obviously confused. Ryo only remained where he had collapsed, chuckling softly.

 

“She had to find some way to wake you up,” Ryo said, grinning at his friend's frustrated expression. “She got tired of carrying you. You'd think that you were as heavy as Kento considering how happy she was to put you down. With the way you sleep though, I'm surprised that you didn't just suffocate or try to gnaw her hand off.”

 

Rowen made a face at him, about to reply, instead spinning to face the cloaked girl at her startled cry. She was clutching one hand in the other, blood running down her arm. With an effort, Ryo suppressed a snicker. “Your sleeping habits are rubbing off on Sage, I think.” Rowen calmly picked up a stone and chunked it at his friend, who finally gave in and laughed.

 

The girl flipped her raven-black hair out of her face and studied Sage carefully. Dropping down to position her face directly next to his, she softly breathed into his ear, running one finger down his cheek. Sage's mouth twisted into a contented smile, sending Ryo and Rowen into peals of laughter.

 

“Way to go, Sage!” Rowen called loudly, bringing a cringe from Sage, whose eyes fluttered open slowly, squinting in the light. Rolling his head to glance to his right, Sage uttered a sound that was nearly a shriek, scrambling away from the girl as quickly as he was able to get his bruised muscles to respond. Between fits of laughing, Ryo and Rowen tried to explain things to Sage, who slowly shook his head as he struggled to chuckle and speak at the same time.

 

“Twenty bucks says neither method works on Kento,” Sage muttered.

 

“You're on,” Ryo grinned.

 

Rowen looked at Ryo and Sage and shook his head. Ryo's going to lose, he thought simply as he looked at the girl's face as she walked towards Kento. Holding Kento up by one arm, she delivered a full-armed slap to his face. As Kento spluttered, only half awake, she dropped him onto the pavement to turn to Cye. Rowen grinned at him ruefully, hoping the girl was gentler with Cye. Half awake thought he was, Kento took a wild swing at Sage as he tried to pull him to his feet, both of them ending up in a heap cursing loudly at one another.

 

Worried that she was about to employ the same tactics on Cye, Ryo struggled to his feet, moving to intercept the girl before she reached him. As he caught her arm, she slammed her elbow into his chest, knocking him to the ground, gasping. The four Ronins watched her warily, wondering if they would have to fight her again. Ryo groaned at the idea and knew that Rowen's wince came for the same reason.

 

Without even glancing at Ryo from where he lay sprawled on the ground, she knelt beside Cye, placing a hand gently on his forehead. She immediately reached up to her neck and unfastened her cloak. While the others watched, concerned, she wrapped the thick black cloth around Cye, lifting him gently into her arms. Kento came forward to take his best friend away from her, but stopped short as she glared at him. Grinding his teeth, he moved forward to place his hand on Cye's forehead, as she had done, and gasped, eyes widening in horror. At the others' confused stares, he slowly shook his head.

 

“He's ice cold,” Kento whispered, half to himself. Rowen darted forward before the words were out of his mouth, gently checking Cye's temperature and pulse before running his hands carefully through Cye's hair.

 

“His skull is cracked,” he said slowly, glancing at Sage.

 

Sage nodded, quickly moving forward to help the younger boy, only to pass out from the strain. The others looked at his still form in horror. Sage was too weak to use his abilities, and without him, Cye couldn't be healed. Kento and Rowen tried to awaken him for a few minutes before supporting him between the two of them. Ryo's eyes were tight with strain as he started the group moving once again.

 

 

Upon reaching the car, the girl refused to release her hold on Cye, simply slipping into the front seat of the vehicle after fumbling with the door handle for a few seconds, cradling him gently in her arms. The others watched her for a moment before piling into the car, Kento quickly stuffing Sage into the back seat before vaulting in after him. Rowen shoved Kento roughly to the side as he climbed in beside them. With one last glance at the girl, Ryo sighed and turned the car to head back to Mia's.

 

The drive back was a quiet one, the only sounds in the car being Sage's heavy breathing. Rowen frequently leaned over the seat to check Cye, only to be slapped hard by the girl after leaning over her one too many times.

 

Mia ran out to meet the guys as they pulled up, crying out as she saw Cye draped unconscious in the arms of a cloaked figure and Kento carrying Sage much like a sack of potatoes.

 

“What happened?” she asked, grasping Ryo firmly by the shoulder.

 

“We'll have to explain later. Right now, we need to do something about Cye. He's hurt pretty badly,” Ryo said softly as the girl fell in behind him again. He grimaced at her before heading inside, leading the girl quickly to Cye's room, Mia following the entire way, trying futilely to pry answers out of the exhausted Ronin. As Cye was deposited gently on his bed, Rowen pushed past all of them to examine Cye again, Kento crowding behind him, entirely forgetting that he was still carrying Sage. As Rowen placed his hands on Cye's skull, he stirred, groaning groggily and trying to rise. Rowen gasped and quickly pushed him back to the bed, glancing at the others.

 

“I suppose I was mistaken,” he said slowly, “he's not hurt as bad as I thought he was. At the worst he'll have a headache for a few days. If it was anything more serious than that, he wouldn't be moving so soon.” Looking at Kento, he added, “You can put him down now, Kento. He needs to rest.”

 

Kento glanced at Cye one last time before trotting out of the room to get rid of Sage before coming back in to examine his best friend for himself. Pushing everyone else out of the room roughly, he dropped to the floor beside his friend's bed, intent on watching him through the night. He fought his drooping eyelids valiantly for several hours, head snapping up when Cye began muttering in his sleep, his slurred speech almost unintelligible. Swallowing nervously, he leaned forward to hear more clearly.

 

“As an innocent falls to the darkness, a shadow waits in the midnight's sheltering arms, hidden and alone. Only the light shall evade destruction brought by the first shadow's coming, but will fall to the second. Golden fires rise to a plea coming from the night, and thus shall the Diamond be taken. Flames of sapphire will fade into the night, and the darkness will fall in the wake of their destruction.”

 

Shaking his head numbly, he leaned back, knowing the futility of trying to understand his friend when he started ranting like that.

 

 

Kento awoke groggily to see a blanket draped across his shoulders and his friend missing. Lurching to his feet in panic, he bolted downstairs to alert the others, skidding to a stop as he saw Cye and Mia in the kitchen, calmly cooking breakfast.

 

Cye looked up at him and grinned cheerfully. “I didn't think that you'd be up so soon, Kento. You were downright wasted. I tried to wake you up in the middle of the night so you could sleep more comfortably in your bed, but you wouldn't budge. Hey, do me a favor and wake the others. Breakfast is ready.”

 

Grinning foolishly upon seeing that his friend really was all right, Kento spun to wake the others. He passed Sage in the hall, drearily heading to the bathroom to primp for the next hour if Kento had to guess. Shrugging, he turned to pound on Ryo's door. When no one answered immediately, he opened the door and glanced in, nearly choking as he saw Ryo dozing peacefully on the bed, the girl sprawled across him.

 

“No wonder you're sleeping in,” Kento called loudly. “You were up all night!”

 

Ryo's eyes opened slowly, he craned his head to look around, crying out in horror when he saw the girl lying halfway across him. Scrambling frantically, Ryo tried to move away from her, but froze as her heard a click and some muffled snickering. Looking up, he saw Kento grinning openly while Sage snapped another picture. Quickly untangling himself from the sheets and the girl, Ryo launched himself after the other two Ronins, but not before Sage bolted to hide his newly developed Polaroid that he had been flapping around merrily.

 

Ryo glared at the girl as he quickly dressed, stalking down to the kitchen only to find the others snickering fitfully. He grumbled to himself, turning to Kento.

 

“You forgot to get Rowen up.”

 

“You think I'm crazy? I'm not goin' in there. Rowen'll kill me.”

 

“I'm certainly not getting him up, I have to live with him remember?”

 

“Well, one of you needs to get him up. I can't right now, I'm busy cooking.”

 

“I'm not going to do it. What if he kicked his clothes off again last night? I don't want to see that this early in the morning, and I don't think he wants me to either.”

 

The girl walked into the room, silently watching the others argue as she claimed a seat at the table. Grabbing up one of the waffles piled on the table, she gnawed on it quietly while they debated who was going to go through the battle of getting Rowen up this morning.

 

Rising slowly, she left the room, heading back upstairs. The Ronins and Mia watched her go, turning to each other when she was out of sight.

 

“Maybe she'll get him up,” Ryo said hopefully, not wanting to experience Rowen's wrath if he had to awaken him. The others had similarly hopeful expressions on their faces that would have been quite comical if they weren't there for such a good reason. Anyone who woke Rowen had to face his fiery, and often vengeful, temper.

 

As they heard the bathroom door open and running water, Mia sighed. “I guess that was too much to hope for. She probably has too much sense to go in there.” She paused, looking at the guys. “Cye told me as much as he knew about her. Did you guys find out anything else while he was unconscious?”

 

Ryo shook his head. “Not a thing. She won't speak at all. But don't change the subject. We still need to find someone to wake Rowen.”

 

Cye and Mia immediately seemed very preoccupied with cooking breakfast. Kento started shoveling food into his mouth, hoping that would deter him from being chosen. Ryo and Sage began a contest of wills, staring at each other intently with jaws set in firmly stubborn lines.

 

The decision was taken from them, however, as they heard a loud pop and a startled shriek from upstairs. Thinking that the girl had found the true depths of Rowen's temper by trying to awaken him, Ryo hopped to his feet and sprinted upstairs. He was nearly trampled in the hall, though, as a completely naked Rowen darted by him in a dead run. Staring after his friend in shock, he was nearly run over again as the young girl shot by him after Rowen, neatly cracking him in the backside with a wet towel, earning another squall from the blue-haired youth. Pausing only for a moment, Ryo chased the both of them down the stairs, laughing wildly.

 

Swinging into the kitchen, Rowen squawked indignantly as he spotted Mia, spinning to dart out again only to be popped once more. The Ronins in the kitchen only had time to gape in astonishment before Rowen was gone again to the sound of more cracks from a wet towel. Immediately getting to their feet, the guys followed the two combatants into the living room, Sage happily clicking pictures of Rowen as he tried futilely to avoid the towel snapped at him with unerring accuracy.

 

Already covered in a mass of welts, Rowen spun in a blind fury, trying to pull the towel out of the girl's grasp. As they both pulled frantically at the towel, the girl shrugged, suddenly releasing her hold to send Rowen sprawling backwards before darting wisely out of the room.

 

 

The next morning, no one bothered to fight over who had the privilege to fight Rowen out of bed. Ryo simply asked the girl where she lay sleeping on the couch in the living room. Blinking at him drearily, she rolled to her feet, trudging up to Rowen's room. The others followed, Sage with a camera, to see what horror she would inflict upon their friend to pry him out of bed this time.

 

Sitting beside him on the bed, she ran one finger across his cheek slowly. When Rowen failed to react in the slightest, she placed one hand on either side of his head, lowering her face closer to his. Sage grinned, getting the camera ready as he expected his friend to receive a kiss from the strange girl. He nearly choked laughing as she did something completely different from what he had anticipated, licking Rowen's face sloppily from chin to forehead. Rowen launched himself out of the bed, executing a mad little dance around the room, spitting and hacking in a fury. The girl grinned at her handiwork, spinning to return downstairs.

 

 

Sitting at breakfast stiffly, Rowen glared at the girl sitting opposite him at the table. Every morning for the last week she had been the one to wake him up with methods that were less than pleasant at best. Today he had simply been dropped out of the window from the second floor. Yesterday she had filled his nose with whipped cream. The day before that, she had calmly reached under the sheets, with his friends watching of course, and grabbed his other friend. The guys were still teasing him about that one.

 

As if sensing his sudden scowl, the girl looked innocently across the table at him. She stiffened suddenly, head snapping back, a low growl emanating from deep in her throat. All conversation at the table ceased as the guys looked at her trembling form.

 

“What is it?” Ryo asked slowly, not expecting an answer. She had been staying with them for over a week and still would not speak. They had all but given up attempting to force her to talk, all attempts merely earning them disgusted scowls. Jumping to her feet, she bolted outside. A startled squawk originating from outside got all of the guys on their feet immediately, bolting outside into a scene of total chaos.

 

Despite the time in the day, the sky was dark, the area surrounding the house unnatural shadows. The young girl was grappling with Cale on the ground in a tangled mass of arms, legs, and armor. Sehkmet slashed at her with a venom-laced sword. Back arching, she twisted awkwardly to avoid the blow, losing her hold on Cale in the process. The Ronins immediately donned their subarmor, charging into the fray. Sage and Kento were thrown to the ground as Dais launches his own attack from behind, Kento feebly rolling to his feet as Dais seized Sage and vanished.

 

Rowen howled in fury as his friend disappeared, calling his armor. Kento opened his mouth to call his armor as well, dropping again as Cale threw the girl viciously into him as he rose. Kento roared with a sudden viciousness that matched Rowen's as Sehkmet tackled Cye, carrying them both to the ground an instant before vanishing with his captured victim. Launching herself in a futile attack, the girl tackled Cale again. Ryo and Kento used the small break in the fighting to call their armors. Sehkmet and Dais reappeared, smirking at the three standing Ronins.

 

“Recruiting girls to help you fight?” Cale taunted, approaching Ryo. Ryo growled, leveling his katanas, the girl falling in behind him again much to his frustration.

 

Rowen and Kento rounded off with Dais and Sehkmet, who sneered in disgust at the boys who had the tenacity to face them.

 

Mia screamed as a blinding flash of light burned her eyes. Squinting wildly at the battleground, she cried out again, staring in absolute horror. The yard was empty. The girl and every one of the Ronins were gone.

 

 

Ryo pushed himself groggily to his feet, rubbing his eyes in a vain attempt to clear them. He had been fighting, hadn't he? He shook his head, trying to clear a mind that refused to awaken, looking dully at the blur that was his armor. Slowly his eyes cleared and he gasped in recognition. He was in the middle of one of his favorite hiking trails, nearly five miles from where he had been fighting the Warlords. He looked around frantically, trying to find some sign of the others. Seeing a small crumpled heap not ten paces from where he stood, Ryo blinked in confusion. The girl? Why was she here and where were the others?

 

Ryo moved to help her up, pulling her limp form across his shoulders before turning to head back to Mia's. Trotting drunkenly down the trail, he silently mulled over the flash of light that had exploded in the battlefield, leaving him alone so far from where he had been. Glancing skeptically at the girl, he idly wondered if this was her doing, but dismissed the thought as soon as it entered his mind. He wanted to call out for the others but inwardly knew the futility of it and remained silent. He tried without success to convince himself that the others had been scattered about like he had been, that he would find them waiting at Mia's. Tears burned in his eyes as he accepted the truth. The others were gone. He couldn't sense their presence in the slightest. He was in the middle of the woods, injured and carrying an unconscious girl. Alone.

 

Sometime later, Ryo passed out on the edge of Mia's lawn, the last thing his mind saw before shutting down was Mia, running towards him as he collapsed.

 

 

Sage groaned, struggling briefly to regain his feet. His eyes snapped open fully at the sound of screamed vulgarities. Kento, he thought dully. Trying to locate Kento in the absolute blackness surrounding him, he tried again to rise, lurching strangely to one side before coming to the conclusion that he was bound, wrists to ankles. He slowly applied pressure to the bonds, testing their strength. They didn't budge in the slightest. Growling softly, he increased the pressure on the bonds until the muscles throughout his body began to tremble from the strain. He lay limply on the ground, panting softly, irritated by the darkness, his inability to rise.

 

“Kento,” he called out softly, not surprised when he didn't get a response. Listening to the curses drifting softly through the air, he realized that Kento must be a good distance from him, judging by the echoes. He must have been absolutely shrieking earlier for Sage to have heard him so clearly. Sage winced, wondering what had been done to his friend to make him cry out like that, in such desperation. Sighing softly, he began twisting his wrists as he worked slowly on freeing himself from his bonds.

 

 

Kento bucked wildly against the chains tying him hand and foot, spitting curses at the top of his lungs. He had awoken too early for his captors' liking. Unfortunately he had already been tied, left to watch helplessly as his friends were drug roughly away. Unbidden, the memories of Cye's limp form returned to him.

 

Kento lurched against his bonds, blood flecked spittle flying from his lips as he saw Sehkmet tying Cye. His sudden curses startled Sehkmet from his work.

 

“What's wrong, Hardrock?” he asked, delivering a kick to Cye's ribs, grinning as Kento's curses and vulgarities increased in volume and pitch.

 

The world spun wildly as Sehkmet slammed his heel into Kento's temple.

 

Kento refused to pass out. He could only watch in tears as Sage and Rowen were removed from the room. Cale and Sehkmet remained, amused by Kento's shouts as they held a blade to Cye's throat.

 

“Shall we kill him,” Cale asked in all seriousness, “or shall we bring him over to fight for us? The choice is yours, Hardrock.”

 

Tears streamed freely down Kento's face as he remembered his decision. All of them would suffer the consequences of his choice.

 

 

Rowen had vaguely heard Cale's taunts drifting down the halls followed by Kento's vulgarities. He was aware of being drug down the halls roughly by a chain tied to the bonds holding his wrists. Sage was no longer being hauled beside him, having been deposited in a well-guarded chamber nearly half an hour ago. Where the hell were they taking him? Surely they didn't think that the four of them had to be separated by this great a distance.

 

He craned his head to look stiffly over his shoulder, catching a glimpse of Dais's white hair. Dais noticed his look and grinned maliciously.

 

“How would you like to hear your friend's decision?” he asked, lips peeling away from his teeth in something that might have been interpreted as a grin. “Hardrock decided that you are all to serve the Dynasty, boy, starting with your friend Torrent.”

 

Rowen froze, his throat constricting. Kento said WHAT?!? He was going to kill him when he got out of this.

 

Dais grinned wider upon seeing Rowen's face twist into a disgusted snarl. Chuckling softly, he lifted Rowen by the chest plate of his subarmor, so that he was on eye level with him. “Anxious for your friend, Strata?” he taunted. “You can join him if you like. Two can be affected by the Nether spirits as easily as one.” He laughed again as Rowen bucked in his grip frantically, complying with his wish to be released by dropping him to the ground.

 

Rowen tossed his head, twisting viciously in his bonds, frantic to be loose. Ryo, oh God, Ryo. I didn't see him with the others. Ryo, for the love of God, get us out of here.

 

 

Cye regained consciousness slowly. A strange feeling washed over him. He almost felt like he was floating. Abruptly, he realized that he was underwater. His eyes snapped open as he realized it was either swim or drown. Not exactly sure which way was up, Cye let out a mouthful of the precious little air he had left, spinning nimbly in the water to begin moving towards the surface with sure, graceful movements. With his first stroke he realized that he was not in water. It didn't move quite right and it was beginning to burn his eyes. He was about to shut his eyes again when he saw a blur sink slowly by him just to his left. His eyes burned so badly he could barely make out its shape, but his mind didn't miss the distinctive mass of blue hair. Rowen.

 

Cye snagged Rowen by clutching a fistful of his unconscious friend's hair. With a desperation he hadn't known before, Cye began to struggle towards the surface.

 

Bursting to the surface, Cye gulped down a much-needed breath of air, careful to keep Rowen's head above the water. His eyes burned painfully, everything around him beginning to blur. He blinked uncertainly, frowning when he found that he couldn't even make out his friend's face in the dim light that pulsed softly, seeming to originate from nowhere and everywhere at the same time. All he could see of Rowen was a mass of blurred colors. The blue of this hair, he expected, but the near purple face streaked with red made Cye catch his breath. Listening to his friend's rasping breath until he was convinced that Rowen hadn't taken in a lung-full of water, or whatever they were in, Cye tried to gauge how badly his friend was injured. Knowing he couldn't support them both forever even with the help of his subarmor, Cye began to swim around slowly in the increasing darkness, looking for a shallower area, somewhere where he could touch the bottom.

 

 

Ryo's eyes fluttered open weakly. The minimal light in the dim room was too much for his pounding head, resulting in a feeble groan. A cool hand was placed on his forehead immediately. Ryo ignored the stinging lights and forced his eyes open, struggling briefly to sit up. Gentle hands pushed his shoulders back down.

 

“Don't try to get up yet, Ryo,” Mia said softly, appalled at how easily she was able to hold the youth down.

 

Ryo ignored her, trying to rise again, angry that he could not get up, that he could not help his friends. How would he be able to help them if he couldn't even sit up? When he began to struggle again, a second pair of hands pinned him while Mia moved back, muttering to herself with her hands on her hips, one foot tapping impatiently. Glaring at the slender girl holding him down in Mia's place, Ryo attempted to knock her hands away and roll off of the bed onto his feet. Sensing his intentions, the girl calmly plopped down on his chest, effectively pinning him beyond any movement. Growling in frustration, Ryo could only relax helplessly.

 

Mia nodded in satisfaction. “Now that you've agreed to stay put,” she said dryly, “you can help us plan. I could use some help here. The girl isn't exactly easy to understand, you realize. She's been trying to communicate with hand gestures, but sometimes it takes me awhile to figure out what she's trying to tell me.” When Ryo looked up at her expectantly, she continued. “So far, I've figured out that she wants you to go with her into the Dynasty to get the others. She's been trying to explain the details to me, but I haven't been able to understand any of them. Some of her gestures are a bit strange at the very least.”

 

Ryo nodded slowly. “Can I at least sit up to do this?” At Mia's scandalized expression, he added hastily, “I won't try to stand. I just want to sit up so I can eat without choking.”

 

Mia's expression was frankly disbelieving. She knew his tricks far too well by now. She wished that White Blaze were here to help her out with his unruly owner, sighing softly as she looked at the thick rug where he used to sleep. In a battle about two months ago, he had simply disappeared while trying to protect Yuley. Her eyes misted at the thought of the little boy, the memory of the too-small coffin. No one should have to die that young, not like that.

 

Snapping her thoughts back to the Ronins to keep from having a complete emotional breakdown, she glanced at the utter confusion of Ryo's face. She understood that look immediately. The girl was trying to explain her plans while he simply had no idea what she was doing. The girl let out an irritated breath, settling on a single set of gestures that Ryo obviously understood well. She pointed to herself, to Ryo, and then to the door.

 

Mia sighed. “He needs to rest,” she began, eyes widening as the girl hopped off Ryo's bed and pulled him to his feet when he nodded. Ryo's knees buckled for an instant before he locked them, refusing to get much-needed rest when his friends needed him. Grabbing his armor orb, he donned his subarmor as he followed the girl out of the room. Mia rose furiously, following the two of them out of the room and into the kitchen. Dumping out Mia's cloth backpack, the girl began to pack any food she saw into it, blatantly ignoring Mia's protests. She paused every now and then to push some food on Ryo with a look that told him he had better eat it if he didn't want it shoved down his throat.

 

Ryo glanced at the clock on the microwave, frowning slightly. It was midmorning. Looking to Mia, he slowly asked a question that she had been hoping he wouldn't. He would be frantic when he learned the answer. “What is today?”

 

Mia's throat tightened. “Tuesday,” she whispered, wincing as Ryo nearly choked on what he had been eating. He had returned to pass out of her lawn around mid-afternoon on Saturday and hadn't woken up for nearly three days. When the girl tapped him on the shoulder and turned to go, Ryo nearly trampled her in his haste to get to the others. Mia's eyes misted and then filmed as she watched them walk outside, the girl eyeing the surrounding area carefully. She cried silently as they got into the car, Ryo speeding off to find a gate to the Dynasty somewhere within the abandoned city. Mia fell to her knees, crying aloud for Ryo. What chance did he have? What chance did any of them have? Ryo was entering the Dynasty exhausted and injured with only an unarmed girl posing as his only chance to escape alive. Her lungs burned with sobs as she watched Ryo go to what she was certain would be his death.

 

 

Ryo leapt out of the car, ramming the Dynasty gate with his shoulder. He strained until his muscles screamed at the misuse, stopping his exertions as he was pushed to the ground. He glared at the girl, face twisting into a scowl as she approached the door, closing her right hand into a fist. At the first crack of her fist, the door shivered, a small crack appearing where the girl's hand had come into contact. A swift series of kicks resulted in a fair sized hole in the door. Ryo's jaw dropped in shock. She hopped through, motioning sharply for Ryo to follow. He followed slowly, gasping when the door vanished behind him. The girl was already trotting swiftly across the barren lands, unerringly towards the horizon which seemed to have a faint outline of a dark castle.

 

 

Ryo collapsed. He had been exhausted when they started, and they had been running for several hours on end. The girl circled back, quickly tossing him across her shoulders before breaking into a run once more. Even having seen her do this before, Ryo couldn't believe she had enough strength to carry him like this without tiring. He had come to recognize her heavy breathing for what is was, simply a need for oxygen, not an out-of-shape pant that anyone else would be exhibiting. After another three hours of carrying him, she paused for a break, rummaging through the backpack she had been carrying, her breathing already back to normal. Even after being carried for three hours, Ryo was weary, his legs rubbery. He groaned when she started moving again after a scant ten-minute break. The only thing that kept Ryo on his feet and moving was the knowledge that his friends needed him.

 

It took Ryo and the girl a full day of running to reach the castle, the scant three breaks the girl had allowed not enough for Ryo's weary body. She had ended up carrying him for the last nine hours while he dozed uneasily across her shoulders. He had felt horrible at first, but gradually relaxed when he realized that she didn't mind and it wasn't wearing her out significantly.

 

Soldiers appeared on occasion, but never heard their silent approach or departure, the girl being unnervingly quiet on her feet.

 

Reaching the edge of the castle, she dropped Ryo to the ground, leaping up to grasp the side of the wall nearly four stories above the ground. Scaling the wall for another few feet, she vanished into a small, nearly invisible hole in the wall. A slender hand snaked out, motioning for him to follow. Ryo leaped up, grasping the proffered hand and swinging himself into what appeared to be an open air vent. The girl had already turned to move down the airshaft. He sighed forlornly, crawling stiffly after the lithe form disappearing into the darkness.

 

After a few minutes, she turned sharply down a side tunnel so narrow that Ryo could barely fit. After less than a minute of crawling, she vanished completely. Ryo gasped. Where the hell was she? A hand appeared out of nowhere, snagging his wrist and pulling him into a hole leading straight down. Falling for what seemed like forever, Ryo's descent was suddenly ended as the girl latched onto another tunnel, both of them slamming into the side of the vent. Ryo was roughly pulled into the tunnel after the black-cloaked figure, leading him to a small open area within the tunnel. This area had caved in from above, creating a huge cavern but blocking the path leading forward. A slender hand placed itself on his chest, silently indicating that he was to stay there. Too weary to object, Ryo slumped against the wall in the utter darkness, wondering idly what she was doing. His breath caught in his throat as the girl turned to face him, depositing the bag of food and her heavy boots in his lap. Even in this absolute blackness he could clearly make out her eyes, glowing a soft red. She spun and vanished into the tunnels once more.

 

Ryo panted miserably in the darkness. He was tired and still in bad shape from the battle with the Warlords a few days ago, some of them having managed to have gotten in a few good shots, not to mention alone and lost in the middle of the Dynasty, effectively blind in the unnatural gloom surrounding him. To top it all off, the girl, whom Ryo now seriously doubted was human, actually seemed to know her way around this maze, which was more than slightly disconcerting.

 

 

Kento shifted uneasily in the darkness, groaning softly as the muscles through his shoulders and back screamed in protest. It was bad enough that he had been tied hand and foot, curled backwards in a painfully awkward position, but to have been hung from the ceiling by the bonds holding his wrists to his feet was downright excruciating. The weight of his subarmor increased the pull on his weary muscles, almost making him wish that he wasn't wearing it.

 

He stiffened suddenly, ignoring his body's quivering protests, as the chain holding him roughly five feet off of the ground rattled softly. He craned his neck futilely around to see who or what had come in to torment him this time. For the past three days someone had come in every few hours at the very least to thrash him into oblivion. Growling softly, he wished fervently that he had the strength to resist, eyes misting in hopelessness as he waited for the blows to begin. Much to his surprise, he was dropped roughly to the ground. This was new. His heart clenched in horror at what that might mean, his mind turning to the decision the Warlords had forced him to make.

 

The chains and shackles still binding Kento were slowly pried off, releasing trembling muscles from an impossible position. As he was hauled to his feet, Kento lashed out in a blind fury and was rewarded with a deft backhanded blow across his jaw. Staggering blindly in the perpetual blackness around him, he could only blink in confusion as a shoulder was placed lightly against his abdomen, heavily muscled arms encircling his upper thighs. He uttered an undignified cry as he was abruptly lifted to hang limply across a well-defined shoulder. Within two paces his captor reached the wall and promptly proceeded to release the hold on his legs, leaving him balanced rather precariously as they began a swift, if unsteady, ascent.

 

Not relishing the idea of falling to the floor below in his condition, Kento held on tenaciously to the lithe form beneath him. After what seemed like an eternity of climbing, his captor jerked him roughly from his ever-shifting perch. Kento grabbed desperately at anything loose on his captor, frantic to find some sort of hold that would prevent him from being dropped to the ground far below. A second crack across his face stopping any such nonsense, Kento was dangled in midair by one ankle for a moment before promptly being yanked into a hole in the wall.

 

Panting furiously, he attempted another swing at whoever was holding his ankle. A firm hand caught his wrist, pulling him steadily along. Spitting out a curse resulted with a hand held across his mouth for a moment, only to be jerked away with an outraged gasp as Kento sunk his teeth into the tender flesh of the hand holding him. Another slap followed, this one hard enough to send a flash of light dancing across his vision. Blinking uncertainly at whatever held his wrist, he gasped in horror and tired to back away as he spotted unmistakably glowing eyes. Bucking only earned him a fist slammed into his jaw. Spirit utterly crushed, Kento followed along brokenly.

 

After what seemed like an eternity in the tunnels, the two reached an opening in the passages below them. Shifting slightly, the dark figure in front of Kento swung him out into an opening, an abyss that nearly made Kento wet himself until he realized that he wasn't going to be dropped by whoever held his wrist. Sliding rapidly down the wall, he was abruptly flung into another opening to a tunnel, this one leading to a small cavern, Kento thought by the echoes. Something shifted in the inky blackness beyond him, and he couldn't stop himself from crying out softly.

 

“Is that you?” a familiar voice whispered tremulously from just beyond Kento's reach. Head snapping up, Kento jerked his wrist away from his abductor, staggering purposely forward.

 

“Ryo?” he asked softly, voice quavering uncertainly.

 

“Oh, God, Kento! It's you!” Ryo called out quietly, but unmistakably wearily. A hand clasped firmly onto Kento's shoulder for an instant before pulling him into a rough embrace. “Hungry?”

 

The very idea caused Kento to return the embrace fiercely before asking, “Food?” in an unsteady murmur. Ryo handed him a loaf of somewhat stale bread. Not complaining, Kento began bolting the food as quickly as he could get it down his throat, asking around a large mouthful, “Was that the girl?”

 

“Yeah…” The answer was so slow in coming that Kento had almost asked again, thinking that Ryo hadn't heard him. He paused for an instant in stuffing his face, appalled by the uncertainty and fear that he heard in his friend's voice. As he turned to look for the glowing eyes, Ryo spoke up, sensing his movement. “She already left. She was gone almost before you freed yourself from her grip.”

 

 

Sage blinked in absolute bafflement as he was slowly lowered to the ground. Too stiff and weary to struggle, he waited limply as the shackles holding him were torn away. This had never happened before. He knew that another beating was coming, but had long since ceased to care. Bucking wildly like he had the first few times had only added exhaustion and stiffness to the injuries inflicted upon him.

 

When he was lifted carefully to his feet, his head snapped up in utter confusion as he tried to get a look at this session's tormentor. Seeing the blood-red eyes glowing brightly back at him, he made a pathetic attempt to jump away, swinging one foot out in a feeble attack so poorly performed that the others would have stalked away in disgust had they seen it. Unsurprisingly, his kick was blocked and he was seized again. One of his wrists was snagged, pulling his hand up towards the molten gaze. He tried to pull his hand away to no avail, freezing in shock as his armored fingers encountered a mass of silken hair. Gripping a lock of the hair gently, he stepped forward and ran the strands across his cheek slowly. This could not possibly be who he thought it was.

 

Sage was cut off from further contemplating the situation as he was lifted skillfully to rest across a set of surprisingly broad shoulders. He tried to relax as the girl below him began to scale the wall, every movement bringing soft crunching noises. After being stuffed somewhat gently into a hole in the wall, Sage did not resist when his wrist was seized and he was pulled silently through tunnels that he though might be a ventilation system. After some time of crawling and one terrifying drop, he was greeted by the voices of Ryo and Kento, a grin breaking out on his face for the first time in over four days.

 

 

Cye shifted slightly on his feet. It had taken him the better part of a day to find a place in this infernal pool where he could touch the ground. The areas had grown dimmer and dimmer until all light had finally vanished, leaving him in perpetual darkness. After a little while, he had found what appeared to be a wall. After following it for a while, he decided that it was indeed a wall, enclosing him well in the tainted pool. Whatever he was in was most certainly not water, he decided for at least the hundredth time that day.

 

At first, a slow throbbing in his head kept him from drifting off. Little by little, the pain enshrouding him increased until he had begun shrieking in agony, muscles quivering as he held on to Rowen tightly, refusing to let his friend drown. After a few hours of this, his throat had grown so raw that he had begun spitting up blood. Now he merely twitched on occasion when there was a particularly bad jolt of pain, tears spilling unending down his face.

 

Rowen had thrashed in his sleep, crying out loudly in time with Cye's screams. Cye had slowly come to the realization that something was tearing at his mind and very soul on his second day in this nightmare. He had done his best to fight it, but grew more worried by the minute as Rowen writhed and growled in his arms.

 

Not more than an hour ago, Rowen had abruptly jerked awake, pushing himself testily away from Cye. Neither of them spoke to the other, Cye sensing that Rowen would rather rip out his tongue than speak to him. Not understanding this feeling that was radiating from his friend, he had simply held his thoughts in check, hoping that Rowen would snap out of it and say something to him. Anything.

 

A malicious chuckle drew him from his thoughts. “Are you ready to give up yet, Ronin whelps?” Dais's acrid voice sneered. Cye drew himself stubbornly up to snap out a reply, cutting off short as the Warlord spat out a startled vulgarity. A loud splash a few feet from him immediately followed. Rowen's grunt made Cye launch himself forward, catching his friend as he was knocked out again by the weight of a falling Warlord. Dais's voice started to rise sharply, but was immediately cut off by a sound that Cye knew all too well, a fist slamming into a jaw.

 

Cye only had time to curse as Rowen was torn from his grasp, spitting out another vulgarity as he was tucked under someone's arm. Rowen was immediately placed beneath him, the well-muscled arm straining to hold the both of them in such an awkward grip. A few short strokes led them to the wall, and they began to ascend, Cye realized as he was pulled clear of what felt like too-thick water. After being stuffed headfirst into a hole, he and Rowen were promptly abandoned as their abductor shot down the passage ahead. Cye was about to start moving in the direction he had heard their captor take when whoever or whatever it was shot by him again, diving into the pool below.

 

 

Dais had just surfaced, spitting out a mouthful of that foul liquid from the pool when a barreling projectile slammed into his chest, sending him under again. He felt something, much to his horror, being wrapped around his wrists, tying his arms effectively behind his back. His attacker stood on his shoulders for a second, launching itself into the air. He blinked as something rained down on his head. Dust?

 

Looking upwards, he gasped as he saw a slender black-clad girl gripping the ceiling with one hand and a chain connected to him with the other. He could only watch in a blend of horror and astonishment as he was lifted up to the ceiling far above by a girl using only one of her arms. He blinked in recognition. That was the girl that had been fighting alongside the Ronins. Cursing in disbelief, he watched as she shifted to grip the ceiling with her feet so she was free to use both of her hands to attach the chain holding him to a thick stalactite.

 

Quickly popping off Dais's helmet, the girl rolled a piece of chain in a thick cloth, prying his mouth open forcefully to insert her gag. Tying the ends of cloth behind his head, she reached to her side, pulling up a strip of cloth with three things hanging from the end, squirming frantically. Snakes. Dais tried to cry out past the gag, bucking wildly. He hated snakes. Grinning, the girl pulled the cloth away from the snakes' necks, and tore a small gash on the end of each of the reptiles' tails, making them trash almost as wildly as the bound Warlord. Dais swore silently that when he got out of this, he was going to kill each and every snake in the Dynasty, screw what Sehkmet thought. The girl smirked at him, forcing one of her hands down the front of his armor, quickly following by stuffing all of the creatures, slimy from their brief exposure to the pools below, into his subarmor. Dais bucked ferociously, his one eye promising a variety of excruciating horrors to the girl whenever he got out of this. She merely snapped his helmet back into place to ensure that none of the snakes got out of his armor while he hung there, powerless to do anything except scream from behind his gag.

 

 

Cye squinted into the blackness above the pools, bewildered by the muffled cries that echoed softly through the air. Someone or something slid by him, picking up Rowen in passing. Lurching forward, Cye managed to catch his friend's ankle. A hand clasped his wrist gently, pulling him forward, urging him to follow into the passage. He growled, preparing to fight with what little strength he had left, only to have his hand seized roughly and placed in a matted mess of long hair.

 

Mind reeling in recognition, he followed dully, holding onto one of Rowen's ankles as he was pulled slowly through the unending gloom. After a little while, a hand was placed on his chest, pushing him gently to the wall. He reached out, only to find himself utterly alone. He cried out softly, curling into a ball. On the verge of breaking into tears, a gentle hand prodded him carefully in the shoulder, gently leading him onward. Cye was only too happy to comply until he reached the end of the ground below him, the girl hanging over a ledge just in front of his fingertips. As he moved to pull her up, she instead pulled him over, a cry of stark terror escaping his lips.

 

A moment later, he was shoved into a wide passageway. An utterly disbelieving and blissful smile broke out on his face as he heard his friends' voices calling his name in relief.

 

 

Kayura watched silently as Dais was bound, gagged, and hung from a stalactite, shaking her head in disbelief. She knew that the Warlords were idiots, and had been frankly amazed that they had captured four of the Ronins, but this was ridiculous. How could he be beaten be an unarmed girl? She was about to move out of the shadows to prevent the slender black-clad form from slipping off with the two boys but froze in shock in sudden recognition.

Memories drifted back to Kayura. Battles so violent that an entire dimension was nearly wrenched from existence. That girl, she thought silently, tears welling in her eyes in horror, I thought we destroyed all of her kind. She moved further away from the opening that the girl had disappeared into, trembling violently. Vanishing from the area, leaving Dais alone in the immense cavern, she went to her room to collapse bonelessly on the floor, tears finally spilling from here eyes.

Power danced wildly across the battlefields and skies, the air crackling even to those long since deafened by the roar of the chaos raging across the planet. The air was no longer breathable. The very earth below them was long since molten. Kayura made a near fatal mistake, pausing to look at the carnage below her. Several dozen blasts of pure energy shot towards her horrified eyes. She dodged wildly, clutching a scorched arm to her chest. Something dropped onto her from above, thick talons sinking into her shoulders, leathery wings ensnaring her arms. Merciless jaws sank into the back of her neck, oblivious to her screams. A fiery whirlwind slammed into her from below, spinning the fiery blades in burning hands to leave them planted in her chest and throat.

As her vision faded, the image of the floating man engulfed in flames still burned into her eyes, Kayura teleported away from the battle, away from the man with a soul of fire. Slumping to the floor in her room, she fumbled for a healing potion as her lifeblood ran freely across the floor.

Kayura cried out at the unbidden memory, clutching her scarred neck in trembling hands, tears running unchecked down her face.

Returning to the battle in a blind fury, Kayura promptly decapitated the wretched winged beast that had attacked her only moments ago. She spun to the side, narrowly avoiding a blast of molten light that left an after-image burned into her vision. Blocking a second blast with her Starlight Swords, she pivoted sharply to again face the slender man engulfed in flames. The short twin daggers of fire blazed, elongating into one-edged, slightly curved swords with a small dragon etched in black flames on each blade. The two circled each other, leaping about wildly, blades flaring in blinding flashes as they connected with each other.

Both already sported numerous cuts, darting to gain an advantage in position, forms blurring from their impossible speeds as they each struggled to avoid the hissing blades of the other. Kayura got in a lucky hit, cleaving a trench in her opponent's skull from nose to pointed ear. As he staggered back, she finished what she had begun, turning calmly to face another who had walked up to oppose her.

Tossing aside a cloak colored to make the depths of Dynasty look to be bathed in daylight, a slender girl raised her arms to fight, completely unarmed. Kayura smirked at the black-clad girl who stood before her, unbound onyx hair whipping about her wildly in the crackling winds. The eyes that looked back to her own shimmered in the pale face before returning to the color of new leaves in shadow.

Kayura shifted on her feet swiftly, swinging into the girl's range to bury both of her swords into the chest of the too-thin girl. At the last instant, her arms snapped down, slamming Kayura's swords off of course, both slender blades sinking into the flesh of a well-muscled leg. Bony hands shot up to the swords, wrenching them from Kayura's grasp. The girl tore the blades from her flesh, staggering slightly, only to repeat Kayura's moves, the thin blades sliding home in her chest before her disbelieving eyes. Turning away slowly, pausing only to pick up her cloak, the girl simply walked away, leaving her sprawled motionlessly on the ground.

 

 

Although Kento had been the first to have access to the food supply, plenty remained, thanks to Ryo. Cye listened to his friends' voices, every now and then laying a hand on a still unconscious Rowen to check on his friend. Rowen's breathing was steadily improving, the rasp that had worried all of them almost gone. After a few minutes of waiting, the rasp had vanished entirely. When Cye reached out to check him again, he bolted upright at the touch, crying out softly.

“Hey Rowen,” Ryo called softly, “glad to see you're finally up. None of us really wanted to wake you. We like our limbs where they are, after all.”

The guys chuckled softly as Rowen scowled, interpreting his look as annoyance at being teased this soon after being woken. With a wordless growl, he launched himself into Ryo, intent on strangling him with his bare hands, having nothing better to fight with. Sage and Kento stared in shock for the instant that it took a black clad figure to separate the two combatants.

“Jeez Rowen, it was just a joke,” Ryo croaked hoarsely.

Rowen was not listening. Separated from his initial target, he immediately settled on taking out the girl standing in his way, slamming his fist into her stomach. A soft grunt escaped her lips as she stared at him in mystification. She was snapped out of her shock as his fist cracked across her face, scowling back at her attacker. As she reached out to slap him into oblivion, he spun on the ball of his right foot, slamming his left heel into her temple, grinning maliciously as she crumpled. Kento and Sage were similarly baffled, but not waiting for any further explanation, proceeded to tackle Rowen and hold him to the ground. After a moment, Ryo moved to help hold him down.

“Get off of me, damn you!” Rowen spit at them, thrashing in their hold. “Cye, get your ass over here and get these bastards off me!”

Cye's head snapped up and he blinked uncertainly, squinting in his general direction. Without thinking he stood to move towards his friend, freezing as he stumbled over the limp form of the girl. He reached down, running his hands through thick hair spilling across the ground. “What the hell…” he murmured. His head snapped up again, eyes narrowing dangerously. “Where are you?” he called softly, looking vaguely in Rowen's direction.

Ryo tossed a disbelieving look at Cye. They had lit a torch that the girl had pilfered from somewhere in the castle. The small area was well lit by the single flame. “Can't you see us?” he asked slowly, almost afraid of the answer.

“Of course I can't. If you would have bothered to have brought a light, then maybe. I can't exactly see in the dark you know.”

The three Ronins pinning Rowen stared at their friend in shock, noticing for the first time that his eyes held a slightly glazed look. Rowen bucked in their grip. “I'm over here. Get these idiots off of me!”

Cye immediately started forward again, pausing once more when he heard the soft sound of subarmors hitting each other. “Guys, why're you…” he began slowly, not sure how to continue. At Rowen's growl, he took another step forward, ready to push the others off of him, freezing again as he realized what he was about to do. “Oh, God…”

“Cye!” the commanding voice snapped. “Whose side are you on?”

Cye couldn't see anything, but he felt his friends' shock radiating back to him. Shaking his head slowly, he leaned down and fumbled slowly for his friend's head. A gentle hand guided his. He didn't pause to wonder why someone else could see when he couldn't, merely placing one hand on either side of Rowen's head. The jumble of chaos that radiated from his friend's mind nearly caused him to cry out in agony, tears building behind his closed eyes. “Oh, God, Rowen…” he whispered softly, choking on his next words. “You weren't awake to fight back.”

Ryo immediately grabbed the younger Ronin by the shoulders, shaking him gently. “What do you mean `fight back'?” he asked, voice barely audible.

“Something was pulling at me the entire time we've been here. It hurt…” he trailed off, whimpering.

Kento had been studying the floor intently for some time now. “It's my fault,” he said slowly, rushing to explain as his friends' incredulous gazes fell upon him. “The Warlords told me to choose what would happen to us. They held a knife to Cye's throat and said that… that I had to choose what they did to him. They said that they were going to kill him if I didn't choose. They said that I had to choose if they would kill him or… or if they would bring him to fight for the Dynasty…” he ranted madly, looking as though he had signed his friend's death warrant.

Sage moved one hand off of Rowen's shoulder to grip Kento's. “It's not your fault, Kento. We're all still alive because of you. We can do something about Rowen and Cye.”

“I think I'm okay,” Cye said shakily. He pushed Ryo off of him and moved again towards Rowen. “I'm not on a side, Rowen. You remember who you are, right?” He didn't wait for Rowen's answer, pushing on. “We'll fix what they did to you later. Right now you just need to stop fighting us.” Cye's kanji flared on his forehead brightly, bathing the area around him is a soft sea-blue light. Rowen went limp, blinking uncertainly at the others.

Cye motioned sharply. Sage and Kento regarded him carefully for a moment before rising slowly, ready to tackle Rowen again if he tried anything. He merely stood up, looking around, obviously disoriented. Sage made a face and turned to Cye.

Sage walked over to peer into his friend's glazed eyes, appalled at the hollow shells that stared right through him. Taking his friend's head in his hands, Sage peeled the eyelids back one at a time to get a better look. His hands flared green for a moment as he tried to heal his friend. Gasping when nothing happened, he called his armor, swaying slightly from the strain. Cye flinched as Sage grabbed his head again, obviously confused but not willing to fight one of his friends. An eerily beautiful green light began to burn around Sage, the fires reaching out to Cye, engulfing him. Moving back, he shook his head slowly in disbelief. In backing away slowly, his foot came into contact with something soft, bringing a soft groan from behind him. Oblivious to having stepped on someone, Sage fell to his knees. The others didn't need to ask to know that Cye was still blind.

A shaky black-cloaked form shambled past Sage, kicking him in the shin on the way by with a look that could have cut steel. “You need to learn what you're doing,” Cye murmured softly to Sage as the girl snagged his head in both of her hands. A preternatural silver light surrounded both of them for an instant.

The girl looked at Cye's eyes with the depths of her soul. The eyes themselves had been burned away, leaving a shell of the eye for her to work with in healing. Not precisely sure how an eye was supposed to look, she quickly modeled his eyes after her own, the only alteration she made was in choosing the color. She seemed to remember that the boy had sea-blue eyes.

Stepping back, she inspected her handiwork. Cye blinked uncertainly, immediately squinting at the dim light produced from the flickering torch. “Oh man, is that bright,” he complained, moving deeper into the shadows of the tunnels. Once safely out of the light of the torch, he uncovered his eyes to regard his friends, baffled by their horrified expressions.

“What the hell did you do to him?” Ryo all but shrieked, shaking the girl roughly.

“My God…” Kento breathed, unable to tear his eyes away from Cye's.

Sage and Rowen only stared in shock, unable to say anything as they stared at Cye's eyes, glowing softly red from the shadows.

 

 

Cale walked slowly down the hall, utterly baffled. That Kayura had locked herself in her room and refused to speak to him was no shock. She made a point of avoiding the Warlords. Dais and Sehkmet had been fighting when he walked by. No, that wasn't quite right. Sehkmet had been laughing his ass off while Dais proceeded to pulverize him.

He shook his head slowly, turning down another corridor to look in on the pretty-boy Ronin and perhaps have a bit of fun with him. Opening the door to the cell, he gasped. Chains were strewn about the stone floor, but the boy was nowhere to be seen. Growling deep in his throat, he sprinted down the halls to check on Hardrock. Upon finding the second Ronin missing, he knew there was no point on checking on the other two. As he spun to leave the cell something caught his eye. Running along the height of one wall were a series of small finger-sized holes, ending abruptly nearly twenty feet off of the ground at an open air duct.

Sneering contemptuously, he trotted to the one place where the ducts let out safely. The traps lining the narrow passages prevented movement through the tight spaces unless you knew exactly how to avoid them. The maze of tunnels was such that whoever freed the Ronins must know their way around with extraordinary detail. If that someone knew how to get in, then they would also know the way out.

He chuckled at the thought of the `safe' way out. No one had ever passed through the under-tunnels and survived. For hundreds of years now, every creature created by the Dynasty that was deemed too violent, unstable, or untrustworthy was tossed into an enormous chamber deep within the bowls of the castle. Over time, the monstrosities trapped there had tunneled out, deep caves undermining the entire area.

He trotted unconcernedly down the tunnels, knowing full well where the Ronins and their savior would emerge.

 

 

After fighting off Ryo and Kento, the girl moved over to Cye, gesturing slowly while watching him intently. Growling softly to herself, growing increasingly annoyed, she gestured more sharply. Cye snapped his head back, gasping. His eyes began to swirl slightly, the molten ruby pools flickering slightly before shifting into a clear sea-blue. Nodding contentedly to herself, she motioned for the Ronins to follow, silently disappearing down the tunnel leading out.

Cye was the first to follow, mainly to get away from his friends' incredulous stares, moving out to the edge of the tunnel to stare calmly at the seemingly endless drop before him. After only a moment's debate, he lowered himself over the edge, grateful for the slender arm that slipped around him. Within a few minutes of climbing down, the girl crammed him into a narrow tunnel where he immediately settled to wait for the others.

Turning to climb back to get the next Ronin, she launched herself across the wide pit she had just moved down with Cye, slamming into the other side roughly before sliding a few feet down the ragged stone in an attempt to stop her descent. Hissing in vexation, she moved over to Cye once more, stuffing a very surprised Kento into the tunnel with him.

“Slipped,” he murmured ruefully, still trembling slightly.

Kento turned to apologize for his behavior a few minutes ago, only to have an appalled Sage deposited in his arms. Snickering softly at Sage's wide-eyed expression that was apparent even in the blackness, he set his friend down, moving slowly away from the opening of the air duct. A frenzy of cursing made the three Ronins grin. Rowen. After waiting for a moment, Ryo and a very indignant Rowen were deposited in the tunnel with them.

Tapping each Ronin on the shoulder as she passed, the girl moved deeper into the duct, glancing back occasionally to make sure all of the boys were still there. Weaving through the tunnels swiftly, she paused at the final opening, indicating sharply that they needed to stay there for a moment, vanishing into the inky blackness before them. The other Ronins squirmed uncomfortably, all of them looking like they wanted to bolt, Cye thought.

Cye blinked suddenly. How did he know that? He was sure that his eyes were no longer glowing, their meager red light no longer present. He had seen Ryo and Kento quite clearly as they pounded on the girl earlier. He had moved to stop the fight, only to be intercepted by Sage, who grasped his head firmly while looking into his eyes. Cye had nearly had a seizure when he had seen the glowing red points of his eyes reflected in Sage's. Chewing his lower lip softly, he glanced around. Nothing was in vivid detail like it had been earlier, but he could still make out faint outlines of things around him. Not wanting to worry his friends, he remained silent.

The girl returned to the group of Ronins after scouting the area carefully. She grimaced as she remembered some of the things that slunk around in the dark here. Tossing the Ronins out of the tunnel opening one at a time, ignoring their startled squawks, she trotted over to where they had landed, fumbling for a moment to light a torch. In a single violent swirl, her eyes shifted from ruby to a shadowed jade.

Moving over to Cye, she tugged on the chest-plate of his subarmor, shaking her head. Cye blinked in confusion, eyes narrowing slowly.

Before she could make a second attempt to make herself understood to the boys, a soft noise caused her to spin sharply, dousing the torch. Her eyes flashed red in an instant as Cye watched her intently. Pushing the Ronins into the corner of the room furthest from the cave openings, she snagged the blond one, the only one she thought had enough brains and common sense to do this right, and trotted to the center of the room with the squirming boy over her shoulder.

Sage shifted uneasily from atop the girl's well-muscled shoulders, squawking as he was abruptly dropped to the ground. A hand immediately slapped across his mouth, forbidding any further sound. A hand was similarly placed across his chest, indicating that he was not to move. The hand on his mouth moved quickly but gently to pull his eyelids shut and pry his mouth open. Something warm and wet slid across his throat, only to be quickly rubbed into his skin by slender hands. He tried not to squirm, hoping that wetness wasn't what he thought it was. A slender hand was placed on his chest again for an instant before the girl vanished into the darkness.

Sage hesitantly cracked one eye, swallowing nervously as he saw a figure with a torch near him. Recognizing the shape of the armor, it was all Sage could do not to move as Cale approached. He snapped his eyes shut, stilling his breathing and forcing his muscles to go limp.

 

 

Cale heard something scurry about in the shadows around him and began to finger his no-dachi nervously. Seeing something glint in the torchlight just ahead of him, he moved on stubbornly, ignoring the erratic pounding of his heart.

Drawing nearer, he gasped as he recognized the pretty-boy Ronin sprawled across the floor, blood covering all of him not protected by his subarmor. “My God,” he breathed. Prodding the limp form with one armored toe, he stepped back quickly as something darted in front of him, claws clicking softly on the stone floor.

A blood-curdling snarl rang through the blackness around him, a pair of red eyes slowly beginning to circle him. Cale swore. The darkness here was unnatural, and he was unable to see through it with his usually exceptional vision. Clutching his no-dachi firmly in one hand, Cale twirled on the balls of his feet to make sure that thing stayed in his view, keeping the torch directly between the two of them.

The red eyes winked out suddenly, thoroughly unnerving Cale. Where was it?! Hearing a soft breath behind him, he tried to spin, losing his torch when something slammed firmly into his arm. The light flickered and died immediately. Lashing out wildly, he cursed when his no-dachi connected with nothing but air.

He looked about frantically for the red eyes, spotting them two paces to his left. He shifted to swing at it, freezing when another pair of glowing eyes appeared on the far end of the room. Crying out, he stumbled back, landing hard as the first creature tackled him, thick fangs sinking into his exposed neck. Thrashing wasn't helping him any. This creature was too strong. He kicked feebly as flashes of light began to dance in his vision, eyes glazing as the seconds ticked by.

Without warning, whatever held his throat released him, allowing his helmet to fall back into place. Head spinning, he staggered to his feet, bolting unsteadily to the door, slipping out quickly. Resetting all of the locks and barriers holding the door, he held his neck in trembling fingers.

Whatever had him had purposely let him go. He had obviously lost, but that thing hadn't finished the job. His head spun too fiercely to ponder why he had been released, instead staggering unsteadily down the halls, oblivious to the red trail he was leaving.

Lurching into the room where Dais and Sehkmet were yelling loudly at one another, he opened his mouth to speak, producing only a soft gurgling sound. Dais looked in his direction, his one eye widening as he saw his fellow Warlord clinging to the door, blood running down his armor to pool at his feet. Sehkmet reached out to steady him, face twisting in horror as Cale crumpled to the floor, breath rasping loudly in a shredded throat.

 

 

Cye blinked in the blackness, frowning at the scurrying he heard after Cale dropped his torch. Concentrating fiercely, he felt his eyes ripple, shifting. A choked off gasp from Kento told him he had succeeded, not to mention the clear view of the two combatants before him.

His throat seized when he saw the girl tackle Cale, pulling back his helmet to sink her teeth into his neck. Cye trembled violently, not noticing the comforting hand Kento placed on his shoulder.

 

 

Waiting for Cale to dart out of the cavern that had once been a huge dungeon-like room, the girl trotted back to the Ronins huddled in the corner, pausing to pull Sage to his feet. Carefully fanning the torch that Cale had dropped, the girl reverted her eyes back to jade as a dim flame sprang into existence, causing Cye to cry out, covering his eyes frantically.

Ryo glanced worriedly at the youngest Ronin, chewing his lower lip forcefully. It tore him up inside that there was nothing that he could do for Cye. He was the leader of the Ronins; it was his responsibility to take care of the others. A fine job I'm doing too, he thought angrily. Cye was acting strange and having problems with his eyes, and Rowen had become temperamental, violent. Kento and Sage had obviously been beaten repeatedly, both of them moving stiffly, but were trying not to let him see.

Sage recognized the expression on Ryo's face and moved to snap him out of his guilt-trip. Ryo made an odd sound in his throat as he approached, hands fumbling at Sage's neck, searching wildly for the wound.

“Don't worry, Ryo. I'm not actually hurt,” he said softly, grinning at Ryo's frankly disbelieving expression. He tried to wipe the sticky blood off of his neck with the back of one armored hand, tried being the key word. Snagging the girl away from gesturing at Cye, he held up her hand in front of Ryo, showing him the row of self-inflicted teeth marks along the side of her hand.

The girl watched curiously as Ryo calmed at the sight of her hand, a slow grin forming on her face as she realized the reason. She snorted wryly. Like she would really hurt one of them. Forgetting those two, she turned to Cye again to make another attempt at getting her point across to the young warrior. When he still didn't understand, she turned to Rowen, gasping when he backhanded her for daring to approach him.

Cye grabbed Rowen's shoulders, forestalling him from continuing his attack. Rowen shook forcefully, struggling with himself for control, forcing himself to relax much to the relief of the four Ronins watching him. He couldn't help smiling guiltily at his friends' horrified expressions before grimacing to himself.

Snorting disdainfully, the girl approached him again, watching his hands warily. Tugging on the chest-plate of his subarmor, she shook her head, hoping he would understand where Cye did not. When his eyebrows rose towards his hairline, she hissed in vexation and moved on to Sage and Ryo, trying again to make them understand.

Cye's head snapped up suddenly. He cried out loudly, dropping to his knees, clutching his temples with shaking hands.

“Cye,” Rowen cried out softly, dropping to hold his friend's trembling form to him, ignoring what this must look like.

Sage moved over, taking the younger boy's head in his hands, blinking in confusion when Cye pulled away, looking at the girl, who was still shaking Ryo. As if sensing his gaze, she dropped the startled Ronin, and turned to face him, eyes narrowing thoughtfully.

Cye pushed Rowen away from him and stood unsteadily, never once breaking eye contact with the girl watching him intently. His head felt like it was packed with cotton. He blinked uncertainly at the feelings pounding within his skull. No armor, he thought slowly, or is it armor off? He deliberated with himself for a moment before looking up at the others.

“I think that we need to take our subarmor off,” he said slowly, earning himself four appalled stares and one satisfied grin. Swallowing nervously at the expressions of his friends, he banished his subarmor, standing in a wrinkled shirt and blue jacket, jeans bunching slightly around his sneakers. As the others followed suit slowly, he pulled the girl off to the side. “That was you, wasn't it,” he accused softly, scowling at the answering grin.

The others waited for Cye to turn back to face them once again. He did so slowly, his head throbbing anew. Mulling slightly over the stark, unrefined thoughts spilling into his head, he was about to open his mouth to speak when the inside of his head suddenly felt as though it were on fire. He dropped to the ground, convulsing, not hearing the worried questions from his friends, not noticing their comforting hands. The images that flashed in his mind burned with a fury, the horrifying thoughts and pictures raging through his mind threatening to push him over the brink of sanity. The blood, pain, and carnage that washed through his thoughts overpowered him. He dropped to the ground, convulsing.

He felt as though he was in a dream, watching a village below him vanish into nothingness as a molten light passed across it. The charred remains threw ash and debris into the rising winds, carrying the stench of scorched flesh back to him. His eyes watered in disbelief as he raised a hand in front of him, pointing towards a few scrawny children staggering away from the chaos below, dragging an indistinguishable figure that must have been someone they knew. A bar of energy flew from his fingers towards the dark-skinned children. Screams echoed through the still night air.

Cye choked on a scream, tears streaming from his eyes. He was vaguely aware of being shaken roughly and of voices calling to him from a distance.

He staggered into a small clearing, slipping into a hidden area known only to a few select people. The strange onyx-skinned people waiting within were all injured, some barely clinging to life. He heard himself bluntly inform those there that help was not coming. They cringed away from him, breathing heavily. Reaching out, he snapped the neck of the closest boy, moving silently to the next person.

A hand cracked across Cye's cheek sharply, causing his eyes to roll back in his head, but failing to stop the images flashing through his mind.

He wandered through tunnels without and light of food. The unnatural blackness impaired his exceptional night vision. Something lunged towards him, talons extended. He rolled under the weight of the creature, slamming it into the wall behind him. Rolling to his feet, he glimpsed small traces of heat remaining on the ground ahead of him, leading into the tunnels beyond. He growled. There must be dozens of them. He turned to the two companions that were still with him, both bleeding from numerous wounds that were beyond his ability to heal in his current state.

As the three ran down the tunnels, a cry from behind alerted him just in time to drop into a tight roll, narrowly missing the flying form that careened by him. The smaller of his two companions tackled the mass of scales and fur as it spun to charge them again. Cye felt his lips peel back in a silent snarl. He leapt over the two combatants, knowing that his friend would never survive the encounter. His one remaining companion and he ran on, ignoring the shrieks echoing in the tunnels behind them. A light appeared ahead. The only person left with him spun to face another attack, screaming for him to go. Cye cast one glance back at his lifelong friend before leaping through a portal of glowing light, something snagging his leg as he passed through, tearing the flesh to the bone. A flash of light erupted from Cye's hands as he frantically tried to pull himself out of the tunnels completely, blasting the shimmering glow of the portal. The strange light flickered, the essence of the portal wavering as he pulled himself free, the dead weight on his leg sliding through the light slowly, the gateway seeming almost reluctant to let it pass. The creature with eight legs blinked at being pulled through the light, triangular maw raising to the sky in confusion for a moment before it escaped into the night.

Cye sat bolt upright, gasping for breath. His four friends were gathered around him, worry painting their faces. Noticing a pair of strong arms holding him, he looked into Rowen's haunted eyes, tears on the verge of falling. As he tried to stand, supported by four sets of hands, a strange pressure began again in his temples. “Lights,” he panted. “We need to get rid of all of the lights. They can see the light. We don't want them to see us. No armor. They'll sense it. We don't want them to know we're here. Have to be quiet. They hear so well…” he trailed off, looking at his friends' mystified expressions. Thinking about what he had just said, he understood their looks perfectly. What he had just told them made no sense to him either.

Ryo scowled as the girl pulled him away from his friend. He blinked in horror as she pointed to the torch, shook her head, then put a warning finger across his mouth. Turning to the others, he called out softly, “That was her. She was trying to tell us what to do through Cye.”

Rowen jumped to his feet, intent on killing the girl before him, thoroughly ignoring everyone and everything else until Cye jumped between them. Glaring at Rowen sharply, Cye took and deep breath. “We need to get going. Cale is still alive and there's no telling how long it will take him to come back.”

As the girl motioned sharply, the five Ronins lined up doubtfully, each holding the shoulder of the person in front of them, every one of them looking about frantically as the girl doused the torch and led them into one of the caves leading from the room. Cye shifted his eyes, watching his surroundings carefully as he entered the absolute blackness of the cave. He shuttered at the thought, at the memory of the tunnels.

 

 

After travelling for some time in the endless caves, passing by countless intersections, the girl slowed her backbreaking pace for a moment before stumbling to a stop, staring at a caved-in section of tunnels before her in horror. Leading the Ronins to a dead-end, she held up her hands for a moment, silver flames arcing from her fingers to create a dully shining dome in front of them, blocking off the entrance to the short tunnel they had entered. Cye only squinted at the dome for a moment before allowing his eyes to shift back to their original sea-blue, much to Kento's relief.

Cye regarded the dome thoughtfully. There was a fair amount of light on this side of the dome, but everything on the other side of the softly pulsing barrier was the pure, uncorrupted blackness they had been walking through for hours on end. In that time walking through the caves, Cye had slowly calmed down as he neither heard nor saw anything alive, excluding the six in their group. So many of the memories that had shot through his mind had been in tunnels like this one. Even worse, some of the memories immediately preceding the ones in the caves had been in Talpa's castle. Although he was no longer in a frenzy, he still watched the tunnels warily, afraid that some of those thoughts raging in his head earlier were real.

Engrossed in thought as he was, it took him a moment to realize that someone was talking to him. He looked up to see Ryo hovering over him, frowning slightly.

Having caught Cye's attention after speaking to him for almost a full minute, he began again. “Could you tell us what she's doing?” Ryo asked slowly, hoping that his friend would know what was going on better than he did.

Cye got to his feet, noticing for the first time that the girl was trying to leave while indicating that they were not to follow. Kento was staying determinedly in her path, much to her frustration. Seeing him, she began anew with her gestures, pointing to them, to the floor, to herself, and then to the caves. Cye nodded slowly, turning to the others. “She wants to scout, I think,” he said quietly, not sure if the barrier stopped sound. “One of the tunnels we saw had collapsed and I think that was the direction she wanted to go.”

Kento and Sage grimaced at his casual acceptance of his new visual abilities, much to his annoyance. If she hadn't done this, he would still be blind. Sage had been unable to heal him. He sighed at their expressions, not wanting to start into this argument again, the first battle defending the girl from their accusations having been more than enough for him. He supposed that they would get used to this in time. He was actually beyond amazed that he had accepted it so readily.

He convulsed suddenly, dropping to the packed dirt below his feet, curling into a fetal position, arms wrapped around his head. Rowen was at his side in an instant, as Kento would have been had he not been occupied with trying to keep the girl from leaving. Cye's lips peeled away from his teeth in something akin to a snarl. “Damn you,” he hissed angrily, “get out of my way. If you ever want to get out of these wretched tunnels alive, I need to find the way out. Move!”

Kento looked to his best friend, face paling. His eyes snapped back to the girl he was still holding firmly. Swallowing nervously, he stepped to the side, allowing her to pass by, hoping that when she did, Cye would snap out of whatever she was doing to him. Before leaving, she paused, looking to the youngest Ronin, still twitching on the floor.

“You needn't worry. The barrier will not allow anything from the Dynasty to pass through it. Sound and light are confined to this side,” Cye said in a voice not entirely his own, almost reassuringly but not quite. As his lips closed on the final syllable, his body convulsed once again.

In the tunnels, something was trailing him. Something big. He moved more quickly, trying not to make any more noise, hoping to outdistance whatever it was. No chance of that. It was fast. Very fast. He rounded a corner, backpedaling wildly when he ran into the thing face to face. It had circled around him, had found another route. The creature was an abomination, looking like some hideous twist between a dragon and a wolf. Armor-like scales covered whatever it was from glowing yellow eyes to sinuous serpent-like tail. Hair grew in sporadic patches between the scales, the heaviest line running down the backbone, framing a row of blade-like spikes running from the top of the thing's head to the tip of the tail. The body and leg structures were basically that of a wolf with legs a little too long, the feet ending in hideous talons. Looking directly at Cye, it advanced slowly, lips peeled back from horrendously long canines in the wedge-shaped head. The thing launched itself at him, his only thought was that he wouldn't be able to tell the others what he had seen in the tunnels were the group was about to pass…

Cye lurched madly to his feet, pushing the supporting hands away from him. He looked out to the tunnels where the girl had gone. A growl rising in his throat, he shifted his eyes to infrared once again, looking at the traces of heat still present from where the girl had recently passed. He could follow her. Maybe he could still get to her.

He hadn't taken more than two steps towards the silver dome before the other four Ronins tackled him, pushing him to the ground. Eyes blazing an angry blood red, he thrashed forcefully, surprising himself and the others by managing to kick all four of his friends off of him. Jumping to his feet in a wordless growl, he moved towards the opening again, ignoring the hands that grabbed at him. He landed a solid blow in Sage's stomach and another in Ryo's jaw, spinning slightly to kick Kento's feet out from under him and push him into Rowen. Storming off towards the barrier, he stepped through, or tried to. His eyes widened in disbelief as his face slammed into the silver dome, the thing as solid as any of the stone walls in the caves.

The Ronins stared at the younger boy in shock, the words `the barrier will not allow anything from the Dynasty to pass through it' echoing wildly in their minds. Ryo was the first to recover, darting over to the barrier. He reached out slowly, praying fervently that nothing could pass through the barrier from this side, that what they had heard only applied to the other side of the shield, that his hand would not pass through the girl's shield. It did. On the brink of tears, he hopped outside of the barrier and immediately darted back in, only to find Cye tracing the barrier with the tips of his fingers, ruby eyes swirling gently.

 

 

Several hours had passed. Ryo, Sage, and Kento sat against the wall of the cave opposite of Rowen and Cye. He was the only person that Cye would allow anywhere near him as he stared intently at the ground with molten eyes swirling in a blend of ruby and garnet. After sitting by the younger boy for a few minutes, Rowen had put his arm around him, pulling the younger boy into his lap, holding the trembling form to his chest. He needed to be comforted, but the other three wouldn't speak to him. Not that it had any effect on the smaller boy that he saw. Cye wasn't responding to anything anymore.

After the first hour, Sage had come over to him, attempting to heal him, giving up quickly as he came to the realization that this was not something that could be healed. Past that, the others had moved to the far wall and stayed there after Cye had chased Kento off with a growl. Ryo sat with his head resting on his knees, obviously crying. Sage had tried to tell him that it wasn't his fault, that there was nothing that he could have done, but Ryo was obviously not paying attention to him.

Cye's head raised slowly. He looked out to the tunnels with his sea-blue eyes. Seeing nothing, he tried looking with his new visual abilities, not seeing much past the bright glare of the silver dome. He noticed wryly that Rowen didn't pull away from him this time like the others did whenever he tried using his alternate vision. Climbing out of Rowen's comforting arms, he moved over to the shield once more.

Kento's heart throbbed painfully in his chest, a fluttering hawk in too small of a cage. It shouldn't be like this. They shouldn't have done that to Cye. The pain in his chest intensified as he remembered that it was his fault, no matter what the others had said. He had only been trying to make sure that Cye at least had a chance. He hadn't meant for this to happen. He was about to lower his head again when he saw Cye reach out to the barrier again, placing his hand against the smooth surface.

Cye looked at his hand resting gently against the surface of the dome. Light, what did they do to me? he thought, nearing tears once more. He looked back to Rowen, still sprawled against the wall, the shoulder of his shirt damp from where Cye had been crying. His hand shifted involuntarily, and he looked at it in disbelief. It was outside the barrier. Tears spilling down his cheeks, he followed his hand through what felt like thick jelly, stepping into the cave. He widened his eyes, looking about frantically. There. Something moved just down the tunnel and was heading this way. He was about to call out, to move to intercept the figure in the hall, but a hand grabbed the back of his shirt and hauled him inside of the protective dome once more.

Cye turned to face Ryo's questioning eyes. He pried his friend's hands from his shirt, a small smile beginning to appear on his face. “She's coming,” he said slowly.

“Cye…” he began in a breathless whisper, cut off as a black cloaked figure barreled through the dome, hitting the ground in a roll before careening into the back wall of the very short tunnel.

Sage moved to pull the girl to her feet when she didn't immediately get up, surprised to find Cye there ahead of him. Cye stumbled back, eyes wide with disbelief. Sage didn't have to look hard to see why. The girl was nothing but a mass of lacerations, bruises, and blood loosely held together by what used to pass for a body. He placed his hands immediately on her head, flinching at the cold skin and slow pulse. He began to tremble forcefully at the amount of power coursing through his veins as he healed her, appalled by the sheer number of broken bones and torn muscles he encountered while healing her, refusing to stop until she was in absolutely perfect shape. Releasing her, he backed up slowly, sliding down the wall wearily, the trembling in his muscles increasing. He had seen her fight before. She was good. Strong too, to be able to toss the five of them around so easily, to carry them like she had so many times. What was she fighting that could have done that to her so easily? What were they up against? He wasn't sure that he really wanted to know the answers to those questions.

 

 

Sage was grateful that the girl took a full two hours to awaken after being healed. He was exhausted, but judging from the way she trembled slightly in her sleep, she was much worse off than he was. He leaned against the wall as she pulled herself stiffly to her feet, trying to get another precious moment of rest before they started moving again. As she moved towards the shimmering silver wall, she paused to help him to his feet, a new respect for him kindling in her eyes. The silver wall vanished abruptly, two sets of red eyes winking into existence.

The group moved out again, Cye leading once more, being the only one who could follow her without impeding her movements. He gasped softly when he saw the girl's alternate route, a narrow tunnel sloping upwards in a continuously twisting pattern. For a moment, the girl seemed torn as to whom to send first, obviously considering leading the way yet wary of what might be following them. After only a moment's hesitation, she reached into the tight-fitting shirt she was wearing, pulling two knives from hidden sheathes at the small of her back, handing the twin blades to Cye. He blinked uncertainly at the knives, each as long as his forearm.

Cye moved forward slowly, tugging Ryo along with him. He might be able to see in the blackness surrounding him, but Ryo knew how to use weapons like this better than he did. Cye squirmed into the opening of the tunnel, Ryo directly behind him with the one blade that Cye had yielded to him. A soft noise echoed behind them. Cye turned his head to see Kento struggling behind Ryo, the passage much too narrow for the heavy-set boy. Halfway up the tunnel, Cye turned to reclaim the blade from a surprised Ryo. As he drew nearer to the opening ahead, he became increasingly agitated, emerging from the opening in a frenzy.

Suddenly free of the tunnel, Cye jumped to his feet, eyes scanning the area frantically. There was nothing there. When Ryo stumbled forward to place his hand on Cye's shoulder comfortingly, he nearly lost an eye as Cye spun in a panic, lashing out viciously.

“Easy. It's just me,” Ryo whispered to his unnerved friend.

A slender hand immediately snapping over his mouth, Ryo found himself faced with a furious set of glowing red eyes. Lining up the Ronins in a frenzy, she began moving again at a backbreaking pace, the boys sprinting wildly to keep up. Ryo wondered why she was rushing forward so blindly. He had barely whispered. Surely nothing could hear that.

He was proved wrong within the span of half of a minute. A soft clicking echoed behind them, closing the intervening distance between them at an alarming rate. The girl spun around, darting past the Ronins. Cye stumbled to a halt, pushing the others to the wall in a tight cluster, placing himself in front of them protectively. Glancing down the tunnel the girl had raced down a moment ago, he witnessed the chaos that ensued.

Three wolf-like creatures circled the girl, two sets of golden eyes piercing the darkness along with one red. Cye's throat closed in horror as he made out the serpentine tails, the ridges down the back, and the wedge-shaped jaws supporting the enormous canines. The red-eyed beast, however, appeared to be nothing more than a wolf, if a wolf had huge leathery wings. It was enormous, but still a wolf for the most part.

Flipping the knife in his right hand to hold the blade in his fingers, Cye whipped his arm forward, blade flying smoothly to sink into a fur-covered throat. The girl dove past the stunned creature, twisting the blade viciously in its throat as she yanked it out, rolling immediately to her feet.

The two uninjured abominations lunged towards the girl as she rolled to her feet and spun to face them, spinning nimbly on the balls of her feet, blade blurring in her hands. He tore his eyes away from her battle as the injured beast rolled to his feet and began a shuddering lope in his direction.

Cye shifted his one remaining knife to his right hand, moving to circle the thing as it approached him. He made a miscalculation. The creature had never been heading for him, shooting by his shifting form to launch itself at easier targets, the four unarmed boys who were obviously blinded by the gloom.

He jumped towards the wolf-like creature as it passed, lashing out with his blade, momentarily gratified as he felt steel meet flesh. The waist-high beast ignored the sting of the steel in its back and tackled the nearest boy. Cye launched himself forward desperately, sinking the blade in his double-handed grip into the thick skull, knocking the thick jaws away from his friend's neck.

Panting softly, he pulled the heavy corpse from atop of Ryo, checking quickly to make sure he was still breathing before spinning to return to the battle raging behind him. Blood smeared the walls of the cave, two unidentifiable heaps of flesh lying next to the walls. The girl trotted past him, deftly decapitating the body of the creature beside Ryo. Handing the blade to Cye once more, she pulled Ryo to his feet, examining the ragged lacerations on his forearms and the deep holes in his throat. Her hands glowed silver for a mere instant before she started the group moving again. Ryo gingerly fingered the unbroken skin of his neck with trembling hands before allowing himself to be pulled along by the others.

 

 

Being healed took a lot of energy from both the healer and the healed. Within an hour of running, Ryo staggered to a halt, panting loudly. When Cye felt his friend's hand slip from his shoulder, he sprinted ahead, tugging on the girls arm to stop her. He was uncomfortable about leaving his friends blind in the tunnels for even a moment, but feared the consequences of calling out to get the girl's attention. Returning to the group, he had only to point at his gasping friend to get his point across. Mouth tightening, she pulled Ryo onto her back, resuming her lope immediately, much to Cye's irritation. Ryo needed to rest. Swearing mentally, hoping she could hear, he placed Kento's hand on his shoulder and started running again.

Cye lost track of time as they moved through the caves. Everything looked alike to him. They could be going in circles for all he knew. The muscles in his calves began to burn, merely annoying at first, growing to a fiery pain so crippling that he could no longer run. He stopped, not having the energy to run ahead to catch her. Hands on his knees, he lowered his head, gulping air into burning lungs. The girl returned after a few seconds, scowling fiercely, blatantly ignoring the four boys' trembling. Grabbing Cye's hand, she moved as though to start running again, earning herself a glare and a vulgar gesture. Not willing to argue the point, she pulled him a few feet into a much narrower side-tunnel, creating the silver barrier once more. Cye glared at her balefully. They had all been running for hours on end, herself carrying Ryo for some time now, and she didn't seem as though she needed the break.

After resting for perhaps five minutes, she regained her feet, creating a stir of groans from the five Ronins. Ignoring their protests, she held up one hand for a moment, looking at the five boys sharply before loping out of the protective dome back into the blackness.

“How the hell can she do that?” Rowen complained in a voice more a gasp than actual words.

“No idea, but I'm surprised that Kento didn't drop dead about three hours ago,” Cye teased softly.

“Save it, you scrawny little punk. I can still whip you.”

“As long as you don't try to eat me. I'd like to keep all of my limbs if it's all the same to you.”

Sage grinned. They were speaking again. After seeing Kento and Cye avoid each other so adamantly during their last break, it was a relief to see that they weren't at one another's throats. He looked up in time to see Kento lunge at Cye, getting the smaller boy in a headlock. Squirming only helped Cye get his face wedged in Kento's armpit, resulting in a devastated, and slightly green, expression and a loud squawk.

“What's so funny?” Cye demanded, his eyes belying the angry expression on his face as he managed to pull free. Unable to keep up that deception, he grinned and tackled Sage, earning himself an outraged cry as he pinned the older boy. Not wanting those two to have all of the fun, Kento crashed the party, pinning them both with a satisfied grin. A small chuckle was all the warning he had before Rowen sent him sprawling across the floor into a wall. Each of the Ronins looked up from who they were grappling with, grinning like little boys.

Cye glanced over at Ryo. He hadn't joined in the fun, or moved at all for that matter. He lay sprawled on the floor where the girl had set him, barely breathing. Cye wandered over, rolling Ryo onto his back away from the wall to make sure his friend was all right, halfway expecting to get snapped at for waking him. When Ryo flopped limply onto his back, Cye would have given anything to have gotten the scolding.

“Oh shit. SAGE!”

Sage was beside him in an instant along with the other two Ronins. Ryo lay bonelessly on the floor, breath rasping in his throat, sweating heavily, and running a fever that both Sage and Cye would have sworn was impossible. Sage concentrated for a moment, a soft green glow enveloping him as he tried to ease the fever plaguing his friend. When he took his hands away, Ryo was as pale as before and breathing no easier. Sage clamped his teeth down on his lower lip, not knowing what to do.

Cye pushed him to the side, pulling Ryo into a sitting position despite Sage's protests. Ryo's jaw hung slack, not having the energy or the conscious thought to close it, awarding Cye with a clear view of what could only be fangs. The new length of his canines horrified him. His eyes widened further as Ryo opened his eyes for a moment to reach out towards him. Unable to tear his eyes away from his friend's eyes, pulsing softly red, he nearly wet himself when Ryo's hand grasped his shoulder lightly, claws pinching his skin slightly.

 

 

The girl trotted calmly into the silver dome unnoticed. She stared at the boy gathered in the corner, about to drop for a small rest when one of the boys, Ryo she thought, reached out to grab Cye's shoulder. Cye spasmed for a moment before slowly wilting away from his friend's gentle grasp. Intrigued, she approached the group, hissing as though burnt when getting a better view of Ryo. Tossing the other four Ronins out of the way as though they were no more than sacks of grain, she grabbed Ryo's head in both of her hands. Both of them were instantaneously surrounded in an inferno of silver flames. Releasing him suddenly, she rounded on the others furiously, gesturing madly, hissing in exasperation when they made no response.

A growl rising in her throat, she turned to Cye. He clutched his head for a moment, completely overwhelmed by the raw energy she inflicted upon him. His mouth hung loosely for a moment, eyes blank.

“How long has he been like that?” the words grated out of Cye's mouth, making the others squirm uncomfortably. “How long?”

“We only saw him a minute ago,” Sage answered quickly, eyes darting from the identical expressions of fury painting both the girl's and Cye's faces.

“The things in the tunnels here are dangerous. Some of them are contagious. I have never encountered one like the one that got him. Must be one of the newer rejects.” The explanation stopped for a minute as the girl turned to regard Ryo regretfully. “There is nothing I can do.”

Kento exploded. “There has to be something. You know the area and these things. Do something!”

Cye's blank face turned to him. “I will do something. I will leave him here.”

“We're not leaving him,” Sage snapped, scowling fiercely.

“And what would you have me do? Bring him with us so you can see him suffer? Watch him die? Even if he survives, he will lose what remains of his humanity and attack us in the tunnels.”

Releasing her hold on Cye's mind, she dropped the silver barrier, turning to leave. When it became apparent that three of the Ronins would not follow her and the fourth could barely stand after her mind hold, but was still scowling at her from unsteady feet, she turned back to them, lifting Ryo roughly across her shoulders, careful to keep his head and arms away from herself. When she moved to leave again, the others fell in behind her, reluctantly, but following still.

She would have to take the risk of bringing this one if it was the only way to get the others out of here. She had never thought that the one she had brought with her to convince the others to cooperate would be the reason that she nearly lost all of them. The twelve that died on the journey here would walk away in disgust if they even suspected that she was unwilling to risk herself to bring the Ronins out. Face hardening, she tried to think of some way to keep the boy from turning on them before getting them out of the tunnels. She could do something about him later. Her throat tightened suddenly. The tunnels had claimed another victim. She and the others had left to fulfill the one hope remaining to them, but only she had survived this wretched maze. Her memories turned back to the shattered remains of her home and all those that died at the treacherous hands of the dark ones who had betrayed them all.

 

 

Sage watched the girl worriedly when they passed strangely luminescent areas in the tunnels. She was obviously exhausted. He bit his lower lip in frustration at the entire situation. They were all tired, the girl was now staggering under Ryo's weight, and Rowen had taken up shoving him, hard, whenever he slowed down. Staggering to a halt, a silver dome sprang up around the group, earning a few gasps at the unexpected break. The girl deposited Ryo, tightening the bonds holding him hand and foot roughly before turning to scout ahead. Sage caught her as she passed by him, looking into haunted eyes that had seen too many things in life that no one should have to see. His eyes widened as he realized that she was on the brink of tears.

The dark circles under her eyes were new. He had never seen anything like that in her before. They had been traveling for at least two days in the blackness. They had run out of food and water some time ago and no one had had enough sleep. Sage was certain that she had not slept at all since he healed her sometime early in the first day they were traveling. Weaving unsteadily past him, she entered the tunnels once more. He squinted vainly after her in the darkness, making out nothing of her retreating form.

Sighing, he turned back to the others, sliding to the ground to get some much-needed rest. Rowen had moved to the furthest side of the dome from the others and was intently scowling at the ground in front of him. Cye and Kento were trying unsuccessfully to speak to one another, neither comfortable with talking at all for the moment. Ryo lay writhing within the tight bonds holding him, an occasional snarl escaping his lips.

Kento moved over to his tied friend, and began speaking to him softly like he had every break since they found out what was wrong with him. The first time Kento had started speaking, Ryo had frozen in his thrashing, listening to the soft words from his friend. Now Kento's presence only agitated him further and he began to buck wildly, wrists and ankles slick with blood from where the ropes holding him had torn the skin from his incessant thrashing.

Closing his eyes in disappointment, Kento shifted to move away from Ryo, seeing that he was no longer doing any good. A small snapping noise was all the warning he had. He turned just in time to see Ryo launch himself at him, throwing up his left arm to block the swing towards his head. Sinking his teeth into Kento's hand and his claws into his arm, he lashed out with his left arm, taloned fingers slashing Kento's face from forehead to right ear, across his right eye in the process. He howled in pain, falling away from his feral companion.

Ignoring the others, Ryo tried to bolt from the dome, slamming into the wall forcefully and bouncing back to fall into Rowen. Rowen promptly decked him and was kicked in return. The two combatants proceeded to pound on each other savagely for a moment, taking turns slamming one another into the glowing dome. Cye didn't hesitate before leaping into the turmoil, as many of his blows landing on Rowen as on Ryo. The three rolled along the ground wildly, Cye getting pinned for an instant between the silver dome and the other two. Sage could only watch in horror.

Cye leapt to his feet, throwing his arms skywards with a roar that echoed loudly within the silver shield. A spark of sea-blue fire appeared at his feet, swirling gently before rising to a whirlwind of blue flames that engulfed the slender boy. Howling, he sent a blast of blue flames into the two figures mauling each other, flinging them to opposite sides of the dome.

Tearing his eyes away from the battle, Sage dropped beside Kento, trying futilely to heal him like he had been unable to do for Ryo. His eyes widened when the lacerations resisted healing, appearing almost reluctant to close. Pouring more energy into what he was doing, he didn't notice Cye approach him from behind, nearly jumping out of his skin when Cye placed a hand on his shoulder. Raw energy rushed into Sage. He blinked in shock for a moment before he realized that Cye was only trying to help him heal his fallen friend. Swallowing nervously, he continued working, eyes widening in amazement as he realized that the energy Cye was providing him with was doing more than he could ever dream of. He sighed in relief as the wounds finally closed. He inspected his work after a moment, throat tightening as he realized that Kento's right eye did not regenerate any more than did the two fingers missing from his left hand.

Looking up to Cye, he tried not to flinch at the red-eyed gaze that met his own, knowing that it would only upset the younger boy. Cye turned his head to stare intently at Rowen, then Ryo, nodding in satisfaction as neither moved from where they had landed. Sage moved over to check on Rowen, startled to find that he had no more than a mass of bruises, all of which vanished easily. Hesitantly, he moved to Ryo's still twitching form. His eyes burned as he looked at his friend. He had been trying to avoid looking at him since what had happened and was shocked now to see how bad his friend looked. The beginnings of a muzzle twisted his face into something not quite human, teeth beginning to sharpen to match the canines. His hair had gotten longer, bushier, and his muscles larger and more defined. The talons on his hands were just that, retractable claws that made Sage cringe in horror.

Cye moved up behind him, still surrounded by the eerie blue flames that he had called up only moments ago. He flinched as Cye placed his hand on his shoulder once more, providing him with an endless supply of energy that seemed not to want to respond to his instructions, almost fighting him yet giving in because Cye willed it. Looking nervously to the silver dome, Sage's mind replayed the image of Cye slamming into it. He closed his eyes as he reluctantly accepted the energy given to him. Knowing where Cye was tapping this energy from did not put his mind at ease.

Tying Ryo firmly, Sage set about healing someone that he wasn't sure he should still call a friend. The bruises and the cuts from the rope were simple matters to attend to. He uncertainly began to work with the unconscious boy's mind, appalled by the chaos he found swirling in his dying consciousness. After fumbling and searching blindly for a moment, he found something that felt almost like the Ryo he knew. Almost. Locking the rest of the mind behind a barrier, he strengthened that one section, pulling Ryo awake with his mind forcefully before withdrawing rapidly and scrambling away. Ryo's eyelids fluttered for a moment before he passed out again.

 

 

Running uncomfortably under the weight of the unconscious boy, the girl considered yet another break as the boy shifted slightly across her shoulders. She did not relish the idea of him waking up while she carried him. Slowing to a stop, she deposited him roughly to the ground, immediately bringing up a shield.

She looked at the others carefully. The heavy-set boy had claw marks across his face which now sported only one functioning eye, the other nothing but a white orb staring blankly from beneath three parallel scars. She watched him carefully as he set down the blue-haired boy who had yet to regain consciousness. After having arrived back where she left them during the last break, it hadn't taken long to figure out what had happened. She had studied Kento for nearly an hour before she was finally convinced that he would suffer no serious effects from being attacked by Ryo. Either Ryo hadn't progressed enough to be contagious himself, or Sage had done something to the scarred boy that kept him from being affected. She had gotten a fairly clear account, and if it was the latter… Her mind reeled at the implications, the possibilities. There may yet be a way.

Rowen, however, terrified her. When she had arrived, he had been regaining consciousness. Seeing her had sent him into a murderous frenzy. As he attempted to tackle her, to choke the life from her, she had calmly kicked him in the stomach to send him careening through the wall of the silver dome. She had frozen in horror when he bounced off of it, eyes watering in helplessness. That shouldn't have happened. Upon experimentation, she had found that Ryo could not pass through the shield either, and Cye could only do it with a great deal of difficulty when he was calm. If he was angry, though, he could penetrate it no more than the other two. Unable to get Rowen to stop fighting her and the others, she had knocked him into oblivion, handing his unconscious form to Kento, hoping that the Warrior of Strength would be able to handle his added weight.

Slumping to the floor, she vowed that she would not leave them alone to go scouting again. Not after what had happened. She had tried to heal the half-blinded warrior, only to have him vehemently refuse after glancing at Cye. She sighed in resignation as she turned to watch Wildfire.

After a few minutes, he stirred slightly, eyelids fluttering open slowly. Crimson eyes regarded her for a moment before he struggled to get up. Blinking in confusion, he craned his head awkwardly to look at the bonds holding his wrists to his ankles. Giving a half-shrug, he twisted to move to a sitting position, swaying slightly trying vainly to keep his balance. The three conscious Ronins regarded him warily, eyeing the ropes holding him uncertainly, wondering if the girl had anything stronger than those thin cords hidden somewhere about her.

Blinking at the light of the dome, eyes narrowing into thin slits, Ryo turned to Kento guiltily. “Sorry,” he mumbled softly, voice not quite how they remembered it to be. Kento sat bolt upright, eyes widening as he regarded what he hoped was again his friend, swallowing uncertainly.

“Ryo?”

He cringed at his name, closing his eyes and turning away from the four regarding him closely. Opening his eyes, his gaze fell upon Rowen, lying unconscious some distance from him. His throat tightened. I didn't think I had hurt him that bad. His guilty expression was enough to convince Cye that it was once again Ryo, and he immediately moved to untie him, ignoring the protests from Sage and Kento.

Free from the bonds holding him, Ryo curled into a ball, pulling his knees to his chest and hiding his head in his arms. He shifted his head slightly so that his shaggy mane of hair would fall over ears coming to points. Balling his fists so that none of the others could see his hands clearly, he began to tremble slightly, tears falling freely from his eyes. He wanted to leave, to be free from their pitying eyes, but knew the futility of trying to pass through the barrier around them. He remembered the battle with his friends all too well, slamming into the wall. His chest suddenly felt too tight for his heart as he remembered what that meant for him, for Cye, and for Rowen.

 

 

Ryo trudged along with the others down the tunnels, grateful for the darkness that hid him from his friends' eyes. They had prodded him for nearly an hour, not understanding that he only wanted to be left alone, to be away from them before he hurt them again. Cye walked beside him, occasionally glancing in his direction. Ryo grimaced every time his crimson eyes met Cye's ruby. It wasn't as bad as having the others look at him, but it still tore him up. He didn't want the guys to see him like this.

Cye watched Ryo anxiously. He had to snap out of this soon. Looking ahead, he saw the girl quicken her pace slightly, nearly bouncing on her toes in excitement. For a moment he didn't understand. Then he saw it. A golden light shining down the tunnel up ahead. As he rounded the next corner the light became a glowing wall at the end of a long tunnel, the soft golden glow nearly blinding them all after the incessant darkness.

Grinning in Ryo's direction, he grabbed his friend's shoulder and began to trot happily towards the golden light, pulling the other three Ronins in his wake. He was about to break into a full run when something surged up beneath his feet, throwing him to the wall. As the breath was knocked out of him as he crashed into the wall, falling into a surprised Kento who in turn dropped Rowen. Squinting at the creature in the dim light, Kento cried out in horror, backing away quickly.

Thick ridges covered yellow eyes tinged with green set deep in a heavily scaled maw lined with sharp fangs. Layers of ridges ran down the creature to the tip of its long tail, resulting in a creature nearly twenty feet in length. The serpentine form had only front legs but those were enough to thoroughly terrify the four conscious Ronins, each claw nearly a foot long. Heavy muscles rippled beneath the thick hide, the spikes and blades jutting out from the thick scales shifting slightly.

“Armor of Hardrock! Dao Gi!”

“NO!!!” The distinctly feminine scream resounded through the caves. Every one of the Ronins turned to regard the girl, her mouth still parted from the only word she had ever uttered. Cye blinked. He had felt her tap his mind enough times to realize that she hadn't this time. He had always thought that she couldn't speak. His eyes widened. What could unnerve her so horribly that she would break whatever language barrier impeded her to be able to utter that one word?

His answer was immediate. As Kento's armor appeared, a deep rumble began from every direction, growing louder as something approached them. These tunnels were huge for the most part and whatever was coming was hitting the sides of the thing as it ran. Cye looked up to the twenty foot ceiling above him and swallowed nervously, forgetting the serpentine creature before him. A figure launched itself over his head, careening into the scaled nightmare mere feet from him, blades flashing in blurred hands.

Cye watched as the girl tackled the abomination, ignoring the razor-like teeth that sank into her shoulder, some of which clearly passed through to protrude from the other side. The hideous claws slashed at her, tearing her left leg to the bone from hip to knee, blood pooling on the ground below the two combatants. Whipping her arms around completely oblivious to the gashes torn in her flesh as she shifted inside the beast's jaws, she decapitated the thing. Swaying unsteadily, she rounded on the Ronins.

Cye didn't resist as she grasped his mind. “Get out of here! Go to the light ahead and step through. It is a passage to your dimension created by the ancients as they died trying to pass through this place unnoticed. Go!”

Cye spun on the last word, sprinting towards the gateway with Kento and Ryo in tow, Sage sprinting behind them wildly with Rowen draped awkwardly across his shoulders. Reaching the golden light, Kento launched himself through immediately, hoping his disappearance would slow whatever was coming when it could no longer sense him. Cye tried to shove Ryo through after him, crying out as he bounced back from the opening of the gate, eyes wide. Cye slammed his fist into the thing experimentally, tears streaming down his face as he realized it was like the silver dome the girl had created to protect them on their breaks. Nothing from the Dynasty could pass through. Sage was too far behind to see their struggle with the gate, chunking Rowen through the gleaming portal without pausing. Cye caught his arm before he could leap across the gateway himself.

“We can't get by, Sage,” Cye said slowly, eyes narrowing thoughtfully. “Rowen shouldn't have been able to either.”

Sage looked at them uncertainly for a moment, thinking frantically. Spinning to Ryo, he slammed his fist into his friend's jaw, snagging his tattered shirt before he could slide to the ground. Lifting him roughly, he tossed him through the glowing light, grinning at Cye's incredulous expression.

“Sorry `bout this,” Sage muttered as he decked Cye. Cye fell back, head swimming. His last vision before he passed out was of the girl swaying gently in the center of the tunnel, hastily wrapping a strip of her cloak around her shredded leg. Something was heading down the tunnel towards her, covering the distance at an appalling speed, two heads straining forward on long sinuous necks as six legs ending in thick talons pushed it forward in it's breakneck lope. His vision winked out entirely as a golden light enveloped him, strong arms pulling him forcefully as an unseen force screamed in protest at his passage.

 

 

Kento and Sage watched the flickering golden light of the portal expectantly, waiting for the girl to appear. Every now and then, Sage bent down to check on Ryo and Cye, both still unconscious from the blows Sage had delivered. Rowen lay still on the pavement, breathing raggedly.

“She's coming, isn't she?” Kento whispered softly, voice trembling.

“I don't know,” Sage murmured in response, nearing tears.

A groan caused them both to turn. Cye was staggering to his feet unsteadily, throwing glares at Sage and spitting curses that they were both grateful that they could not fully understand. Looking around, he scowled. The girl was not there. Striding purposefully towards the gateway, he ignored Sage's protests and Kento's grip on his arm. Spinning to knock Kento's feet out from under him, he sprinted towards the golden light, cursing loudly when he bounced off. Sea-blue flames enveloped the boy as he moved towards the portal again. Leaning forward and bracing himself, he unleashed a blast of energy whose backwash threatened to destroy everything in the surrounding area. The golden light in the center of the swirling mass shimmered unsteadily, shifting to a pale blue.

 

 

The girl had one of the two immense heads locked securely between her legs, her arms sunk firmly into the beast's neck. Her eyes widened as the head swung upwards viciously, slamming her lithe form into the stones of the ceiling. A cry escaped her lips as her left leg was jarred, the blood flow beginning anew.

A blue light shimmered in the tunnel behind her. Turning in horror she saw its source. Torrent was blasting through the portal in an attempt to reach her. Fool. What did he think he was doing? Lips peeling back in a sneer, she released a blast of her own towards the shining gateway. The momentary distraction earned her a slash down her ribs, breaking three on her right side and exposing all of them, the follow-through to the attack nearly disemboweling her. Silver flames met blue and the worlds on both side of the portal went white.

 

 

Cye looked at the nearly blue portal, smiling to himself as Kento tried unsuccessfully to approach him. He moved forward to step through the flickering light, ignoring his friends' protests. As he reached out to touch the gateway with one hand while maintaining the energy blast with the other, silver flames erupted from the other side, knocking Cye nearly thirty feet before he rolled to a stop.

Kento watched his friend as he was bowled off of his feet, tears welling in his eyes. He understood how Cye felt exactly. The girl had come to rescue them and was now being slaughtered in the last battle she waged to make sure they escaped. And it was his fault. If he hadn't called his armor…

Turning away from his fallen friend, he gripped his tetsubo firmly in his one good hand and walked to the portal, stepping through. The golden light felt eerie as it slid along his skin, still swirling madly from the effects of Cye's attempt to pass through forcefully. Emerging into the near total darkness, it took him a moment to focus his eyes on the battle raging before him. A black cloaked figure raced up the wall, flipping onto the back of the creature she faced, ducking to keep from being slammed into the twenty foot ceiling as the abomination bucked.

“Iron Rock Crusher!”

The sure-kill slammed into the chest of the two-headed monstrosity, thoroughly pissing it off.

 

 

Cye's blood-curdling scream had Sage by his side in an instant. He watched in horror as wounds began to open along the smaller boy slowly, deep lacerations sliding down his limbs and face. A single deep mark appeared on the top of his left arm, moving slowly down its length. Sage placed his hand in the way, eyes tearing as the trench in the younger boy's flesh merely passed below his bloodstained fingers. Unsure of what else to do, he healed his friend, holding his energies steady as more wounds appeared in the place of those he had just healed. If this didn't end soon, Cye was going to die from blood loss, healing or no.

Being so thoroughly engrossed in keeping the youngest Ronin alive, Sage didn't notice as Rowen pushed himself to his feet and moved towards him slowly, careful to stay out of his sight.

 

 

As the sure-kill slammed into the beast, the girl felt the ripples of the blast pass through the bellowing form beneath her. Ripping back the scales, she plunged her hand deep into the muscles of the beast's back, earning her an outraged roar. She clung to her unsteady perch as the monstrosity bucked, pinning her to the ceiling, a stalactite lancing her left arm from shoulder to elbow.

Her eyes widened as she saw Hardrock staring wide-eyed in her direction. Shit. What was he still doing here? Why hadn't he left when he had the chance? Launching herself free of the scaled back, she leapt in front of the heavy-set boy an instant before a plume of flames slammed into her back, curling around her shrieking form to pass harmlessly on either side of the horrified Ronin.

Grabbing the boy in her arms, she began to move doggedly forward, ignoring the pain as the flesh of her back melted away. Jumping for the gateway, she managed to shove the Warrior of Strength through as thick claws landed in her back, ripping deep trenches in her already abused form. Teeth snapped into what remained of her shredded left leg. Her scream echoed through both dimensions.

 

 

Kento rolled several feet on the other side of the portal before rolling to a stop. Standing unsteadily, he saw the girl. She was halfway through the gateway and was slowly sliding back in, despite her frantic clawing at the ground. He leaped forward, grabbing her hands in his own, digging his feet into the ground for traction. Her eyes widened and she cried out in agony. Kento nearly lost his grip when Cye's cries began to chase hers towards the heavens. Placing all of his strength into one remaining heave, he pulled the girl free of the portal, whimpering along with her when he saw the ruined remains of her legs and back, her eyes glazing she collapsed in his arms.

Spinning to get her to Sage, he stumbled over Ryo, bringing a groan from the stirring boy. He'd apologize later. Looking at Sage he nearly dropped the girl again. Sage and Rowen were rolling on the ground, each of the boys trying his hardest to pulverize the other into submission. Setting the girl down with a growl, he decided to end this, slamming his weight into both of them before pinning a cursing Rowen securely. Sage only glanced at the two of them before heading to the girl. He had heard her cries and remembered that she had not so much as whimpered when that creature that had appeared right before the gateway had mauled her leg and shoulder.

Reaching her prone form, he whimpered in sympathy. Her legs and back were in tatters, flesh hanging loosely from the bones if it was there at all. He gasped in recognition at the trench down the length of her left arm, a mirror image of the one on Cye's. Sending his healing energies through her, he glanced back to the youngest Ronin, watching as the wounds along his slight frame were healed. Swallowing nervously, he realized what that blast through the gateway must have done and wondered if it was intentional. The silver blast had altered slightly when it had collided with Cye's blue flames.

Moving back, he swayed on his feet, having lost a great deal of energy in healing Cye and now the girl. He shook his head, blond hair falling across one eye much to his irritation. He had seen the creature charging the girl as he pulled Cye through the gateway with him and thought it a miracle that she was still alive. Someone placed a hand on his shoulder, nearly making him wet himself before he turned to see that it wasn't Rowen. He nearly kicked himself. Rowen wouldn't have put a hand on his shoulder. He would have just slugged him.

Ryo withdrew his hand as Sage cringed. He should have known that he still unnerved the guys. He didn't exactly blame them either, not after what he did to Kento. He closed his eyes, unable to get the image of the impassible gateway out of his mind, the two-headed monstrosity charging down the tunnel towards them. His last vision had been of Sage's fist approaching his face. He sighed. Sage is still mad at me for what I did to Kento. I don't blame him. I wouldn't trust anything from the Dynasty either.

Correctly interpreting Ryo's expression, Sage opened his mouth to apologize for hitting him in the tunnels, choking on his words as Ryo turned to walk away. Ryo didn't get very far before falling flat on his face, a slender hand gripping his ankle relentlessly. Sage could only watch in a mixture of pity and wry humor as the girl tossed an extremely irked Ryo across her shoulders before moving to pull Cye to his feet. Picking up Rowen by his belt, she tossed him through the air in Kento's direction, grinning as they both toppled to the ground.

“I can walk! Put me down!” Ryo squawked indignantly.

“Suffer,” Cye responded sleepily, not even looking in his direction.

“Have it your way,” he muttered, craning his head to look at the girl out of the corner of one crimson eye. Spinning deftly across her shoulders, he twisted free of her grasp and slid his right arm between her legs, grabbing her right hand with his left. An astonished cry echoed through the empty streets as Ryo stood up, the girl draped across his shoulders. Sage winced when it became apparent that he was using the girl to hide himself from their pitying eyes. His worry was broken as the girl began to laugh hysterically, trembling slightly with her gasping breaths from atop Ryo.

“Have it your way, Wildfire, but take my advice that this is no way to pick up a girl,” Cye's voice called loudly to the astonishment of the others. The girl thought that this was funny? They had all thought that she'd be furious at the precarious position.

Chuckling weakly to himself, Sage moved ahead to lead the weary group on the long trip back to Mia's house.

 

 

Upon arrival at Mia's house late that night, Ryo had immediately confiscated the girl's cloak, wrapping in tightly about himself as he raced upstairs to lock himself in his room. Before Mia could get a look at the guys or start asking questions, Cye pulled her into the kitchen, seating himself across the table from her. He began to explain what had happened simply, leaving out his eyes and what had happened to Ryo in the caves. Ryo could tell her when he was ready.

“You need to stay away from Rowen. Probably Ryo and me too. After what happened, I'm not sure we're safe to be around…” he trailed off, looking up at Mia with eyes too old for his age.

“You two better be cookin' in there,” Kento called out loudly. A muscle in Mia's cheek twitched slightly.

“He didn't change any,” she muttered, standing to move over to the fridge. Glancing over her shoulder at Cye, she paused. “There's more, isn't there. I need to know what's going on Cye. All of it.”

Heaving out a breath, he looked at her imploring eyes. “Just remember that you asked,” he murmured softly, motioning with one hand. The lights in the kitchen went out. Mia choked off a cry as she stared into the crimson eyes regarding her. Seeing her horror, he raised one hand, concentrating fiercely. A burning orb of blue light appeared just above his right hand, illuminating the room with a soft glow that sent eerie shadows chasing each other about the kitchen.

Trying not to sigh at Mia's reaction, he let the glowing blue light fade out and turned the lights back on. Motioning for her to sit back down, he added what he had left out before. “When I was in the pools, I opened my eyes while underwater. Whatever that stuff was, it blinded me and Sage wasn't able to do anything about it. The girl was able to restore my vision, but now my eyes are like hers, I guess. Ryo got it much worse…” he broke off as Mia surged to her feet, murder in her eyes.

“I'm gonna kill her,” she hissed, moving for the door. Cye grabbed her as she passed him, calmly pushing her into a chair.

“She didn't do anything to Ryo. Something got him in the tunnels…” he trailed off for a moment as he considered the best way to tell her that Ryo wasn't exactly human anymore and was undoubtedly dangerous. He didn't have to say anything. Mia's expression told him that she understood that something was terribly wrong.

“And about the blue flames?” she whispered unsteadily.

“I'm not exactly sure. I think that it has something to do with my time in the pools, and if that's the case then Rowen can do it too.”

Mia nodded numbly, standing once again to move over to the stove. Silently, Cye moved to help her cook as Kento's voice rang through the house once more.

 

 

Weary or not, the girl wasn't about to show any signs of weakness in front of the two Ronins regarding her carefully in the living room. Grabbing the third Ronin from where he lay senseless on the floor, she trotted upstairs to deposit him in his bed, tying him there after a moment of consideration. Trotting back into the hall, she was less than surprised when she found Ryo's door securely locked. Grinning, she went out to the balcony jutting from Sage's and Rowen's room, hopping over to cling to Ryo's window for a moment before slipping in gracefully.

She slunk towards him silently, preparing to scare the daylights out of the boy from where he sat of the edge of his bed. She paused when she noticed him trembling. Was he crying? Moving into his line of view, she waited for him to acknowledge her before moving any closer to him. He didn't look up from his hands folded in his lap.

Sighing, she moved to sit by him, placing one hand on his shoulder. She sent a small probing spark of energy through him. Her brows knotted in confusion. He still wasn't contagious. That was downright impossible. She knew that he was there mentally after something Sage did to him, something that she intended to find out in full detail soon, but he should have long since passed the stage where he could infect others. Curious, she sent another ripple through him, eyebrows shooting up to her hairline when his virtue kanji flared in response. His kanji? Was the strong life force, the unconquerable soul of a Ronin, what was protecting him? Perhaps the armor? She was about to check on her theory when Ryo looked up to her.

Her heart twisted when she saw the pain painting his expressions at what had happened to him, the guilt that he hadn't been able to help his friends and had even attacked one of them. Throat tightening, she slipped her arm fully around his shoulders and pulled him closer to her, trying vainly to quell his shaking. For a moment he remained limp in her arms before embracing her desperately, eyes watering as he buried his face in her shoulder.

He stayed in her arms like that for nearly an hour, trying unsuccessfully to convince himself that his friends would understand what had happened to him, that they would treat him like they always had. He couldn't stand the pity in their eyes, the fear that showed through when they looked at him.

He felt as though he had been abandoned when she pulled away from him, whimpering softly in protest. Her hands reached over to him, lifting his arms straight into the air. Confused but unwilling to do anything to upset the only person who wasn't acting strangely around him, he complied, eyes widening when she pulled his shirt over his head. Squirming uncomfortably, he reached for his shirt only to have her toss it to the other side of the room. With gentle hands she traced the heavy muscles that rippled beneath his skin where none had been before.

Ryo pulled away, glaring at her angrily. She was looking at him as though he were a lab experiment or a new species that needed to be examined. The curiosity in her eyes infuriated him. He opened his mouth to snap at her, only to have her grasp his head in both of her hands, peeling his lips back with her thumbs to examine his teeth. Almost bristling, he tried to pull away as she bent to examine his hands. A soft silver glow surrounded her as she looked up to him curiously, mouth parted as though she wanted to say something but didn't know the words.

He forced himself to relax, allowing her to thoroughly study him, crying out in protest as she deprived him of his jeans. She ran her hands experimentally up his legs, sending a soft flow of energy into his muscles, glancing up at his face for a moment. She chuckled softly. Ryo knew immediately why she was chuckling. He must have been as red as his yoroi. Before he could say anything, a massive pulse of energy shot through him, making him gasp through clenched teeth.

Grinning to herself, the girl hopped to her feet and disappeared by the same route she had entered, waving to him as she launched herself out of his window. Frowning at her disconcertedly, he choked on his own tongue as he caught a view of himself in his mirror. He ran quavering fingers uncertainly over a face that he had know since childhood, breaking into a grin when he realized what she had done. Dressing hurriedly, he darted downstairs to get a chance at the food before Kento got to it.

 

 

Mia, Cye, Kento, and Sage sat at the table silently. What could they possibly say to one another? Mia's jaw tightened every time she saw Kento's eye or what remained of his left hand, the two outermost fingers missing. It had taken her some time to bring herself to ask them what had happened to Ryo, face paling in horror when Sage broke down and told her. After having heard that, she was afraid to ask anything else.

The girl ambled happily into the room, plopping down at the table and securing herself a plate and a large quantity of food, actually out-eating Kento. There was a first. Shoveling away at the food cheerfully, she tapped Sage on the shoulder, pointing to his head and then upstairs. Sage blinked carefully, chewing his lower lip. Did she want to know about what was wrong with Rowen or what he did to Ryo? It was probably one of the two. Deciding on the latter, he opened his mouth to respond, blinking as Cye jumped up and grabbed the girl by the front of her shirt to slam her into the wall. He had obviously understood the question, maybe even heard it for all Sage knew.

“How the hell could you be asking something like that now?! You're the one who's responsible for this! You could have taken a different way out of the castle! You obviously got there some other way than by how you got us out, so why didn't you take us back the way you came! If you had been thinking at all…”

“She would have left your ass in the pools,” Ryo finished for him, ignoring his friends' dumbfounded expressions. “She couldn't go out the way she had come in. The Dynasty gate crumbled behind us. She took us out the only way she knew how. If she had tried anything more than she had, she might have drawn attention to our escape, which is something we most definitely did not need.” Still ignoring their astonishment completely, he grabbed a plate of food and plopped down in an empty seat, grinning at their incredulous expressions.

“How…” Sage began, trailing off uncertainly.

“The girl,” he responded simply, stuffing too large of a bite into his mouth.

Cye blinked guiltily, lowering the girl to the floor and moving back to his seat. Sniffing disdainfully, she confiscated his dinner roll as punishment for his actions. Turning back to Sage, she waited patiently.

“Uh… it's not really something I can explain. I'll have to show you later. I can't really put words to what I did.”

Nodding impatiently, she plucked the roll off Sage's plate as well. Kento regarded her carefully for a moment before moving his plate a little further from her, laying one arm protectively across the table in front of his meal. Raising an eyebrow at him, she tossed her knife in his direction, the blade planting itself into the table a hairsbreadth away from his arm. He squeaked, jerking his arm back. As he yanked his arm away, his roll disappeared as surely as Cye and Sage's had. Ryo lost his roll just for chuckling at her antics. Mia shook her head in resignation, staring at her thankfully empty plate, smiling in spite of herself.

 

 

After dinner, the girl all but kidnapped Sage, dragging him behind her with one hand while balancing a plate of food in her other. Sage's eyes widened when he realized what she was after. She wanted him to do the same thing to Rowen that he had done to Ryo. Having learned from Cye that Sage wasn't strong enough to do this on his own, she obviously intended to supply him with her energy while she watched what he did with it.

Rowen was already awake when they walked in, writhing in the bonds holding him, snarling at the two as the entered. He blinked at the food the girl held, obviously hungry enough to put up with anything as long as it meant that he got to eat something. Looking askance at Sage, she began to feed Rowen, grinning slightly at his indignant expression at being handled like a baby. To irritate him further, she purposely let some of the gravy dribble down his chin so that she could wipe it off, grinning triumphantly at his furious expression. Rowen choked when she looked at his tattered clothes and immediately found a clean set in the dresser, holding them up for his inspection, complete with a clean set of boxers. Sage only massaged his temples and sighed.

Sage moved over to the bed, kneeling beside his friend. The girl immediately dropped the clothes she had been taunting Rowen with and moved to stand behind him with her hands on his shoulders. A soft green glow enveloped all three, silvery flames flickering in and out of existence to create glittering swirls within the emerald light. He moved through Rowen's consciousness, looking for something that resembled his friend. A sudden flash of blackish blue filled his vision as Rowen began to fight back, growling softly at the two people in front of him. Silver flames shot into existence forcefully, suppressing the dark blue with a skilled grace that Sage didn't think he would ever be able to accomplish. Ignoring the two as they battled, he began again, surprised to find the girl's power still steadying him as he worked. After what seemed like an eternity, he found a distant corner in his friend's mind that was still him. Sectioning off everything else, he placed what almost appeared like a shield around everything that was not his friend's consciousness, and slowly awakened what was.

Rowen's eyes unglazed abruptly. He looked at the girl holding him to the bed, remembering suddenly how he had bucked. He relaxed completely in her grasp and was immediately rewarded by being unbound. He opened his mouth to apologize for everything he had done, blinking in surprise as Sage immediately spun to leave. He tried to call out an apology but choked for the second time in so many minutes as the girl once again held up a change of clothes and advanced slowly towards him. He flattened himself to the wall, his face reddening as he heard Sage chuckle as he walked out the door of their room. She wouldn't. Rowen's startled shriek echoed through the house as he found out quite quickly that she indeed would.

 

 

Kento slunk to the kitchen silently, eyes darting wildly. Opening the fridge as quietly as he could, he pulled out several types of meat and cheese, layering them thickly between two slabs of freshly baked break. Preparing to enjoy his midnight snack, he didn't see the shadow that appeared behind him, reaching slowly towards the unsuspecting Ronin. Kento blinked as his sandwich disappeared from his hands, jaws working silently. He spun around to confront the thief, growling as he saw the girl contentedly munching on one end of his sandwich. Snatching it back from her, he did his best to cram the entire thing into his mouth, ignoring her grin as he made sure that she could not get at his snack again. Chuckling to herself, she slipped back upstairs.

 

 

Sage blinked blearily as he felt a slight draft. He must have kicked off his blankets again. He, like the others, had not been sleeping as quietly as usual these past two weeks. They were all still recovering from what the Dynasty had done to them. Unable to fall asleep again, he draped a robe across his shoulders, ambling downstairs sleepily. He found Kento in the kitchen, mouth stuffed with what looked like the better part of a very large sandwich. Chuckling softly, he sat down at the table across from his friend, grinning widely.

“It's not going to vanish if you don't eat it in two seconds flat,” he murmured.

Kento glared at him, swallowing hard. “It might with that girl around. She got about half of it before I could pry it out of her hands.” Sage couldn't help but snicker. Ever since that first time raiding Kento's plate when he had moved to stop her, she had made a game of stealing his food, usually right out from under his nose. He was almost sorry that he had missed it.

“So why're you up?” Kento asked around a mouthful of sandwich.

Blinking sleepily, Sage frowned slightly, deep in thought. If he had kicked off his blankets, that would have accounted for being cold. But a draft? His eyes widened and he chuckled slightly.

“Because I think she's at it again.” He didn't need to explain further.

“Shall we get the camera?” Kento suggested, grinning wickedly.

“Nah. If this is like any of the other times, we can get a picture in the morning. I'm not risking going into my room at the moment. Not after what happened last time.”

Kento chuckled wryly. He remembered quite well what had happened the last time the girl had been interrupted from torturing Rowen. Sage hadn't been able to walk straight for three days.

“I didn't think it was that funny,” Sage grumbled unhappily.

He looked up as a black cloaked figure trotted by him to settle onto the couch in the living room, ignoring both of them completely.

“Now lets get the camera,” Sage said, grinning.

The two bolted upstairs and into Rowen and Sage's room. Grabbing the camera, they immediately scanned the ceiling. Not seeing their friend there, they frowned in disappointment, looking around the room for Rowen. Twice now they had found him on the ceiling. Once he had been taped there quite securely so that no amount of struggling could free him. Another time they had found him hanging from the center of the room by his ankles with his hands tied behind his back, completely naked. Spotting him still in the bed, Sage readied the camera. Kento tossed back the sheets a bit and jumped back a few feet, his grin fading as they didn't see anything wrong with him. He didn't appear to be glued to the sheets again, nor did he appear to be dressed in Mia's lingerie. Kento leaned over the bed precariously to get a better look at Rowen's backside, frowning outright when he didn't find the seat of his friend's pants cut out. That had been an interesting little adventure. No one had told him what the girl had done, that is no one told him until he was in the same room with Mia.

Looking at Sage and shrugging, the two wandered out of the room thoroughly disappointed. She hadn't done anything. What a gyp.

 

 

The next morning as Mia and all the Ronins, minus the nocturnal one, sat around the table, a shriek of agony echoed from upstairs. Kento and Sage glanced at each other, grins materializing on their faces in an instant. Sage grabbed the camera sitting next to his plate and the race upstairs began. The girl leapt over the stairs entirely, easily clearing the Ronins to land at the top, darting down the hall without waiting for the others. As the group piled into Rowen's room, peals of poorly contained laughter echoed down the halls.

“So that's where my hot wax went,” Mia gasped, tears streaming from her eyes.

Rowen glared at her testily, not finding this funny in the slightest. Both of his legs, from ankle to groin, were covered in hot wax. He had obviously moved the end of one of the cooled strips, a patch of very red skin visible from beneath a loose section of wax. Ryo leaned on the doorway, laughing so hard that he could no longer force his lungs to draw breath. He had to duck as Rowen chunked a rather large book in his direction, the projectile missing him and hitting Kento in the head. Kento blinked, stunned for a moment before moving over to the side of Rowen's bed.

“Don't worry, buddy. We'll help you out,” Kento said quite seriously, his eyes belying his comforting words. Rowen's eyes widened and he tried to move away, but it was too late to evade Kento's grip. The ripping of wax was drowned out by an ear-splitting howl that rang through the house. Many more followed.

 

 

The girl was still grinning about her last stunt as she trotted down the streets. She had rested for two whole weeks now, only breaking her blissful resting by tormenting Strata. Reaching the proper area in the city, she concentrated carefully, silvery flames flickering about her slender form delicately. A soft pulsing within the wall before her answered her call. She placed her hand on the rough bricks, the wall rippling outward from her fingers like the water from a still pond. Gold flames fought her silver for a moment as she concentrated. A golden portal appeared before her once again. A smile broke out on her face. Torrent had not destroyed the thing completely after all.

She stepped through, trotting down the blackness in absolute silence, looking for the markings in the dirt she had seen upon passing through nearly half a month ago. Tired of moving so slowly, she dropped to all fours and plunged through the darkness at a speed that few creatures in these tunnels could match. She wound through the maze at a breakneck speed, rounding corners so suddenly that she wouldn't be able to mount an attack if something was there. But at these speeds, nothing could attack her either.

Rounding one last corner she found what she had been seeking. Large paw prints in the dirt led down a small side tunnel, a trail of blood stained into the ground. A small resonance of the beast lingered in the air from long ago, but the blood was not his. Grinning, she followed the trail to a dead end, the stones above having caved in, closing off the end of what she knew to be a tunnel that would have ended in about a hundred paces. Pulling aside stones, she slipped into the narrow opening she had created, spotting a mass of heat in the far corner, glowing to her sensitive eyes.

Ambling over to the creature in the corner, she reached out to lift the beast to her back, nearly losing her fingers to snapping jaws. Jerking back, she tried again, approaching more cautiously this time. Nearing the creature, she proffered her hand, ready to leap back if it snapped again, humming softly to soothe the beast. This was too dangerous an area to raise a shield or form a light. He shifted slightly at the sound, leaning forward. She felt a soft movement of air as the beast snuffled her hand. Grinning triumphantly, she moved slowly to pet the massive head, feeling the silken fur under her fingers. This was an ancient beast, a servant to the mages long ago. She eyed the enormous beast appreciatively, imagining how massive it would be if it were not starved. Standing, it would pass her waist in height and she was far from short. Leaving her hand on the bony shoulder, she began walking slowly, the beast following her resignedly, utterly defeated. It nearly broke her heart to see such a great creature with this kind of surpassing intelligence in such pain.

Leading the way slowly down the tunnels, she approached the shining gateway after nearly three hours of walking, carrying the beast for the last two. He was hurt more severely than she had originally thought, and nearing starvation. He might have lasted another day or two at the best.

Shifting slightly under the weight across her shoulders, she stepped through the portal, careful not to drop the suddenly squirming beast. She didn't really blame him. He must be thoroughly terrified, alone in the dark, starving and surrounded by enemies, too weak to fight any longer. Stroking the fur comfortingly, she headed back to the house containing the Ronins, the massive beast draped across her shoulders as she loped smoothly down the deserted streets.

 

 

The house was in utter chaos as she approached, setting the beast down just inside as she looked at the frantic Ronins. She trotted over to where they looked prepared to pound anyone and everyone into unidentifiable masses of flesh, plopping into a chair in the center of the bickering Ronins.

“Where the hell have you been?!” Ryo exploded.

“We've been looking everywhere for you!” Sage added furiously.

“I haven't been. I couldn't care less,” Rowen muttered testily.

“Where did you go?! Ever since we first saw you, you've never moved more than a few feet from any of us! Where the hell where you?!” Ryo all but shrieked.

Without even bothering with Cye to get an answer across, she pointed to the beast she had set just inside of the door when she entered, grinning at Ryo's unadulterated shock. His jaw worked soundlessly for a moment as he stood there stupidly.

“White Blaze!!” He called out, darting over to the half-starved tiger. The girl's head snapped around to regard him. He knew the thing? She had thought that he was merely horrified at the thought of bringing a tiger into the house. “Where did you find him?” he asked shakily, burying his face in the filthy fur of the unconscious tiger.

For an answer, she moved over to his line of vision and shifted her eyes to a shimmering crimson, ignoring the stinging of the lights to look at him for a moment with her glowing red eyes.

“The tunnels?” he breathed. “How did he get there?”

She could only shrug, for she honestly didn't know. The blood trail indicated that he had killed something and had been eating it to keep from starving from where he had holed himself up for protection. He had obviously been too afraid, or too battered from internal injuries, to venture into the tunnels to find something more to eat. She told as much to Cye, who relayed the message to the others shakily.

Rowen made a face, obviously feeling bad for snapping at her. She grinned at his expression, taking a half step in his direction, stopping with a chuckle as he hastily backed away.

A sudden growl caught everyone's attention. The tiger had awoken to the feeling of hands running through his fur and was now growling ferociously. Ryo hadn't moved back, but one glance at White Blaze made it perfectly clear to the girl that he should. Pulling him away and blatantly ignoring his glare in her direction, she regarded the tiger carefully. Cye darted off with a silent order ringing through his head, returning after a moment with as much meat as he had been able to find in the fridge. As he approached with the food, the tiger nearly went ballistic, surging to his feet and retreating rapidly. When Cye paused in confusion, Sage plucked the bowl out of his hand and moved forward slowly, eyeing the tiger with a great deal of respect for the massive claws. White Blaze made no objection to his approach but continued to eye Ryo and Cye with pure, blatant hatred. After only a second's debate, Rowen was added to his hit list, receiving a deafening roar.

The girl darted over to the tiger, laying her hands on his back soothingly. Silvery flames surrounded her. No injuries or problems were apparent other than starvation. Lips pursing, she raided the beast's mind, blinking at the images she received. Looking to Cye, she didn't remember to relay the message through him, seizing his mind again. Knowing the futility of resisting, he relaxed and hoped he didn't get another migraine from this.

“He's afraid of the three from the Dynasty as he sees it. He knows it's you, vaguely, but he doesn't understand why you three switched sides. He can't tell that you haven't…” Cye trailed off, his utter shock breaking the girl's contact with him.

“How can you tell?” Ryo's quavering voice barely reaching the girl's ears.

Turning to the tiger once more, she tried to tell him that it was all right, that the guys were on the same side they had always been. The massive head turned to her, his strangely intelligent eyes doubting the thoughts she sent him, doubting her every word and action. Eyes narrowing, she began a game of logic with the cat. If I am evil, why did I help you? She paused for a response, continuing as the tufted ears perked up slightly as he ate. Since you have agreed I am not evil, then why would I be around those who are? The complex thought stumped White Blaze for a moment, the shaggy head shaking in confusion. He couldn't figure that one out.

Still not convinced, the tiger send out waves of confusion and distrust, blinking as she offered to explain anything he wanted to know. My eyes, little brother? They are who I am, just as your claws are a part of you. White Blaze glanced at Rowen, turning to stare intently at the girl once more. No, he hasn't gone mad. He didn't do that to his legs. I did. At the baffled thoughts echoing from the great cat, she chuckled, transmitting her sense of humor across to the cat, the laughing of the Ronins. Blinking at the onslaught of thoughts flooding his mind, he began again. Ryo? Something in the tunnels did that to him. He was healed by Sage and myself. He is still the one you have always known. Nothing has changed, little one. Shocked at how he was addressed, he turned his attention to Cye and Rowen. Pools, brother. They were tortured by the Dynasty. What has been done to them is not their fault. What wrong have they done to deserve hatred from another? Snorting in vexation, he insisted on one more thing. The scars on the large one? She paused in horror. How could she explain this to him without losing the tiger's trust in Wildfire? He was attacked in the tunnels, she said, hoping that the tiger wouldn't detect the small lie.

Snorting disdainfully, he edged slowly over to Ryo, ears flattened to his head, growl firmly restrained deep in his throat. He began to tremble as he neared his master, the smell unhinging what was left of his sanity. He had been trapped in those infernal caves for longer that he could determine, and he recognized the smells from the tunnels quite well. He shook forcefully as a hand was placed on his shoulder, trying to hold himself together as Ryo led him outside to wash his matted fur.

 

 

The Ronins were so absorbed in White Blaze's return that they didn't notice the girl stagger upstairs where she collapsed in Rowen's bed, panting loudly. She shouldn't have been running around like that. The more she moved, the worse the poison tore at her. Despite Halo's abilities in healing, he wouldn't have noticed the poisons coursing through her veins. The last two beasts she had fought while saving the tiger were highly venomous, but even if Sage had noticed he wouldn't have been able to do anything. Talented though he was, he was not strong enough. She curled up into a ball, eyes glazing slightly. She recognized the type of venom in her veins, remembering how two others in her group had died of it while travelling the tunnels. Only her strength and stubbornness had kept her alive thus far. She cursed feebly. She knew better than to move after bitten, but her stubborn pride had kept her going, kept her from asking the boys for help. Vision dimming, she went limp across Strata's bed.

 

 

Tired of White Blaze growling at him, Rowen trudged upstairs intent on taking a nap without being disturbed by that black-cloaked menace. Turning into his room, he nearly had a seizure when he saw that the girl was already there, strewn across his bed.

“Get out of here,” he cried in annoyance, prodding the girl with one finger when she didn't respond. Eyes narrowing in frustration, he pulled her onto the floor by one foot, one eyebrow rising slowly when she slid bonelessly to the floor. Ready to jump back if she tried to do anything to him, he placed two fingers on the side of her throat, blinking in shock as his fingers met clammy skin, the soft pulse irregular and slowing.

“Shit,” he murmured, slipping his arms under her and bolting downstairs with the girl dangling from his arms.

 

 

Sage had been trying to convince White Blaze to hold still while they scrubbed him since Kento didn't have much luck in holding him down. Sage chuckled. Kento was firmly pinned under the cat, spluttering in the soapy water that splashed onto him when no one paused in scrubbing to get him out from under the great cat.

Rowen darted out of the house, sprinting towards them as they finished rinsing the soap off of White Blaze, nearly losing a leg as the unnerved tiger took a swipe at him. Ignoring him completely, he turned to Sage.

“Something's wrong with the girl,” he cried out softly, grabbing his friend's arm and heading back to the house before Sage could even open his mouth to respond.

Laying his hands on the still form on the couch, Sage's eyes widened in horror. “Get Cye quickly,” he panted, haunted eyes turning to the other Ronin. Rowen wasn't gone more than a few seconds before he returned with Cye speeding after him, sprinting to keep from being drug by the older boy. Sage was already surrounded by a soft emerald glow, the girl twitching slightly under his soothing hands. Without being told, Cye and Rowen placed their hands on Sage's shoulders, Cye crinkling up his face in concentration. Sea-blue flames surrounded the youngest Ronin, raw energy surging unchecked into Sage, increasing the emerald glow pulsing around his tense frame. Rowen blinked uncertainly, not sure what he was supposed to do. Trying to mimic Cye, all Rowen succeeded in doing was giving himself a headache. Cye's slender hand gripped his shoulder and he spasmed, sapphire flames shooting about him wildly until he remembered to send his energy to Sage. Sage nodded quickly, the green glow around him becoming blinding. The girl whimpered, softly at first, before her screams shook the rafters of the house.

 

 

Mia peeked into Sage and Rowen's room. Seeing Rowen sitting sleepily beside the bed, she couldn't help but grin. She had no idea what had brought this on, but Rowen insisted on being the one to care for the girl, placing her in his bed and watching her every possible moment. She didn't bother to ask him if she should watch the girl for a little while, knowing that he would only refuse again. Turning to head for the kitchen she couldn't help but wonder if this was his ploy to get on the girl's good side so she would stop torturing him or if he truly liked her. Mia's bet was on the former.

Gathering a bowl of food from the kitchen, she ducked into her room to check on White Blaze, the tiger refusing to stay anywhere near Ryo, Cye, or Rowen. He nuzzled her leg as she bent to pet the massive head, his whiskers tickling her bare skin. Leaving the room she looked for something to do. The house was always so quiet when the guys patrolled the empty city.

Hearing a noise downstairs, she went to greet the guys, not even wondering why they would be returning so early in the day. Turning to the living room, she froze, scream dying in her throat as a sword was pressed firmly to her neck. Kayura.

 

 

White Blaze jumped unsteadily to his feet, sensing that something was terribly wrong. He paused determinedly to get Rowen, still not trusting him but knowing that he needed the help. Blinking groggily, Rowen stumbled downstairs after the bony tiger, running one hand through his unruly blue hair.

 

 

Mia's eyes watered. The guys were out, White Blaze and the girl were injured, and Rowen could sleep through a hurricane.

“Where is she? Where is the girl?” Kayura hissed, pressing the sword tighter to her throat, drawing blood. She dropped Mia suddenly, spinning to slash out behind her, one sword grazing Rowen's chest to draw a thin line of blood. He cursed at himself. He didn't have his armor orb. Kayura took in his wrinkled shirt and blue jeans with one glance, grinning happily as she saw that he was utterly defenseless.

 

 

Cye placed one hand on his chest, frowning worriedly at the sensation that passed through his skin. It didn't hurt really, more like the half-forgotten memory of pain. Seeing the others looking at him strangely, he shrugged.

“It's nothing. Lets keep moving.”

The others nodded uncertainly at the confused and slightly worried expression on the youngest Ronin's face. As they turned down another street, the group stopped, gaping. It looked exactly like the street they had just left. They turned again with the same results. Ryo scowled darkly.

“Dais! Come out of hiding, you coward!”

Dais appeared up ahead, hanging unconcernedly from a street lamp by his feet. He began to laugh as the four Ronins called their armor. “Do you really think that will help you, little Ronins?” he sneered, disappearing once again.

“Snake Fang Strike!”

The blast passed harmlessly around the Ronins as it rolled off of a glittering blue dome surrounding them, Cye leaning forward with his arms extended, panting heavily.

“Very impressive, Torrent. But can you block what you cannot see?” Cale taunted as the entire area around them went black. “SHIT!!!” he shrieked when two sets of glowing red eyes immediately pierced the darkness, staring at him intently.

“Super Wave Smasher!”

“Flare Up Now!”

Cale barely had time to get out of the way of the sure-kills before they obliterated him. What the hell happened to those two? Was it one of them who had torn out his throat? He swallowed nervously. If Sehkmet hadn't been there to heal him… He shook his head, not wanting to think of what would have happened.

Dais only blinked at their eyes, snapping out of his shock immediately. “What will you do, Ronins, missing one of your group and without your girl to protect you?” he called into the darkness encasing the Ronins, grinning maliciously.

A burst of blue flames lit the area, Cye standing in the middle of an inferno of turquoise flames. He lifted his yari to unleash his sure-kill, cutting off suddenly, gripping his right leg in horror and confusion. That hurt. He half expected to see blood after what the guys had told him happened after the tunnels, but the pain receded as quickly as it had come. His eyes widened.

“Rowen and the girl! They're fighting Kayura!”

“Why do you think that, Ronin? How do you know they're not already dead by her hand?” Sehkmet called.

“Thunder Bolt Cut!”

Sehkmet staggered, clutching the half-melted flesh of his right side scorched even through his armor, gasping against ribs that must be broken if not shattered. Spitting a curse at Sage that made even Kento choke from the vulgarity of it, he vanished in a swirl of black flames.

The two remaining Warlords and the four Ronins began unleashing their sure-kills at each other as quickly as was humanly possible, if not more so. Cye hissed angrily. This wasn't getting them anywhere. The other two weren't as stupid as Sehkmet and were unlikely to be hit any time soon. They were losing time. Rowen needed them and even if they stopped fighting now, it would take them over an hour to get back to the house.

Screaming in frustration, Cye drew the attention of the Ronins and Warlords alike, everyone thinking that the boy had been hit.

“Allayendis dienden. Kabadreis neda cumienden. Allameis cabadros a den ama. Andien!” Cye howled into the rising winds. “Exodus!” The other Ronins only gaped.

A whirlwind of turquoise flames surrounded him, the pavement below him becoming molten, cars and large sections of buildings flying through the air. Both of the Warlords were enveloped in flames, screaming as they disappeared. The flames around Cye died as he collapsed to the ground.

Back at the house, the girl sat upright in bed, eyes wide. “Exodus,” she breathed, eyes widening as the aftershock of one of the forbidden spells rang across the dimension.

 

 

Rowen cried out in agony as Kayura lunged forward, impaling his right leg on one sword to flip him across the room into the wall. Mia could only watch in horror as Kayura approached him before his cry had even died in his throat, swing her swords in front of her again.

“Star Storm Scream!”

Rowen howled as the sure-kill rained down upon him and White Blaze, the tiger's scream chasing his in volume and pain. The sure-kill was abruptly cut off as a shock wave rippled past the house, followed by a blast of dark sapphire light raging wildly around a slender form. The wounds along Rowen's slender frame closed suddenly, dark blue smoke rising from the deep holes as they healed. He stood slowly, eyes burning with hatred.

“Ieyenden mieris!” he shrieked, bluish black flames enveloping Kayura's screaming form for an instant before she vanished in a flash of black light.

Staggering to a halt at the bottom of the stairs, the girl could only stare in shock as the second spell from her home to have been used today died out. How in the hell did they know the spells? They shouldn't even be able to pronounce these words, let alone know what they meant and what to do with them. She shook her head slowly at Rowen, wondering how he had uttered the spell for a fireball. Her eyes positively bulged as he bound Mia and White Blaze with cords of the power he was using and teleported them upstairs. She suddenly had a feeling that she should leave, get well out of his reach. She should have followed her instincts.

“Come Mieren,” he called softly, making the hairs on the back of her neck rise. How did he know her name? Her original name at that? She had been avoiding anyone finding out who she was for a reason, purposely ignoring all of their questions about her past, her name especially. Admitting understanding of anything was bad enough, but if she began answering their questions… She couldn't do that. They'd inevitably get to the questions that she could not answer if she cared about her health. She was certain that they would not accept who she was if they knew the full truth about her past.

She regarded Rowen carefully, trying to determine what was wrong with him. Her eyes widened. He couldn't have. Checking him with a quick flash of energy, she cried out in horror. He had broken the shield holding the Dynasty taint in check. Lips pursing, she tackled him, pinning him to the ground after a moment, fumbling to put the shield back in place. The flare of deep blue light was all the warning she had.

She blinked slowly. Something was pinning her securely to the floor. Ignoring the sting from the light of the dark blue flames, she forced her eyes to focus, immediately wishing that she hadn't when she saw the cruel sneer on Rowen's face. She tired to lash out, eyes bulging when her mind slammed into a shield, her magical abilities blocked as surely as her innate. Rowen lifted her off the ground, brutally throwing her into the easy chair in front of the television. Before she could even think of moving, thick cords of energy lashed her down beyond any hope of movement. Her eyes nearly rolled from her head as he casually disintegrated her clothes and proceed to strip himself.

She tried to buck futilely as he ran one hand slowly up the inside of her thigh, a growl rising deep in her throat. Rowen slipped his arms behind her immobile form, pulling himself close and kissing her deeper than she would have thought possible. In frustration and fury, she bit him. Hard. Her eyes rolled back in her head as Rowen backhanded her with unbelievable force, calmly wiping the blood from his mouth.

Dizzy from the blow and unable to do anything, she waited patiently for either Rowen to snap out of it or for the others to return. Her eyes narrowed dangerously as she regarded the boy atop of her, trying to ignore the stinging pain when he got carried away a few times and bit her.

 

 

Kento supported a halfway conscious Cye in the back seat as they sped down the streets back to Mia's house, setting a speed record in Mia's car. Cye bolted upright, gasping as a dark bruise appeared across his face, blackening his eye and spreading down to his jaw. Kento was about to say something when Cye looked at him with utter horror in his eyes.

“What is it?” Sage asked, noticing Cye's expression as well.

“Rowen,” he whimpered. “He's lost it again. We need to get back. Now.”

“We're going as fast as this car can go,” Ryo said helplessly, looking back at Cye's darkening face.

Cye began to convulse, curling into a ball. Kento reached over to steady him, choking on what he had been about to say when teeth-marks appeared on Cye's cheek. Blood began to soak through his shirt as well. Pulling the thin fabric up to his friend's armpits, he stared in shock at the vicious bite-marks appearing on the younger boy's chest. Sage's eyes widened as he turned to exchange startled expressions with Kento.

“That must be some strange fight,” Kento murmured.

Sage didn't bother to respond. Kento doesn't get it. The girl's already lost if this kind of thing is being inflicted on her. Instead of saying anything to the two in the back, he turned to Ryo. “We need to go faster.”

 

 

Cye was the first one out of the car, bolting for the house. Jumping through the door, he rounded on Rowen. Unsurprisingly, the other three were right behind him, staring in abhorrence at the scene before them. Rowen looked up, sneering at them in a loathing at being interrupted.

A dark blue blast shot towards the four Ronins in the doorway. Cye threw up his hands, the blast curling to the side of the four boys. Cye returned fire, turquoise flames meeting shaded sapphire. The two began to circle one another, throwing shots and blasts of power that would have been lethal if any ever actually reached their targets.

Sage darted around the combatants, moving over to the bound girl, her green eyes seething. He fumbled with the bonds of energy holding her, wondering why she hadn't broken them on her own. As soon as she was free, she turned to him again, tapping her forehead lightly with two fingers. Without hesitating, he searched for another two shields holding her mind, shattering them after a few experimental slashes of energy.

She spun to face Rowen, eyes blazing with emerald fire. Silvery flames surrounded her in an instant, curling where the inferno of energy hit the ceiling. Her first blast pinned him to the wall, the second cracking him across the face hard enough to make his eyes roll back in his head. She motioned sharply. Sage and Cye darted over to her at her blatant command, knowing the drill. As they set their hands on her shoulders, they nearly collapsed as every bit of energy was tapped from their bodies and very souls. Emerald and turquoise lights formed above one hand for a moment, immediately being drowned out by the silver essence that was herself. Sage gaped at the amount of energy she drew from herself, realizing immediately where it came from. Needing more energy than he and Cye could provide, she had tied her life energy into the blast she was about to unleash. Before he could open his mouth to protest, she shot the energy at Rowen.

Rowen convulsed on the floor, the dark bluish black flames around him flickering to a lighter blue immediately before dying out. He stirred slightly, sapphire eyes glazed, pushing himself unsteadily to his feet and regarding the others blankly for a moment before his eyes turned to the girl as she collapsed on the floor.

“Mieren!” he cried out, darting past Cye and Sage to collect the girl in his arms and bolt upstairs. Cye's eyes tightened, tearing after the two before the others could even blink. All they found upstairs was Rowen sitting by his bed, oblivious to the fact that he was still quite nude, watching the girl intently from where he had tucked her under thick blankets he had obviously raided from Sage's bed. Cye moved to pound Rowen into oblivion, but Sage caught his shoulder, healing him quickly before moving to the bed to do the same for the girl, making absolutely sure that she was alright. He rolled his eyes at the look on Rowen's face, draping a sheet over his catatonic friend and healing him briefly before ushering a protesting Cye out of the room.

 

 

It hadn't taken long to figure out why Cye had been in such a fury. Because of his link with the girl, he had been quite aware of everything that had happened in the house. It took quite a bit of convincing to calm Cye enough to see reason.

“For the last time, Cye, that wasn't Rowen's fault. The Dynasty did something to him, or had you forgotten?” Ryo snapped, completely out of patience.

“All I remember is that Kayura had him beaten until some sort of shock wave passed through the house. Whatever that was, it caused Rowen to lose it again. It messed up whatever Sage did to him that first time.”

Ryo blinked at that. If that was the case, why didn't it mess him up too? He was about to look askance at Mia to see if there was something else that might have caused it when Cye spoke up again.

“That's what did it all right. The Exodus spell is powerful. It has been forbidden since ancient times because of the devastation it caused. Only those at the center of the blast are not affected. You were obviously pretty close to him, Wildfire, or you would have been screwed as well. I honestly don't know how this idiot learned it.”

Every head had long since turned to Cye. He blinked dizzily, the glazed look in his eyes slowly fading. His cheeks paled then reddened before he moved his gaze to his lap. “Sorry,” he murmured.

 

 

The girl shifted her weight from one stair to the next, her balance nonexistent at the moment. Reaching the bottom of the stairs, she let out the breath she had been holding and moved into the kitchen unnoticed by the guys. Mia saw her but remained quiet when she put a finger to her lips. Sliding along the ground to the table, she deftly snagged Kento's plate, slipping quickly under the table to claim a seat on the other side, grinning happily. Kento was too busy gaping to attempt to regain his food.

Ryo choked on his drink, coughing some of his juice through his nose, wheezing painfully. At any other time the guys would have made a few cracks at that, but right now they didn't even notice. Having lost all of her clothes, the girl had donned a pair of Rowen's boxers and his robe, which wouldn't have been so bad if she had remembered to tie the front of the thing shut. Raising an eyebrow at their expressions, she pulled the front of the robe closed, tying it swiftly with agile fingers. Reaching over to Cye, she took his forehead in one of her hands, a soft silvery glow enveloping them both for about a minute. Grinning, she snagged a knife from the table and shoved it through her hand.

Everyone at the table jumped as she did that, especially Cye. Mouth twitching with wry humor, she held up his corresponding hand for all to see. There was nothing wrong with it. Whatever link had existed between the two had been broken. Plucking the knife from her palm, she turned to Sage, who immediately healed her lest he suffer her wrath. He cringed at the very thought. He knew full well how creative she could get.

Grinning triumphantly, she polished off Kento's dinner, returning his empty plate and earning herself a scowl in the process. Getting up to replace the dinner he had just lost, he returned with two plates of food, smiling to himself. He'd get to eat this time, so help him. His smile vanished when he sat down and the girl confiscated both of his plates of food.

“That's not fair!” he cried out, wrestling with her to get at least one of the plates back to the amusement of the others at the table. Ryo broke the mood.

“Exactly what is the Exodus spell, Mieren?”

The girl jumped as though struck, abandoning both plates of food to Kento, eyes watering. She leapt to her feet, preparing to leave when Cye caught her hand.

“It's okay,” he said softly. “You can tell us. We're all friends here. Nothing you say will change that.”

She chewed her lip uncertainly, looking from him to the others. Shaking her head softly and pulling her hand free from Cye, she turned to leave, sprinting back up the stairs unsteadily.

“Why did you say that, Cye?” Sage asked slowly.

“I'm not entirely sure. All I know is that when Ryo asked her what he did, she looked as though she had just lost everyone she had ever cared about. You saw the expression on her face.” He knew more, but didn't say anything. When she had first spoken through him, he had had visions, all of which he believed were the girl's memories. Some of the things she had done… He didn't understand any of her actions himself, yet at the same time he knew them all for necessities. What Ryo had said had obviously stirred painful memories of her past that she didn't want to face.

 

 

The girl staggered back into Rowen's room, collapsing on the bed in tears. How could they ask her anything? She had told them all that was safe to tell. Why wouldn't they just leave her be? And to address her by that name… She broke down crying anew, her sobs awakening Rowen.

Looking at her trembling form, Rowen winced, misinterpreting the reason she was crying. Rooting around for her clothes, he cringed again, remembering what he had done with them. He moved over to his dresser, digging through his junk until he came upon his pocketknife, setting the blade by the girl. She had been crying so hard that she had given herself the hiccups. She didn't look up when he sat down on the bed to get a better look at her betrayed expression. She didn't even seem to notice that he was there.

Pushing the pocketknife towards her until it brushed against her fingers, he sat waiting when she pulled back. Glancing at him and at the folded blade, she curled her fingers around the knife, eyes widening slightly as he tensed.

Why isn't she doing anything? Oh, God, how could I have done that to her? Dynasty or no, I shouldn't have done that. I should have fought harder. I'm sure I could have done… something. He paused in his contemplation, regarding her pained face again for a moment. I don't care what she does with that knife, as long as it makes her feel better. She can kill me for all I care.

The girl's eyes widened as she heard the thoughts raging through his mind. He was willing to die to make up for something that wasn't his fault? She snapped the blade open and held it to his throat. The muscles through his back became ridged, but he didn't move away. He was serious!

Snapping the blade shut, she tossed it onto the floor, placing one hand on his shoulder slowly, feeling him flinch slightly. She put her hand under his chin, forcing him to look at her.

“I'm sorry, Mieren,” he whispered, eyes misting.

She flinched at her name. Rowen sighed at her reaction, shoulders slumping as he dropped his head again. She blinked slowly. They merely thought it was her name. They didn't recognize the significance behind it. They obviously didn't mean anything by it as had the others from her home who knew what it meant. The corners of her mouth twitched wryly. Let the others back home think what they would. The name given to her at birth was hers once more.

Rowen.

The thought in his head nearly made him just out of his skin. He looked at the girl with ever-widening eyes as he realized that the thought had a distinctly feminine cast to it. A slender hand moved under his chin once more, pulling him close. He nearly went catatonic as her lips closed over his. She discarded the robe draped loosely about her shoulders, slipping her arms around him. He was suddenly quite aware that he wasn't wearing anything more than a sheet, and a thin one at that. He wasn't wearing it for long.

 

 

Knowing that Rowen and Mieren were both in his room, Sage evicted himself to the couch that night. Even if Rowen was sleeping in the chair beside his bed, his own bed had no sheets, Rowen had seen to that. Curling up in a spare quilt, he crashed on the couch when they all decided to go to bed much later that night.

 

 

Rowen rolled over in his sleep, shifting to lie against the warmth in the bed. His mind spun groggily. That wasn't right. There shouldn't be anything warm in his bed. A slender arm slipped around his ribs and pulled him close. Rowen's eyes snapped open as he regarded the lithe girl lying next to him, body brushing against his for their entire lengths, her head tucked neatly under his chin. He tried not to tense, but his muscles didn't obey him in the slightest. How could I have done this again?

His slight shifting halfway roused the girl, causing her to sigh contentedly and pull him closer with surprising strength. Automatically, his arms slipped around her, tightening in response. He blinked at what he was doing. Looking down at the onyx hair spilling across his shoulder, he decided that she wasn't angry with him. How could she be? She started it this time, not me. Swallowing nervously, he looked up at the alarm clock, almost choking. It was nearly nine in the morning. The guys would be coming in soon to try to wake him up!

As he jerked in horror at the time, Mieren shifted, draping one leg across him. His cheeks began to burn as he realized that they were both still quite naked. He looked down to ask her to get dressed before one of the guys came in. As he craned his head and opened his mouth, she took the motion as an invitation and kissed him as thoroughly as he had ever been kissed. Rowen's eyes drifted shut contentedly and he relaxed in Mieren's arms. They both became occupied quite quickly, forgetting the time flashing on the alarm clock by the end of the bed.

 

 

Cye turned down the hall at the end of the stairs, grumbling to himself about the injustice of being the one to have to wake up Rowen. He remembered the bruises he had gotten the last time he had had to wake up his friend, before the girl had arrived. That thought brought a new scowl to his face as he remembered what Rowen had done to that girl, and indirectly to him. He opened the door to Rowen's room, freezing at the sight before him, jaw hanging slack. Rowen and the girl were… again.

Eyes blazing, he gathered his energies to blast Rowen into an unidentifiable mass of burnt flesh. He never got the chance. The girl looked up at him, scowling darkly before launching Rowen's alarm clock at his head. Taking the hint, he backed out into the hall, bumping into Sage.

“You still in one piece?” Sage asked, looking at Cye's incredulous expression.

“Sage,” he began, pausing to look meaningfully at his friend. “Get the camera. I'll get the guys.”

Sage only looked at him in shock for a moment before a disbelieving grin broke out on his face and he raced to Ryo's room to find the camera they had been hiding from Rowen. Cye darted downstairs.

Within a matter of seconds, all of the Ronins, with the notable exception of Rowen, were gathered outside the door to Sage and Rowen's room, grinning idiotically. Throwing the door open, they all peeked in, Sage snapping several pictures of Rowen's mortified expression, hooting merrily. Eyes darkening, Rowen began to tremble in a righteous fury, looking quite comical with his face matching Ryo's yoroi. Mieren's expression matched his perfectly. Blue and silver flames burst out around the two, sending the four boys in the door running for their lives.

“You are going to help me get them for that, right?” Rowen asked softly, looking at the girl still curled up contentedly in his arms. Her malicious smile answered for her.

 

 

Back at the table, the four Ronins discussed idly what Mieren was going to do to them, taunting one another with who was going to suffer the worst of her wrath this time. Mia looked up from cooking, eyes narrowing.

“You really shouldn't have walked in on them like that,” she muttered. “Whatever she does to you four, you more than deserve.”

Kento leaned over to slug Cye in the arm, smacking Sage on the back of the head in his follow-through. Cye looked at him innocently while Sage snickered evilly. The four nearly choked as Mieren came into the room, smiling sweetly and not wearing a single stitch of clothing. Raising her arms, she sent a single silver blast into each of them, grinning as she left.

Sage stared at his arm where the blast had hit, brow furrowing in confusion. “That didn't hurt,” he murmured. “What do you think she did?”

“Who knows,” Kento said, equally baffled, “but as long as it didn't hurt…”

They both broke off as Cye let out a mortified shriek and dashed from the room. After a moment, Ryo followed him to see what was wrong. His own scream of horror rang through the house as the last echoes of Cye's died out. Kento and Sage exchanged incredulous expressions before they darted into the living room to see what had unnerved the other two, Mia following on their heels.

Ryo and Cye had both fainted and were sprawled across the floor. Sage darted over to Ryo, feeling for a pulse. He dropped his head to Ryo's chest, listening to his breathing for an instant before jumping back, trying futilely to stifle the shriek rising in his own throat.

“Is he okay?” Kento asked concernedly.

Sage nodded numbly, trying to keep from fainting himself. Stumbling over to the other boy, he grabbed his shoulder for support, trembling violently and completely incapable of speech. How could she?!?

Kento didn't know what had unnerved him so completely, but rather than let his twitching friend drop to the ground, he slid his arm around him, freezing at what his hand contacted. His jaw began to quiver as he turned to Mia, confusion sketched across her face. He fainted. Sage only swayed on his feet for a moment before following suit.

It only took Mia a moment of inspecting the guys to figure out what had happened, sending her sprawling to the floor, gasping for breath between her fits of laugher. She had to give the girl credit for vengeful imagination.

 

 

Rowen walked downstairs, blinking drearily. Seeing the kitchen empty, he ventured into the living room, gaping when he saw the guys sprawled across the floor and Mia hiccuping with laughter while vainly trying to draw breath.

“What's going on?” he mumbled, sending Mia into a fit of choking laughter, tears streaming down her face. She waved him over to Sage, her face purpling as she remained unable to draw breath. Frowning at her in bafflement, he moved over to where Sage was sprawled. He was about to roll his friend onto his back when a sharp whistle caught his attention. Rowen turned to see the girl leaning against the wall, idly swinging the Polaroid camera in one hand before tossing it across the room, sending Mia into convulsions. Twitching the edge of her shirt, she snickered and stumbled out of the room before vanishing from his sight, amused chuckles echoing back to him. Watching her leave in bewilderment, he took the hint and pulled Sage's shirt up to his neck.

“Oh my,” he murmured, grin splitting his face almost in two. Without hesitation, he snapped a picture of Sage before moving on to each of the others, clicking away merrily. “She is creative, I'll give her that,” he chortled, sending Mia into another fit of giggles. He was about to head back to his room to hide his precious photos when Mieren arrived at the bottom of the stairs, tossing an armload of Mia's lingerie at him. Mia fell off of the couch where she had so recently claimed a seat, gasping for breath.

“Well, if they're going to be girls, they ought to dress the part,” Rowen choked out, beginning work with his camera in hand.

 

 

I don't care how hard Mia was laughing, this is NOT funny, Sage grumped, looking dejectedly into the full-length mirror in the bathroom. I've never dated anyone with this kind of figure. I'm gonna kill her.

Sage ran his hands through his hair, mouth tightening. Letting his hair hang loose was not helping his appearance any at the moment. Donning a baggy shirt and tying his hair at the base of his neck, he inspected his appearance. There wasn't much improvement. Mieren's little stunt was too obvious. Most women could never hope to achieve figures like this. What was even worse, his camera was missing and he had a pretty good idea where it went. Waking up in such apparel… So help me God, I'm gonna kill both of them.

Knowing that everyone else had suffered the same fate wasn't much comfort. Sighing forlornly, he headed to the kitchen. He had to go out there to eat eventually. He had been hiding out for two days now, after all. Peeking into the room timidly, he heaved a sigh of relief to find it empty. He didn't think that he could take much more snickering.

*click*

Sage froze, his eyes nearly bulging out of his head. He glanced over his shoulder, groaning at the sight of Rowen in the doorway fingering a Polaroid happily.

“I surrender already,” Sage wailed helplessly. “I'm sorry!” He groaned again when Rowen only raised one eyebrow at him, lips quivering with unimpaired mirth.

Mia walked in carrying White Blaze's empty food bowl, eyebrows shooting towards her hairline at finding Sage in the kitchen. Her lips twitched. Sage growled, and spun to leave the room, face burning. He nearly trampled Ryo in the hall as he darted towards his hiding place. Ryo caught him on the way by.

“Who all's down there?”

“Mia and Rowen.”

“Where's Mieren? I'm going to try to reason with her. Rowen won't even listen.”

“You think talking to her is going to do any good? She's the one who did this in the first place,” Sage cried out in frustration.

Ryo's lips compressed into a thin line. He folded his arms across his chest for a moment before immediately dropping them again as his face began to burn. Making a point not to look in Sage's direction, he started for Rowen's room. Sage sighed in resignation and followed.

Walking into his room, Sage twitched as he saw Mieren sprawled across his bed, Ryo stumbling at her scandalized expression. Setting his shoulders, Ryo started.

“We're sorry,” he mumbled, face reddening further. “We shouldn't have… ah well… bothered you while you were… uh… busy. Could you let up now?”

The girl had been watching him intently during the entire apology, chin resting comfortably in her hands. Her eyes widened slightly at his request, her lips twitching. Motioning for them to stay there, she walked calmly out of the room, chuckles drifting down the hall.

“I don't like this,” Sage muttered, glancing at Ryo's worried expression.

The girl darted in abruptly, camera dangling from one hand, and pushed the two side by side next to the bed.

“I guess one more picture won't kill us,” Ryo grumbled, ignoring Sage's glare.

Moving forward suddenly, Mieren pushed both of them onto the bed, Ryo landing heavily on Sage, and immediately snapped a picture. Sage's cheeks heated when he realized what this must look like. Ryo's face reddened for a mere instant. His virtue kanji flared on his forehead, bathing the room in a fierce red glow. A feral growl escaped from somewhere in the back of his throat, his hands clamping onto Sage's shoulders as he levered himself upwards, eyes shining crimson. Time seemed to freeze as he spun on the balls of his feet, hair growing wild as he launched himself towards the girl, claws extended. Mieren's eyes bulged, her mouth hanging limp for a moment before she snagged him out of the air and tossed him smoothly across the room into the wall. He spun to land on his feet, whirling to face the girl again, lips peeling away from wicked fangs in a long wolf-like muzzle. Heavy fur sprouted from his bare arms as the joints in his legs rearranged themselves, his back bulging strangely. Sage cried out in horror as leathery wings sprouted from Ryo's back, unfurling wildly. A bone-chilling howl rang through the house as Ryo launched himself across the room at his target, oblivious to everything past shredding the girl in front of him. He pinned her to the ground, talons sinking into her shoulders, maw moving towards her throat for a moment before he caught himself. Mieren was too busy staring in fascination and… satisfaction?… to put up a struggle. He backed away slowly, casting a hesitant glance in Sage's direction only to find that his friend was not there. His absence was solved after a few seconds when five people and one tiger appeared in the doorway. He shifted uncomfortably, wishing desperately that he could hide.

“Ryo…” Mia's horrified whisper barely reached his ears.

He glanced around wildly, looking for somewhere, anywhere, where he could escape their fearful eyes. His search was cut short as a set of slender hands seized his head forcefully, pulling his gaze towards an inferno of silvery flames. Something inside of him snapped, his muscles becoming watery. He slid to the floor bonelessly, his consciousness escaping him. His last thought was, I'll kill them if they get a picture of me in the nude like this.

 

 

Mieren's mouth curved into a semblance of a grin as she eyed Ryo's still form on the floor of Rowen and Sage's room. She looked up triumphantly to meet the appalled faces watching her closely from the doorway, her grin widening. A silvery whirlwind of flames enveloped three of the four Ronins, eliminating all evidence of the prank she had pulled on them a few days ago. They were so consumed in staring at Ryo's still form that it took a moment for it to register what she had done, or rather, undone.

Mia moved over to Ryo, bushing a stray lock of hair out of his face, her eyes stinging with tears. As she looked up, moisture spilled across her cheeks.

“What happened?” Her quavering voice was met with total silence for a moment.

“I pushed him a little too far,” Cye's quiet response split the utter stillness in the room, his eyes beyond glazed. “He instinctively reached out to anything he could use to lash out at me and contacted a ready source of power, though one which he was unprepared to use. I was beginning to wonder how long it would take him to break the shield I placed on him…”

Mieren was cut off as Kento hauled her into the air by her throat, shaking her violently. “You knew that this would happen and you didn't even tell him?”

“What the hell do you mean `powers'?!” Sage hissed, sliding in a blow of his own, ignoring the grin she tossed in his direction.

“Temper, temper, Halo,” Cye's voice chided. A blast of silvery flames surrounded her from where she hung, sending Sage into a blind fury. He swung at her again, eyes widening as his fist passed through her translucent form, bringing a wider grin to her face. He continued to stare at her for a moment in utter incomprehension before she vanished in a flash of light, her laughter echoing through the house.

 

 

Ryo opened his eyes groggily to find Kento hovering about his room, guarding him no less. His eyes tightened. Unconscious or not, he had clearly heard everything that had gone on after he had dropped to the floor. Kento had been furious, his slow and easy-going manner vanishing in a murderous frenzy that made Sage's temper look like a joke. He had never seen his friend this angry before.

He waited for Kento to settle into a chair, sliding out of his bed and slipping out of the window while he wasn't looking. Some guard, the thought practically dripped with sarcasm. Dropping easily to the ground, he peeked into the nearest window, blinking at the rampaging argument inside. As far as her health was concerned, it was probably best that the girl get out of the house before Kento realized he was gone and came downstairs. He was about to go inside and attempt to calm the fighting at least a little, but changed his mind when Mieren's head snapped up, her eyes glazing slightly. A flash of light that left after-images burned in his vision enveloped the house, blinding Ryo completely. Knuckling his eyes roughly, he squinted vainly, yelping angrily when his feet were knocked out from beneath him. He glared balefully at the onyx-haired figure hovering over him, grinning happily. His irritation was forgotten when he saw that they were in the middle of the woods, at least a mile from Mia's house. So it was her, he thought numbly, remembering the last flash of light that had saved him from the Warlords that day when the others had been captured.

“What good will this do? You know that you can't say anything without Cye.”

You think so, Wildfire. There is much you have yet to learn.

Ryo positively gaped. “When did you learn to do that?”

Quite a while ago, little brother. I only use Torrent when I want to speak aloud. This method works well enough if whomever you're talking to is paying attention, it just takes a bit more energy than I usually care to expend. Speaking through someone is much easier on myself, but harder on the other person, especially the first time. If I hadn't been as careful as I was, I could have snapped his mind completely. I use Torrent now because initial contact has been made, so it's easier on me and merely annoying to him. I could send thoughts and just have him relay the messages, but the receiver has to be paying attention for that to work. She grinned cheerfully, plopping down on the grass beside him, earning herself an incredulous stare. Now, you obviously wanted something or you wouldn't have been sneaking around, avoiding your friends.

Ryo's mouth tightened in irritation. “Well… its just that…” he stammered, not sure how to ask what he wanted to know. He was answered with an amused snicker.

Very descriptive, she chuckled, eyes shining with unconcealed mirth. Yes, yes, I know what you want. This will take time, you must realize. Until this is taken care of, I suggest you call off your friends before they skin me alive and leave me to the vultures, or even worse, to Hardrock.

Ryo nodded slowly, sitting silently while his mind absorbed every thought she felt suitable to pass on to him. He grew increasingly frustrated when he found that what she knew wasn't doing him any good. Hoping that something useful would come up sooner or later, he listened patiently.

 

 

Ryo returned to the house sometime later, leaving the girl to meditate in the woods while he calmed the chaos that would be raging through the house by now. He stepped inside, closing his eyes against the onslaught of questions that bombarded him relentlessly. He rubbed his temples ruefully and immediately found himself being carried to the couch by Kento so that Sage could examine him more carefully.

“Guys…” he began, only to be cut off again by a barrage of questions.

“Where have you…”

“What did she…”

“Are you sure that you're…”

“What's going…”

“Guys!” he snapped, completely out of patience. A person could only take so much of that with their sanity intact. He waited until he was sure that he had their attentions. He only wanted to say this once. “Leave Mieren alone. She's on our side, so quit pestering her,” he paused, throwing a meaningful look at Sage and Kento. “And quit attacking her.”

“But Ryo…” the protest started out of four throats immediately, only Rowen remaining silent. The four paused at his furious glare. Rowen cleared his throat softly.

“Where is she?”

“Meditating. She's waiting for me to get you guys to quit bothering her before she comes in.” He waited for all of them to nod acquiescence before continuing. He was cut off as a flash of light appeared from the kitchen, Mieren trotting into the living room happily. White Blaze growled menacingly at her.

Dropping to all fours, she slunk towards the tiger slowly, an answering growl rising in her throat. Eyes blazing, the two tackled each other, legs and hair flying wildly as the two rolled around on the floor. The two combatants broke apart for a moment, engaging in a furious staring contest before they both darted out of the room in opposite directions. Mia and the five boys stared after the two in shock and confusion for a moment before all attention was focused on Ryo once more.

“What was that about?”

“I have no idea.”

 

 

Kento looked around wildly. The kitchen was empty and he didn't hear anything or see anyone. He raided the fridge for his typical midnight snack, eyes darting about frantically. A soft breath was all the warning he had before a massive furry beast jumped him, stealing his sandwich.

“White Blaze!” he wailed, turning to chase the cat down for his food. He was cut off as a black-cloaked figure darted past him, tackling the tiger to fight for the sandwich. Kento stared slack-jawed as the two rolled along the floor, hissing and kicking, breaking apart to dash in opposite directions, each with half of his sandwich. He shook his head, slowly at first, before dashing after the tiger. He had a better chance of getting his food back from Ryo's pet than from the girl. Seeing the great cat licking his lips fitfully, he sighed in resignation and headed back to his room, stomach rumbling loudly. He was going to stave to death at this rate.

 

 

Mieren looked around the table carefully. So far, no one there other than Wildfire and Rowen would even look at her. Her lips twitched upwards in a semblance of a grin. Halo and Hardrock were rather fun to watch, both looking as though they would like nothing more than to beat her into a senseless pulp, Hardrock's one eye glinting dangerously. The grin slid from her face. If they were mad at her now… She sighed. They were going to kill her when they found out what she intended. Wildfire had to step down as leader, and no one in this house was going to like her choice for the replacement. How could they ever understand that everything she did had a purpose? How could they possibly accept what she knew was coming?

Staring at the table with teeth clenched and eyes brimming with unshed tears, Mieren failed to notice that the Ronins were looking at her in utter bafflement. She nearly jumped out of her skin when Rowen placed a hand on her arm. She grinned at him ruefully before entering her contemplations once more. Halo was still beyond furious with her, but still not so badly as Hardrock, and those two were the ones she had yet to work with. Those two were the weakest of the group as things stood now. It shouldn't be long now. Everything should be falling into place soon.

 

 

Ryo frowned at the girl sitting beside him at breakfast. He had never seen her show any emotion, and right now it looked as though the girl was on the edge of a nervous breakdown. He actually had to call her name three times before she snapped out of it and looked up at him. The conflicting emotions raging across the girl's face nearly snapped Ryo's sanity. He reached out towards her gingerly, his hand cramping before coming within a foot of her slender arm. He hissed and darted out of the room, several sets of footsteps following him. Keeping his back directly towards everyone trailing him, he headed to his room to wait for Mieren.

“Where da hell do ya think you're goin'?!” Kento yelled, jumping in Mieren's way, no doubt. Ryo opened his mouth to tell Kento to let her by, but snapped his teeth shut when his throat constricted forcefully. He fell to the floor, trembling violently, stomach knotting painfully. Gentle hands pulled him upright, soothing his throbbing head and brushing a few wild strands of hair out of his face.

“What's wrong with him?” Rowen's voice drifted softly across the room. Ryo swore. Apparently Mieren couldn't get in without everyone else following. The others were becoming protective to the extremes.

“A gateway opened,” Cye murmured, eyes sliding closed. “Something came through, something I don't recognize. It is strong. Its very presence is playing havoc with the shield holding Wildfire in check. Whatever it is, it has a very large army protecting it. Not the mewling husk soldiers you're used to, either. Kayura and three Warlords are there with a rather formidable army building. This needs to be stopped now if any of us would like to see tomorrow's sunrise.”

“What about Ryo?” Sage asked slowly, eyes wide.

“Wildfire is coming too. I have steadied the shield holding him, so there shouldn't be a problem. I want the five of you to stay together no matter what you see, no matter what happens. If you are separated, you have as good as lost. I will hear no objections. Follow me, we're going. Now.” Cye blinked uncertainly when her speech finished, looking to the others.

Ryo levered himself to his feet, ignoring the hands that tried to steady him. He looked up, cold fury flashing in his eyes. “Armor up,” he snapped, heading for the front door with Mieren shadowing him, the others following more slowly.

 

 

Mieren darted through the streets, not bothering to look back to see if the five Ronins still followed her. She had set a swift pace, but one she knew they were capable of maintaining, heading unerringly towards the gateway rising high above the buildings surrounding it. Slinking around the last bend, she remained hidden in the shadows, motioning for the others to stay back for a moment as she surveyed the force gathered. Her hand slid under her shirt, pulling a thick blade from one of a number of hidden sheathes under her billowing clothes. In one sharp movement her hand flew back and snapped forward, sending her blade streaking through the air silently. A shadowed figure tumbled from the sky, falling limply through the air to strike the ground with a tremendous cracking noise as armor met pavement. The figure on the ground twitched, clutching his throat while making an attempt to rise before vanishing into a black gateway that appeared below him.

The first blade had barely left her fingers before another followed it into the group massing before her, sinking into an enormous bulk stirring in the shadows. Golden eyes set deeply within a heavily scaled and ridged head spun to face her, head swaying on a long, sinuous neck. Before any attack could devastate her where she hid, she darted from the shadows, flinging blades wildly from hidden sheathes about her lithe form.

Kayura spun fiercely, ready to level whoever so dared to strike down a Warlord. She pivoted to lash out with her Starlight Swords, choking on a scream when she saw her opponent. Cale caught her as she turned to flee.

“What's wrong with you,” he growled, shaking her roughly.

Kayura's mouth tightened. “She's the one who freed the Ronins. She's the one who just dropped Dais. She's the leader of those that raided the Dynasty and left it in ruins!” her voice rose to nearly a shriek by the end as she pulled free of Cale's grip.

Cale scowled as Kayura broke away, moving to find somewhere else to be, somewhere where the girl was not. He turned, preparing to lash out at the girl on the ground below. He choked on a curse at finding the girl floating on eye level with him, eyes blazing scarlet.

“You…” was all he managed before she lunged at him with a blade, planting it firmly in his thigh when he knocked it away from his chest with his no-dachi. A booted foot caught him in the side of the head, sending him spiraling to the ground.

Mieren took a deep breath, drawing two wickedly curved scythes from her back. This was about to get hard, and the Ronins wouldn't be able to help her in this. She looked back to see the five boys back to back in a tight circle, trying vainly to hold their own against the ebony-skinned warriors surrounding them. Cye, and eventually Rowen, were surrounded with shimmering flames, sending bolts of power into the dark elves, cutting huge swaths in the endless ranks. Sure-kills flared brightly among the milling masses, wreaking havoc with the army confronting the Ronins. Ryo whipped his katanas around to stop the advance of a dark elf that had managed to avoid the devastation of his sure-kill. Mieren smiled grimly. They were doing quite well so far, considering the skill of the opponents they faced, but it was about to get much worse. The Warlords wouldn't allow the slaughter to go on for long.

She spun in the air deftly, diving for the scaled monstrosity moving towards the five boys. They weren't ready to take on something like that yet. Her scimitars flared brightly with silver flames as she dove, catching the attention of the beast. Drawing a deep breath, it unleashed a blast of rolling flames that nearly enveloped the girl as she twisted frantically to the side, flames following her movement. Crossing her scimitars in front of her, she continued her dive down the center of the blaze, flames parting before her shimmering blades. The fires ceased a moment before she reached her target, the gargantuan creature spinning with surprising agility to slam its massive tail into her slender form.

Curling into a ball immediately after the blow, Mieren accepted the downward plunge, straightening to add more speed to her descent. The ground beneath her rippled gently as though it were a still pond disturbed by a slight breeze. Her lips peeled away from her teeth in a feral smile.

 

 

Ryo watched in horror as the fire-breathing monstrosity casually swatted the girl out of the air, sending her careening towards the ground at an unimaginable speed. How she had gotten above the thing in the first place was beyond him. He could only watch as she neared the ground, silvery flames encompassing her slender form, and vanished in a burst of silver flames when she should have crashed into the pavement. He cried out, trying to move through the masses of elves to where she would have been had she hit the pavement. He was intercepted instantly by a sure-kill.

“Star Storm Scream!”

Ryo lurched wildly to one side, using his katanas to block the worst of Kayura's sure-kill. The pavement where the girl had landed was empty, save for a few errant wisps of silver fire. The street in front of the enormous abomination was rippling wildly, rolling off of a rising form like too-thick water, silver flames shining through the mass. Glowing scimitars leveled slowly in front of the slender figure hovering a few feet above the pavement. A beam of molten light shot towards the sinuous creature, connecting with the heavily muscled chest. In the deafening roar that ensued, Ryo saw a no-dachi raised behind the girl by an armored figure.

“Mieren!”

Ryo's scream caused the girl to turn her head for a mere instant, distracting her from the beast she was fighting. The creature wrenched free of Mieren's blast, leaping towards the girl as Cale slashed at her from behind before wisely darting away from the ensuing chaos.

Mieren's scream rang through the battlefield that had once been a street, startling every warrior into freezing where they stood. The cry wasn't one of pain. The girl twisted in the claws of the beast that held her to the ground, an eerie light burning in her eyes as she stared into oblivion. The twisted monstrosity was flung away from her form as she shifted to her feet, oblivious to the indeterminable weight of the thing atop her. Her following bellow rang out across the shocked Ronins and dark elves, the cry lowering in octaves until it rivaled that of the creature she had so casually tossed over a hundred feet. She lunged at Cale, her fingers raking deep trenches in the breastplate of his armor, feet creating large dents in the armor shielding his legs. Leaping up, hands trailing the Warlord's blood from where her fingers had penetrated armor and flesh alike, she launched herself at Kayura from where she still hovered above the Ronins. Thick leathery wings sprouted from Mieren's back, pulling her into the air swiftly after her prey. Kayura shrieked in horror as the girl approached, vanishing in a burst of black flames. Mieren turned to Sehkmet, who paled under his armor and followed Kayura's example readily.

She dropped to the ground, furling her wings slowly as she regarded the elves edging away from her in terror. Several gibbered among themselves, the girl's name coming up frequently. Mieren's face twisted into a dark scowl, her wings opening abruptly, creating a unnerving view for everyone on the streets as the silver flames rose higher around her. She raised her arms slowly, the ground rumbling slightly for an instant before tendrils of living pavement shot up to ensnare the dark elves. As the last dark elf was pulled screaming into the earth, she rounded on the Ronins.

What the hell are you doing, Wildfire?! I told you to stay together. And calling my name like that! How could you?! I didn't want to be exposed to the Dynasty so soon. You have no idea what you've just done. They know me! The thoughts forced themselves into the Ronins' minds, their minds putting words to the stark emotions and feelings. They could only watch the girl in horror and confusion as she spun to leave, wings vanishing in a whirlwind of silvery flames. Ryo swallowed nervously and motioned for the others to follow as he fell in behind Mieren as she headed back to Mia's.

 

 

The guys watched guiltily as Mieren collapsed in the living room, dropping into a meditative position, a faint silver glow shimmering about her still form.

“I'm sorry. I was only trying to help,” Ryo said softly, shoulders slumping when she failed to respond to his apology.

“I don't understand why she didn't just do that in the first place if she could. Why make us fight like that?” Kento grumbled angrily, his eyes narrowing.

“She said that the Dynasty knew her,” Cye mumbled, his soft wards catching the attention of the others. He shrugged. “She was probably trying not to draw attention to herself. If they actually know her, then she might be trying to avoid someone.”

“She did know her way around the Dynasty surprisingly well. She's obviously been there before. If she's trying to avoid detection, that probably means that she caused some problems the last time she was there.”

“You don't know the half of it, Halo,” Cye muttered dryly, his eyes glazing. “Miserable Ronins,” he snapped angrily, his clouded eyes narrowing in a cold fury, “do you know what troubles I've been through to get here? Do you know anything of why I'm here or where I'm from? I'll tell you, little boys.

“In the war of the sorcerers nearly three thousand years ago, the war of the dark magic forbidden since ancient times, the planet, the very dimension, was nearly destroyed in some of the final battles of power. It came to pass that the magic would no longer respond in battle, the Guardians shielding the battlefields from the horrors of the arts. Without such strength at their disposal in open battle, the sorcerers found other ways to battle one another.

“In the final days of the wars, creatures of pure magic were created, creatures with devastating powers and innate abilities. Being of the magic themselves, the Guardians were unable to hinder their abilities, unable to shield them from using their horrifying powers. Thus were the demons born into our dimension. During the wars they had interbred, creating twisted monstrosities with unfathomable powers as their offspring. Even so, none were so strong as the original.

“In the final battle, the demons nearly split the world with their powers. The skies darkened and the sun turned cold, and all of the original demons were destroyed by their own powers along with the better part of the world.

“Several years ago, an invading force not known to any living on the restored planet attacked in a fury of power unheard of since the war of the sorcerers. At first all fought the force together, excluding the demons. They remained in the shadows. Hidden. Silent. The natives of the planet were winning until one of the peoples turned against them all. The dark elves, lured by the promises of power and immortality, joined the attacking forces, their vast numbers wreaking havoc on the planet. As the world began to crumble, the demons joined the war.

“Throughout the battles, no one was safe. No mercy existed in the eyes of the dark elves as they slaughtered children and the crippled along with the warriors. The demons turned the war around, their ruthlessness matching that of the dark elves. A single demon could withstand an entire army if trained properly. When it seemed that they had been defeated, the invading force once again began to send in soldiers of their own, covered in armor that the elves' arrows and swords could not penetrate. Thus again were the demons called upon.

“Then came another, a woman with swords that called down the fury of the stars in the heavens upon the defenseless warriors. Faced with some of the mages wielding the few spells that survived the war of the sorcerers and a handful of demons, the woman with the swords of the stars vanished from the battlefields. The demons completed their task of demolishing what remained of the invading army and mounted a counterattack of their own.

“Over one hundred of the strongest demons gathered, forcing open a dimensional gateway, and those who had sent the armies were confronted. The castle was attacked from all sides, entered from a dozen places in an instant. Bits of conversation were overheard by the attacking force, but nothing from their strange language could be understood, their minds not emitting the proper telepathic signals. Only one thing became clear to the invading demons; those they fought were currently waging a war with something called Ronin. And thus the ancient ones gathered a force to enter the tunnels to reach the weakest area in the dimension, the only area where a gateway to the dimension holding the Ronin could be opened undetected with such a small number of demons. Of the score of demons entering the tunnels, only three had made it to the weakened area in space to open the gate, but none had managed to escape through it. From the weakened remains of those who still raided the castle, thirteen were chosen to enter the tunnels once more, to go to the force called Ronin, to assist them in any way possible. Anything fighting the force that had nearly destroyed their dimension had their support, their loyalty. Anything was to be given to the force known as Ronin to bring about the fall of those who had attacked them. Yet of those thirteen, but one survived.”

Rowen had dropped to the floor in a mixture of horror and fascination as Cye spat out the girl's story, her fiery rage being transmitted through the younger boy. He looked at the others with wide eyes, his shock mirrored in the eyes of his companions. Swallowing nervously, he hesitantly asked, “Why pass through the Dynasty in the first place? Why not just come straight here?”

“Know you nothing of the fourth dimension, Strata? The dimensions we exist in are of the third, and these dimensions are stacked to create the fourth. Look at a sheet of paper as the second dimension, boy. Stack enough of them atop one another, and they create the third dimension. This is the same concept. We may be able to smash through the fourth dimension, but to come here directly, we would have to enter at least the fifth. Even I haven't the strength to do that.”

Rowen's eyes were positively bulging by the time Cye finished with the explanation, the younger boy's face showing nothing but pure, unadulterated confusion. Ryo and Sage were simply gaping.

“The dimension you're from,” Rowen began, cutting off at Cye's vexed hiss.

“Listen, Ronins. Your leader has just exposed my presence here and that may be potentially deadly for all of us. The Dynasty had no idea that any of us had gotten through until Wildfire called my name,” Cye's growling was stopped short as the silver light around Mieren flared for an instant, settling into something very akin to a shield.

Rowen placed his hand hesitantly on Mieren's shoulder, eyes widening when she failed to respond in the slightest. He sighed. “I'll go make something to eat.”

“No!” Cye yelped, hopping to his feet to dart to the kitchen, blatantly refusing to let Rowen anywhere near the kitchen to do anything other than eat, remembering the concoction that he had served last time. He wasn't surprised to see Kento pinning Rowen to the floor, obviously unwilling to eat the refuse that the other boy would serve if given half a chance to near the kitchen.

Sage glanced at Ryo, shaking his head wryly. If Kento hadn't pinned Rowen, he would have had to fight Ryo for the privilege. Moving over to Mieren, he gently began probing the shield surrounding her, eyebrows creeping towards his hairline as he quickly became lost in the intricacy of the energy patterns. He blinked in bafflement and started again, fumbling with the gently swirling cords of power surrounding the girl's lithe form with a dim light. After about a half-hour, he gave up and wandered into the kitchen. Rowen shook his head and gathered her up in his arms, following the other guys into the kitchen to get a go at the food before Kento.

Rowen placed Mieren in a chair, blinking in confusion as she made no attempt to stay there, sliding bonelessly to the floor. Rowen settled her back in the chair and brought her a plate of food, chewing his lower lip worriedly when she made no move to eat. He tried to feed her with the same result. Kento made a show of guarding his plate closely, watching carefully to see if she rose to the challenge of getting it away from him. His eyebrows rose when she made no move for his food.

“What's wrong with her?” he muttered.

“I'm not sure,” Sage started, brow wrinkling thoughtfully. “I think that she's trying to guard herself from something, but I can't really see what the shield is doing to know for sure. Something about that pattern is extremely strange.”

“She said the Dynasty knew her,” Ryo murmured. “Maybe she's trying to keep from being detected. Trying this won't do her much good though. After all, the Dynasty knows where we are.”

“You hear that?” Rowen asked, shaking Mieren's shoulder gently. His shoulders slumped as she remained oblivious to the world. Sighing, he lifted her in his arms and headed to his room to lay her down in his bed, his ears burning at the guys' chuckles.

“Taking her to bed?” Sage called slyly, laughing outright as Rowen shifted his burden into one arm to throw a crude gesture over his shoulder.

 

 

“Come on, Rowen. It's been three days. Three days! Someone else can watch her for a little while. Go to sleep,” Mia begged, tugging the youth away from the edge of his bed where he had been diligently watching Mieren's unmoving form since getting back from that last battle. White Blaze growled agreement, nudging the boy with his nose, nearly pushing him out of the chair in the process of trying to get him up.

Mia sighed and shook her head. They had all been alternately trying to get Mieren up or to get Rowen to move, but so far no one had had any luck in doing either. After taunting, poking, prodding, shaking, soaking, pounding, kicking, tackling, slapping, throttling and yelling at the two of them, they were just plain out of ideas. Neither of them responded to anything in the slightest. The guys had started taking turns watching Rowen, hoping that he would snap out of it.

“Any luck?” Sage asked as he walked into the room, glancing at his friend.

“Not yet, but I think that he's going to pass out if he keeps this up too much longer. He can't keep this up forever, after all.”

Sage sighed. “Alright. Go to bed. I'll watch him for a while.”

Mia nodded wearily as she stood to go. “Remember, Sage, if he snaps out of it, make him eat something.” White Blaze licked Rowen's face sloppily before turning to follow, hoping that the youth would perform one of his little dances of disgust that he typically did when he was slobbered on.

“Sure.”

Sage plopped down on his bed, facing his friend wearily. “You can't keep this up for much longer, Rowen. Give up now. Go to bed.” He shook his head, looking at his friend's catatonic form. Leaning back against the wall, he began to meditate, knowing that Rowen wasn't going to give in any time soon. Once Rowen sets his mind to do something, he'll do it if it kills him, Sage thought, his jaws creaking with a huge yawn.

 

 

Sure enough, just past midnight Rowen lost his battle with exhaustion, slumping forward across Mieren's legs from where she leaned against the wall. Feeling the unmoving weight sprawled across her, she cracked one eye. Mouth tightening, she reached forward, placing a vicious thump amid the tangled mess of blue hair and was rewarded with a soft snore. Picking him up by the scruff of his neck, her eyes widened. He was still asleep! The corners of Mieren's mouth twitched upwards in the beginning of a smile. A challenge.

Tossing the limp form into the air, she caught the boy by his robe just before he slammed into the floor, her eyes shining in wry humor. Swinging him onto the bed, she continued with her torment, intent on waking the youth. She pulled his robe over his head, chuckling softly when he slid limply out of it, collapsing bonelessly onto the bed. She placed one slender hand on his chest, feeling the soft rise and fall for a few moments before sliding her hand south, under the boxers. Rowen sat bolt upright, gasping, his cheeks burning brightly.

Another victory for the waking force, Mieren thought merrily, grin widening when Rowen stared at her indignantly. She snickered softly, encircling the boy in her arms, claiming his mouth with her own. Rowen gasped and moved backwards quickly, pulling free of her arms. Mieren blinked in confusion, shifting forward to try a second time, baffled as Rowen again slid out of her reach. Shaking her head in confusion, she leaned against the wall once more, a silver glow beginning to envelop her.

“Wait!” Rowen hissed, grabbing her arm forcefully. She looked at him dimly with increasingly clouding eyes, twitching one eyebrow questioningly at his desperate expression. When he looked down guiltily, her eyes narrowed.

What is it? You afraid of sleeping with the enemy? Or are you just upset because I'm not exactly human? Perhaps you just don't like me. Ah well. You're preferences are your own. Leave me alone.

Rowen's jaw dropped. “It's not that!” he whispered frantically, cheeks reddening. Misinterpreting his blush, she looked around the room, spotting Sage. Hopping out of bed, she deftly tucked the groggy boy under her arm, blatantly ignoring his questions and protests and throwing him roughly into the hall. Nodding contently, she plopped down beside Rowen, blinking confusedly when he shook his head.

“It wasn't that either,” he murmured, lips twisting into something that was almost a grin. At her raised eyebrow, he hurried to explain, his cheeks gaining color with every word. “I just don't want to… to take advantage,” he stammered, freezing at the answering fit of laughter. He barely had time to blink before Mieren did just that.

 

 

Sage glared indignantly at the door to his room, pulling himself off of the floor. She could have just asked me to leave, he thought angrily, stomping downstairs knowing that he had just been evicted to the couch.

 

 

Rowen awoke abruptly, glaring angrily at Cye from beneath soaking bangs. Cye grinned happily at him.

“Well, you didn't wake up when I shook you. Mieren's too busy to get you up at the moment. We have company, so get your ass dressed and downstairs.”

“Company?” Rowen blinked. That was impossible. Everyone had been captured by the Dynasty. Hadn't they?

“Yeah. One of Mieren's friends.”

That was all it took. Rowen was out of bed, dressed, and downstairs in three seconds flat, bolting out the door as he frantically searched for the others. Cye came out the door a few seconds later, grinning happily.

“Over there,” he said helpfully, motioning to where Mieren appeared to be having a staring contest with the most heavily muscled horse Rowen had ever seen. Sage, Ryo, Kento and Mia were already out there, standing a short distance away from the two, confusion and curiosity radiating from the small group.

“He just walked up a few minutes ago. Mieren jumped up from the table and bolted outside, hugging him. We didn't know what to think until I accidentally overheard some of their conversation. I only heard what they were saying for a few seconds, but in that time, they told each other about the tunnels in the Dynasty, and what Mieren had been doing the entire time she was here. It's incredible how quickly they talk,” Cye murmured in Rowen's ear, watching the two in utter fascination. Rowen joined the others silently, chewing his lower lip as he watched Mieren.

 

 

Mieren paused in her conversation, looking at the group of Ronins. She sauntered over, the enormous horse trailing her. Are you sure you want to go through with this, Kimen? she asked silently, turning back to the great horse.

Yes. I knew what had to be done when I offered. I appreciate your directions when I was travelling the tunnels, by the way. I will miss you, Mieren. Heh. It's still strange calling you that, especially after knowing you by another name all my life. It's even harder believing you are her.

Mieren grimaced. I thank you for your willingness to do this. You know I wouldn't have asked had it not been necessary. It's a pity that some of the others didn't make it through. Ah well. Nothing can be done for that now. I will miss you as well. She stopped in front of the group watching the two of them expectantly. He's that one, she told Kimen softly, pointing at Sage.

 

 

The Ronins watched in anticipation as the two neared them, brows furrowing in confusion when she pointed out Sage. The deep gray stallion walked over to him, raising his head as though greeting an equal before dropping to his knees so that the boy could mount. Sage blinked in bafflement, seeming almost hesitant to mount the stallion, eyeing the dark gray fur, so dark as to nearly appear black.

Ryo grinned at his friend's expression. “Never been on a horse before?”

Sage didn't respond. He only shook his head slowly, eyeing the others for help. He had to get on. It would be rude not to, he thought, unsure of absolutely everything equine related.

Ryo chuckled, helping his friend to settle onto the back rippling with corded muscles. “Just hold on,” he said helpfully, snickering at Sage's indignant expression.

“Gee, thanks,” he muttered.

At those words, the massive stallion leapt to his feet, bolting away from the Ronins to the open grounds of Mia's yard. Sage yelped in horror, clinging to the thick neck for dear life as the horse's ground-eating strides carried him at a ludicrous speed. Behind him he heard his friends whooping with laughter. They must be rolling on the ground by now. It is NOT that funny, he grumped as he tried to find a less precarious perch on the broad back.

The stallion sunk his feet into the damp soil, skidding to a halt almost instantly. If Sage hadn't been clinging to the neck, he would have been thrown straight into the ground. As it was he slid up the thick neck, legs dangling on the horse's chest while his entire body was pressed up against the aching neck, gasping numbly.

Brace yourself, was the only warning he had. His head snapped up as he prepared to demand why he hadn't gotten that warning a few seconds ago. He never got the chance to ask.

His legs and stomach began to burn fiercely, as though just doused with boiling oil, the feeling spreading up to the middle of his back. He choked on a cry as his clothes vanished in a swirl of shredded fabric. He managed to wail out pitifully. Dimly he saw that the others were charging in his direction, covering the distance between them as quickly as was humanly possible. He knew it wouldn't be fast enough.

Sage looked down numbly, trying futilely to force glazed eyes to focus. His mind spun in confusion as he realized that the stallion's head was missing and that he was covered in something that looked like thick gray jelly up to his waist. He couldn't make out his legs at all and it was becoming increasingly difficult to breathe. He swayed unsteadily, blinking fiercely. Something was holding his arm and yanking powerfully. He dimly recognized Kento beside him, alternately cursing at the top of his lungs and calling for help. A particularly strong jerk caused him to cry out in agony. It felt like he was being pulled in half. As the world began to spin erratically, his eyes rolled into his head and he collapsed to the blessedly still ground.

 

 

Ryo watched, trying hard not to laugh as Sage wailed in horror as the stallion took off, nearly depositing him on the ground. At the other end of Mia's property, the horse had come to a dead stop, emerald flames enveloping both himself and Sage. For a moment, Ryo thought that the beast had hurt himself and Sage was trying to heal him. That notion ended as soon as it came to him as Sage shrieked in agony.

Surprisingly, Kento had kept up with Cye's mad dash, the two reaching Sage at precisely the same moment. Ryo skidded to a halt a little way from the scene of chaos unfolding in front of him. Sage sat trembling atop the tall animal while Kento hauled forcefully at his arm, spitting curses that made even Rowen's eyes bulge. Sage however seemed not to notice, head drooping against his chest as he fought to retain consciousness from atop the headless stallion. The horse itself was no longer gray, its fur now rippling golden in the morning light. Ryo's heart nearly stopped when he saw the full extent of what had happened. Sage had no legs, his torso ending abruptly where the horse's head had been. He cried out one last time before dropping to the ground.

“My God,” Ryo whispered, his throat closing.

Rowen moved forward on unsteady legs, blue flames shooting up around him as he joined Cye. Deep blue flames flickered wildly as they intermingled with turquoise. Ryo dropped to his knees beside his friends, placing one trembling hand on Sage's bare shoulder, his eyes watering fitfully. He shook his head. There was nothing that Rowen or Cye could do.

“What the hell did you do?!?” Kento shrieked.

Ryo turned numbly to see Kento pounding Mieren into the ground in a blind fury.

“Stop it, Kento,” he muttered softly. “She might be able to do something.” The lie sounded hollow even in his own ears.

“Stop it? Stop it? STOP IT?!?” he bellowed, eyes maniacal. “Don't you realize what she just did? Look at Sage! This'll kill him!!!”

“I said stop!” Ryo snapped. “You saw what she was able to do for me. She might be able to do the same for Sage.”

“Why would she? She's the one who did it, or she might as well have! She knew!! She wanted this to happen! You saw it yourself! She pointed out Sage!”

“Stop it, you two! This isn't helping!” Mia screamed, pushing the two apart before they went for each other's throats.

Ryo opened his mouth to try to respond, the words freezing in his throat. He nearly jumped out of his skin when Cye placed a hand on his shoulder. He didn't have to say anything. The look on his face was enough to tell all of them that neither he nor Rowen had been able to do anything. Rowen walked up, head hanging on his chest, eyes brimming with unshed tears. The look on his face nearly pushed Ryo over the edge. Rowen looked like he had just lost his best friend. Ryo looked away. When Sage woke up… Rowen might then. Sage couldn't handle this.

A soft groan made all of them spin to face Sage. He was panting softly, clutching his head as though he feared it would split if he released it. Slow movements spoke of sore muscles and joints that didn't want to move. Rowen was by his side in an instant, cradling his friend's head in his lap, swallowing awkwardly around the lump in his throat.

“Why?” was all Ryo was able to choke out as he looked to Mieren. Her response was aimed so that everyone could hear.

Because he was weak.

Kento battled with himself for a mere instant before tackling her, intent on driving her skull into the ground. This time Ryo made no move to stop him. He froze as a soft cry was promptly choked off. Every head swiveled towards Sage once more.

Sage was on his feet, trembling fiercely as his face became increasingly pale. He took a step back awkwardly, nearly falling when he was unable to control his legs properly. He cried out pitifully, spinning clumsily and bolting into the trails in the thick woods behind Mia's house, attaining surprising speed considering that he could barely remain upright.

“Sage!” Ryo called after him futilely. Cursing, he tore after his friend, growling as he lost ground rapidly. He was aware of his kanji flaring on his forehead an instant before he was engulfed in crimson flames. Not really knowing how, or even caring for that matter, he leapt into the air, struggling frantically to gain altitude before he crashed into the trees.

 

 

Kento watched numbly as Ryo dashed after Sage, the shield on him shattering as he shifted into a wolf-like form, leaping into the air in a burst of ruby flames, struggling clumsily to figure out how to rise into the air on wings he had never used. He closed his eyes, tears streaming down his cheeks. That bitch had gotten all of them now. Cye and Rowen had it easy, merely throwing around strange energies and acting funny. He was missing the two outermost fingers on his left hand and his right eye. Now neither Ryo nor Sage was human any longer. At least Mia had escaped unchanged and intact.

Choking on a cry, he spun and darted for the city, looking for somewhere, anywhere that he could take out his anger in a clean fight. He heard Mia and Cye calling his name, but paid them no heed. He changed into his subarmor as he ran, trying to gain more speed.

 

 

Sage didn't care where he was going, as long as it was away from his friends' pitying eyes. He panted wildly through his sobs, pressing for more speed, the muscles through his legs and back burning. He sank hooves that could not possibly be his own into the ground, skidding to a stop mere feet before a cliff ending below in jagged rocks. Chest heaving, he collapsed to the ground. He was this far out already? He had just gone nearly half a day's hard traveling through fairly straight trails in a little under half an hour. His eyes misted abruptly. Would it have been so bad if he had actually gone over the cliff?

He lurched to his feet, eyeing the twelve-story plunge to the rocks below. He ran a tremulous hand through his hair and craned his neck to look over his shoulder, eyes burning. A centaur. How could she have done this to him? He took a slow step forward.

“Sage!”

The tremulous voice drifted to him. His head snapped up. How in the hell could anyone have followed so quickly? Closing his eyes, Sage launched himself forward, the ground vanishing from beneath him.

The sensation of free falling only lasted for a moment. Strong arms and legs wrapped around him in an instant and his descent slowed abruptly, downward speed reducing gradually until he was set gently onto the rocks.

“Are you alright?” a voice panted from atop him, trembling slightly.

Sage craned his neck slowly, arching his back to get a better view of the thing on his back. A black wolf sporting wide bat-like wings studied him carefully with crimson eyes, thick muzzle slightly open as the thing gulped in air. Sage's mind was too much in shock to recognize what was on top of him and he vaulted forward, depositing the thing on the ground.

“You're welcome,” it muttered, looking at him in annoyance.

“What…” Sage began slowly, trailing off when the wolf grinned ruefully.

“Remember what happened in the caves?”

“Oh God, Ryo. Not again,” Sage whispered.

“I kinda did it on purpose this time,” he said, eyes locked on the ground. “I couldn't let you get away. I was afraid that you'd try something stupid and it appears that I was right.”

Sage scowled. “Leave me alone,” he snapped, glancing up the side of the cliff.

“Oh no you don't. If you think I'm going to let you try that again, you're out of your mind.”

Ryo lurched to his feet, intent on pinning Sage to the ground and beating some sense into him if necessary. He hadn't given up after what had happened to him and he'd be damned if he'd let Sage. Sage recognized that look, even on a wolf's features, and took a step back.

Sage jerked back, eyes widening as Ryo approached him, cracking his knuckles. Ryo would have none of it, grabbing his wrist and tugging Sage behind him as he headed back towards the house.

“How in the hell did you do that?” Sage demanded.

Ryo blinked in confusion, preparing to ask what he was talking about when it hit him. He was walking upright. He looked at himself in awe. He had managed to shift back on his own. He laughed out loud.

“So those lessons were doing something besides boring the piss out of me,” he said happily, grinning back at Sage.

“What lessons?”

“I haven't been shielded for some time. Mieren took the shield off of me quite a while ago and has been trying, without success, to teach me how to handle this on my own. I haven't been able to manage anything so far except turning into a wolf.”

“How?” The choked voice caused Ryo to pause and turn back to him.

“Uh, I'm not exactly sure. All I know is that it has something to do with my kanji. Every time I manage anything, the thing flares up bright enough to blind anything in a three-mile radius.”

“But what about…” Sage trailed off, unable to say it. He didn't need to. Ryo understood perfectly.

“Uh, my armor still works fine. You shouldn't have a problem, either,” he said, trying to sound confident, but Sage saw through the lie by the slight trembling in his friend's voice. “Besides, Mieren can shapeshift, I think. I most definitely can. You should be able to as well.”

Sage closed his eyes, trusting his friend to lead him as he tried to keep from having a nervous breakdown. He could tell that Ryo was trying frantically to keep him from going into shock. Despite his efforts, tears slipped down his cheeks, cutting paths in the dust covering his face. Ryo's grip on his hand tightened slightly, reassuringly. If nothing else, at least his friends where there for him. He looked up for a moment, closing his eyes again when he saw the pain and worry painting his friend's face, the trembling of his jaw. He stumbled slightly on a root protruding from the ground, his eyes snapping open, studying the ground ahead. He didn't close his eyes again nor did he look up from inspecting the land just ahead of him. It would be hours before they got back to the house at this rate. Sensing this, Ryo glanced back at him.

“Race ya?” he asked, trying to smile.

“Like that?” Sage scoffed, taking a pitiful stab at his old sense of humor. “Like as not, you'll get caught on something and never be able to have kids.”

Ryo sniffed loudly, glancing downwards. He had been trying to ignore the fact that he wasn't wearing a stitch of clothing. “I don't care if you do give new meaning to the phrase `hung like a horse.' You're still jealous.”

Despite himself, Sage's lips twitched upwards towards something that might have been a smile. He jerked his hand free, darting in front of Ryo, trying to kick his feet out from under him as he passed. The wretched attempt at the complicated sidestep tangled Sage's legs and he flipped gracelessly, landing heavily on his side with a grunt. It had barely registered that he was on the ground before Ryo was pulling him to his feet, eyeing him worriedly. Something in Sage's face apparently alarmed him, because he took another miserable stab at humor.

“You know, we're both naked in the woods. Do you have any idea how many bad jokes start like this?” He snagged Sage's wrist before he could bolt again. He knew that look quite well.

Ryo studied the ground for a moment as he pulled his friend along behind him. He didn't really want to do this, but he had to keep Sage from taking off again and this was probably the best way to do it. He hated deceiving his friends, but saw no other way to do this.

Ryo gasped out loudly, dropping his hold on Sage and curling into a fetal position on the ground. He was aware of his kanji flaring as he rolled his eyes back into his head. He let out something very akin to a howl, rolling to his feet to circle his friend. Sage was plainly panicking. Ryo snarled, willing his eyes to glow more brightly. The two stared at each other for a moment before Ryo darted forward, taking a purposefully clumsy snap at Sage's legs. Sage lashed out blindly, clipping him in the side of the head with a hoof as he circled behind him silently. Ryo crumpled to the ground, trembling from the blow.

“Ah shit,” Sage muttered as he peered down at his friend's still form. He tried to see how badly Ryo was out of it, but couldn't see that anything was wrong with him aside from the concussion he'd just inflicted. His eyes narrowed when he realized what Ryo had been doing. Grumbling loudly, he bent to heal his friend so that he could kill him. Sage blinked slowly. He couldn't heal him. His powers weren't working at the moment. He hissed in vexation, deciding he was too upset at the moment to concentrate properly.

“Damn it, Ryo,” he growled angrily, hauling his friend off the ground and draping him across his back. “You could have just pulled me along, you know,” he muttered in frustration as he began an unsteady gallop back to Mia's.

 

 

As Sage first walked into the yard, he was completely unnoticed. Mia, Rowen, and Cye were gathered around Mieren, yelling and gesturing wildly while she stared at them with a fixed expression. Her eyes opened further slightly, her mouth curving into a pale shadow of a grin as he approached. Rowen noticed the faint change in her expression and spun, looking at him with wide eyes and a hesitant smile. Sage refused to meet their eyes as they approached, Cye lifting Ryo's limp form from his back and lowered him gently to the ground. Rowen came in right behind him, wrapping his arms tightly around Sage's waist, being unable to reach any higher. Sage looked down, eyes misting. They were all treating him different, like it wasn't still him. He pushed Rowen away with a growl, rounding on Mieren as she drew near. He hadn't meant to push Rowen hard, but he flew nearly ten feet before hitting the ground and rolled another fifteen before stopping.

Sage moved over to him, baffled that he had thrown his friend so far without even putting any effort into the blow. Rowen lay on the ground, clutching his leg in trembling hands. It only took a moment for him to see that his left leg was shattered. Sage was enveloped by a green glow for a moment. He gasped loudly, staggering back. Nothing happened! He couldn't heal him! His powers were gone.

Sage launched himself forward, placing all of his momentum into his fist as he decked Mieren, sending her careening through the air over thirty feet before she crashed into the ground, stopping in another five feet as her midsection collided with a tree. He moved forward to finish what he had just started, fully intending to kill her. Something grabbed his leg. He snarled, spinning to face whoever was holding him, blinking as he accidentally clipped Rowen in the ribs with one of his hooves. He ignored his friend's groan, charging over to where Mieren had landed.

She lay limply on the ground, breathing shallowly. Face twisting into a snarl, he lashed out with both of his front hooves, preparing to crush her skull where she lay. He crashed to the ground as her hands snapped up at the last instant, pulling his feet from beneath him. Sage lashed out wildly as he struggled to regain his feet, all of his blows missing miserably.

Is that all the better you can do, Halo?

Eyes blazing, Sage jumped to his feet, backing up a few paces as Mieren rolled gracefully to her feet, a small smile twisting the corners of her mouth. He moved to punch her again, nearly losing his balance as his hand only contacted air, the slender girl merely swaying slightly to avoid him, his fist passing less than a hairsbreadth from her face. Eyes widening, he swung again with no better luck in hitting her.

You should know that you only hit me the first time because I wasn't expecting you to attack me. Now that I'm paying attention, you'll never be able to so much as touch me unless I allow it. I've been fighting for much longer than you can imagine.

“And how long is that?” he snapped.

Since the day I was born.

“And when was that?”

Know you nothing? It's not polite to ask a woman her age.

Sage bellowed in a blind fury, lashing out viciously with fists and feet alike, growing increasingly infuriated when he continued to hit nothing.

You should be careful you know. You're stronger than you realize. You might accidentally hurt one of your friends without meaning to. You could pound on me all day without doing any damage, but I don't think that any of your friends, with perhaps the exception of Wildfire, could stand up to your blows. And I know that Torrent isn't skilled enough to undo the damage you'd inflict either.

Sage spun to see the truth in her words. Rowen had pulled himself inch by grueling inch over to where Cye was frantically trying to do something for Ryo. Unbidden, her words earlier came back to him. `Why?' Ryo had asked. Because he was weak, Mieren had replied coolly. Howling in a cold fury, he leapt forward, trying to crush her with his sheer mass. Mieren merely raised an eyebrow as she sidestepped him, tripping him as he passed.

Brute strength will only get you so far, and that is absolutely nowhere if your opponent is skilled. She paused at that, her eyes misting in agony. Sage spun to lash out again, pausing at the expression on her face. Brute strength didn't get me very far, anyway. He was no more skilled than I, but light help me, I wasn't strong enough. She reached up, unconsciously clutching her chest right over her heart, eyes misting with some ancient memory. A soft sob escaped her lips as she spun to walk away, having completely forgotten that he was trying to kill her. It almost looked as though she didn't care if he attacked her again.

She dropped beside Ryo, a silver light enveloping the both of them for an instant before she turned to Rowen. In the span of a few seconds, she had restored both of them to perfect health and was walking slowly towards the woods once more, still fingering her sternum and looking into the ground as though it held the explanation to the question that was haunting her.

Sage blinked in confusion and started after her. Rowen stepped in his way, eyes watering and shoulders shaking, but jaw set in a line that told Sage that his streak of stubbornness was acting up in full force.

“Sage, don't,” he said firmly, blazing eyes belying his apparent terror.

He didn't bother to respond, merely swatting his friend out of the way, gently this time lest he hurt him again. This time, Rowen was only knocked roughly off his feet, sprawling through the grass a few feet before jumping up, glaring. Sage was already far into the trees, following Mieren intently.

He found her leaning against an enormous oak, head hanging limply against her chest, shoulders shaking slightly. He looked behind him to make sure he hadn't been followed, sighing in relief when he saw that no one was there. He walked in front of her silently, giving a small start when he saw blood streaming from her eyes freely, crimson tears streaking her face. Her head snapped up as he approached, lips peeling away from her teeth as her eyes narrowed venomously. Sage swallowed and took a step back, the look in her eyes terrifying him. That the irises of her eyes had reddened was no surprise since she did that quite often, but for the whites of her eyes and pupils to be the same blood red…

With a wordless roar, she tackled him, talons tearing deep trenches in his sides, razor-like teeth sinking into his neck. Sage tried to cry out but only succeeded in a wordless gurgle, blood streaming his mouth as well as from several dozen sets of gashes covering him. With his last reserves of strength, he pushed her away from him and struggled to his feet, moving away from her frantically. Mieren simply rolled to her feet almost bonelessly, circling him with a deadly grace.

“Mieren,” he gasped, unable to force any other words past his mangled throat.

She froze at the sound of her name, the ruby in her eyes receding to her irises once more, but only for an instant. She lowered herself to all fours, back arching in an impossible position. Her skin rippled, heavy scales and ridges appearing rapidly, darkening her skin to match her onyx hair for a moment before her hair shimmered, framing her thick maw with a snowy mane as black flames rose around her wildly. She straightened for a mere moment before charging, her shoulder almost reaching his own in her dragon form.

She pinned him to the ground once more, long fangs sinking into his already mangled throat. Sage felt her back tighten and he closed his eyes, knowing that in a moment she would pull back, taking his throat with her. The fangs untangled themselves from his throat, and she moved away from him. Eyes watering, she pulled herself to her feet, silvery flames licking her serpentine form. She chanted for a mere moment, hurling a ball of silvery fire at him before darting deeper into the woods.

Sage watched her go, pulling air into burning lungs. He raised one hand to his neck, trembling when his fingers met unbroken skin. Rising slowly, he began to follow Mieren determinedly. He would have answers if it killed him.

He happened upon her in a clearing, leaning against a large tree with her knees drawn tightly to her chest, tears streaming freely down her face, cutting trenches through the blood coating her.

“Why?” he asked softly, repeating Ryo's question.

Because you were weak.

Sage ground his teeth. “And what does that have to do with anything?”

You have no idea what you're up against. You were too weak to have survived the last battle and likely unable to have even lived to have seen it. I could not stand to watch you die, little brother. She hiccuped softly, burying her head in her arms and turning away from him.

Growling softly, Sage leaned to grasp her shoulder firmly, pulling her to her feet. She pushed away from him in irritation, turning to leave again. When he tried to stop her from going, she snarled angrily.

Such chances you take, Halo. Leave me be! You don't know what you're dealing with in me or in your opponent.

“Then tell me,” he snapped.

You ask for knowledge that has haunted me my entire life. So be it, Halo, but remember that you asked.

Sage's brow furrowed as she leapt forward, clamping her hand firmly on his forehead. His throat constricted and guts knotted as images began flowing into his mind, things that threatened to shred what was left of his sanity. He fell to the ground writhing as the images and feelings overwhelmed him.

A group of nearly a hundred ancient men were gathered around a large stone protruding from the earth, chanting in a language that escaped him. The fiery glows surrounding each of the men gathered above the boulder, condensing into molten light that writhed and began to take shape. The outer layer of light shimmered and shifted as something within tried to escape, pushing at the glowing layer of light. A small black dragon fell from the light, unfurling shrunken wings awkwardly as it tried to rise on unsteady legs. The smooth hide shimmered in the dim evening light, appearing almost silky with the rippling shadows that passed along it as the corded muscles shifted.

“Arise, little servant, to do our bidding.”

The tiny dragon levered itself onto its hind legs clumsily, skin lightening into a pale creamy color as raven locks fell around a delicate face. A slender, almost undernourished, girl looked to the men surrounding her, the deep jade eyes shining softly in the dimming light.

“Go to battle, Mieren. Destroy the Clan of the Starlight and their new warrior.”

The girl nodded quickly, eyes shifting to a deep crimson as she darted out of the clearing, no irises or pupils present, only the shining red. She slid deftly through the darkness, running at a speed that was unmatched in the dimension and heading unerringly towards the Clan of the Starlight. Breaking into a large clearing, she launched herself forward, tearing out the throat of the nearest man with her teeth, ignoring him as he fell to move on to the next. She paid no heed to swirling mass of black light gathered above an enormous slab of stone as she darted about through the gathered men, wreaking havoc with her hands alone. Several gateways winked in and out of existence as some of the sorcerers retreated from the ensuing massacre.

The swirling mass of darkness burst open, a heavily muscled man stepping out, snowy hair falling about his shoulders. Two sets of crimson eyes locked. The tall man tackled the slender girl, the two rolling on the ground in a whirlwind of fists, feet, talons, and teeth. Onyx hair contrasted fiercely with shimmering white. The two combatants broke apart, circling each other with sure, deadly movements. Bars of light, impossibly bright blasts of energy, surged through the oncoming night, obliterating the darkness for miles around.

Standing some distance from each other, they both began to chant fiercely, a sickly gray light surrounding the girl and the deepest black around the muscular man. Errant cracks of energy rained from the sky as the sheer amount of energy being gathered began to vaporize the surrounding land. The girl threw her hands into the air, her chanting cries reaching a climax. A bar of pure energy shot down from the sky, striking the girl as an identical blast flashed towards the man. He narrowed his eyes contemptuously, blocking almost in irritation, the energy rolling away from a shimmering black dome.

Mieren screamed as his blast enveloped her, her ivory skin sliding from her bones as it darkened abruptly. She spat out a few more words, throwing another blast at the smirking man who was still blocking the girl's spell as her first continued to rain down on him. His eyes widened as the girl's second blast shot straight through his shield and slammed into him. He laughed haughtily as the blast barely left a darkened patch on his skin. The original blasts faded, leaving Mieren sprawled across the ground as her opponent approached, a sword of black fire appearing in his hands.

“You lose,” Mieren spat darkly, eyes shimmering in defiance.

“Did the blast incinerate your wits, girl?”

“You can only block a single spell at a time. You were hit by my second spell, were you not? You lose.”

The black sword leveled with the girl, creating a deep trench in her back, bone showing in several places. She hissed, eyes trembling.

“PHLOGISTON!” Mieren screamed the last word to her spell, the small burnt patch on the man igniting and enveloping him in dark gray flames. The colors in his body seemed to reverse, his hair shifting black and his red eyes simmering to green an instant before he vanished.

Mieren went limp against the molten ground, not having the strength to pull away as what little of her flesh that remained smoldered. Her right arm ventured forward slowly, fingers sinking into the burning ground as she pulled herself forward gingerly. The muscles in her arm quivered and tore as she strained the liquefied tendons, flesh pulling away from her arm from the strain, exposing the bone. The sun was already sinking into another night by the time she pulled herself to a gathering of men awaiting her return in a small shack hidden deep in the woods. She collapsed wearily just inside the door, her breath rasping in her throat.

“So the warrior returns.”

“She has failed in her mission; the warrior of the Clan of the Starlight still lives.”

“Rise, Mieren.”

The girl looked up at them pitifully, struggling to her feet slowly, the muscles through her legs falling free of the bone as she forced them to support her weight.

“You didn't return at the appointed time.”

“You didn't complete your mission.”

“You and Starlight warrior destroyed much of the world.”

“You failed to destroy all of the Sorcerers of the Starlight.”

“You are weak and therefore useless to us.”

Mieren's eyes had begun to water with the first accusation. At the last phrase directed at her, she froze in horror, gaze slowly drifting downwards to rest on the sword protruding from her chest, blade gleaming wetly. Her arms twisted miserably behind her, reaching for the hilt resting against her back. A dribble of blood escaped her mouth, adding to the pool of blood staining the floor, running in a crimson river across the smooth wood at her feet. Her knees buckled and she fell to the floor, the sword ripping free of her body as the sorcerer maintained his grip on the hilt.

Mieren cried out softly, straining to pull herself back into the woods. The bloodstained sword lifted into the air, gleaming dully as it began its downward arc. At the last instant a dull gray dome sprang up around the girl, deflecting the lethal blow into the floor. The sorcerer scowled and took another swing. The blade never landed.

A whirlwind of dark gray flames shot through the room, wisps of black flashing into existence occasionally. The girl pulled herself to her feet with gruelingly painful movements, chanting wildly in an arcane language.

“EXODUS!” she shrieked. The world went white in a conflagration of power.

Sage blinked wildly as the light faded from his mind, his eyes misting with the pain that he had never felt. His haunted eyes quickly found the girl in the clearing. He moved over to her slowly, sinking to the ground beside her trembling figure.

That is your opponent, she hiccuped loudly, tears streaming from her eyes. I couldn't kill him then, I only blasted him into another dimension, the Dynasty. I couldn't defeat him then, and I can't now. What chance do you think you stood, Halo? The five of you together can't even defeat me.

“We did once,” he murmured softly, stopping short when she shook her head violently.

No, Halo. That first time you saw me, I was severely wounded from traveling the tunnels and trying to remain undetected as I did so. More than half of the bones in my body were shattered. The beings in the tunnels are the monstrosities created by my original opponent as he searches for warriors to obliterate both of out dimensions. He can't seem to get the loyalty spells down though. Only those beings lacking all magical abilities can be influenced by the pitiful spells he can wield. I believe that you call them husk soldiers. With your friends Torrent and Strata, I think he attempted to cast the loyalty spells at the same time he endowed them with the energies of my home realm. He wasn't expecting me to free them. Oh, light, he knows that I'm here.

“Why did you attack me?”

My old life haunts me still. I forget who I am from time to time when I think about my past too much, about who… what… I used to be. It doesn't help that you look strangely familiar to someone I knew… fought… in the past.

Sage blinked as she broke down again, blood streaming from her eyes as she wept, the force of her crying breaking the capillaries in her eyes. She clung to him trembling for a moment as the memories washed over her again before she passed out, entering a peaceful, oblivious rest that she desperately needed.

He sighed in resignation, bending down to examine her. After a moment, he decided that her eyes were fine, but attempted to heal them anyway, unable to get the thought of Ryo's concussion and Rowen's broken leg out of his mind. Why hadn't he been able to heal them? An exasperated sigh escaped him when he found that his healing powers were still not working in the slightest.

Sage gathered her in his arms, unsure of what exactly to do with her. He was still debating on whether or not he was angry enough with her to kill her. Deciding that he would pound her into an indescribable pulp later, he headed back to Mia's house with the trembling girl cradled in his arms.

 

 

Dais crept down the halls silently. Talpa was currently looking for someone to attack the Ronins and he had no intention of being the one to do it. He had seen all to well what that girl had done to Cale's armor. Hell, Sehkmet had barely been able to heal the two of them. He fingered his throat in wonder. He hadn't even felt her presence before she dropped him, and judging by Kayura's evasive behavior, she hadn't gotten off either. True, she wasn't injured, but that girl had done something so scare the wits out of her.

Dais!

He jumped several feet into the air, mentally cursing Talpa's uncanny ability to find him even when he was doing his best to sneak around.

“Yes, Master Talpa?”

I want you to go to the city. One of the Ronin whelps is there alone. Do you think that you can handle that much since you're afraid to attack them when they have a little girl with them?

“Yes, Master Talpa,” he said, cringing. `Little girl' my ass, he grumped. He waited for Talpa's presence to vanish completely before swearing loudly. Where there was one Ronin, there was bound to be that blasted girl.

Sighing resignedly, he vanished in a swirl of black flames, reappearing on a rooftop overlooking a nondescript street. Hardrock was sitting on the curb with his head in his hands, shaking slightly. The Warrior of Strength… was… crying?

He ignored caution and common sense, jumping off the building to land silently on the street behind the Ronin. Dais blinked as the boy didn't move in the slightest. Surely he could sense his presence. He was about to make a snide comment when Kento jumped to his feet, backing up a few paces while throwing a murderous glare at him with one puffy eye. He raised his hands, preparing to fight.

Dais's jaw dropped. Since when had Hardrock lost an eye? Or half of his hand for that matter? “What the hell happened to you?” was the only thing that he could think of at the moment. Kento scowled.

“Leave that bitch out of this. Do you or don't you want to fight?”

“The girl did that to you?!”

“Might as well have,” he snapped, launching an attack. Dais merely sidestepped him, allowing the furious boy to careen by as his mind spun with possibilities.

“How would you like to get revenge for what she did to you?” Dais asked. As Kento's eyes narrowed, he began guessing and added, “And for what she did to your friends?”

Kento froze, staring at the ground hard, his shoulders slowly tightening until they began to tremble from the strain.

“Don't you want justice for her actions?” he whispered softly, watching the boy's kanji flare brightly, almost blinding in its radiance. He smiled.

 

 

Sage glared at Rowen furiously. “Are you intending on untying me anytime soon? You realize that the longer I hang here, the worse you're going to suffer.”

Rowen grinned sheepishly. “You're covered in blood, dust, and only God knows what else. Cye won't let you back in the house like that and you know it.”

Sage writhed again, eyes burning with unconcealed rage as he pulled at his hands bound firmly behind him. If that hadn't been bad enough, they had tied his feet so he couldn't thrash worth a damn and then hung him from a tree so that Rowen could scrub him. “This is your own fault,” Rowen continued. “If you had given in when we first tried to hose you down, it wouldn't have come to this.”

Sage began to tremble in a righteous fury, his eyes murderous from beneath his dripping bangs. He knotted all of his muscles furiously, crying out joyously when the ropes snapped and he dropped to the ground.

“Shit,” Rowen squeaked, darting for cover.

Sage jumped to his feet, brushing the worst of the mud off of himself with sharp movements, glaring in Rowen's direction before heading for the house. “I'm taking a shower,” he muttered, starting for the front door. He was intercepted by Cye and Mia.

“You are not coming in the house like that,” Cye snapped.

“You will not make a mess in here, I just cleaned the carpet.”

“Tough,” he muttered, brushing by the two in irritation, fully intent on thrashing Ryo when he found him. That whole business of binding him and hanging him from the tree had been his idea after all. As he passed through the living room, he saw the real reason they had been trying so hard to keep him outside. Mieren was sound asleep on the couch, twisting and muttering in her sleep. He blinked as the words coming from her mouth. He knew those words, had heard them in his memories along with the translations she had thrown at him. He had relayed what she had told him the best he could, but everyone seemed to think he was exaggerating or lying for some reason.

He shook his head darkly and looked around. Kento still wasn't back. He was starting to get worried. It wasn't like him to disappear without a word like this. Deep in contemplation, he didn't pay attention as he trotted up the stairs, nearly trampling Ryo when he reached the hall. Ryo squeaked, bolting in the other direction only to land flat on his face when Sage kicked his feet out from under him, not bothering to be gentle about it.

“Show some respect for you leader,” Ryo muttered groggily, clutching his head gingerly and fingering his nose to see if it was bleeding. Sage didn't bother to respond, merely stepping on the prostrate boy as he headed for the bathroom, grinning happily at the answering grunt.

Sage walked into the bathroom, instantly grateful that this house's bathroom had a tub that could hold a half a dozen people comfortably. Tossing up the curtain, he turned on the water and began the long laborious process of working all of the mud, grass, blood, and grime off of him, performing incredible feats of flexibility in the process. When he was satisfied that he was finally clean, he filled the tub with steaming water and settled down to soak for awhile.

“Oh man! How long you gonna be in there? Other people gotta use the bathroom too, ya know,” Ryo griped loudly from just outside the door. “And since when do you lock the door?” His complaints cut off abruptly, causing Sage to raise one eyebrow in curiosity. Normally when he started harping about use of the bathroom, he kept it up until he got a turn.

Halo.

“Ah shit,” Sage muttered, looking fearfully at the door.

Halo.

“Go away,” he snapped angrily.

Can't go away. I need to use the bathroom too, you know. Now.

“I'll be out in a little while,” he called frantically, hoping futilely that she wouldn't just come in. The last time she had wanted use of the bathroom while he was soaking, she had just climbed into the tub with him, trying to get him to scrub her back.

I said now, Halo.

“Just give me a few minutes!”

Your funeral.

With that, she simply walked in, sliding through the door as though it wasn't there! Sage's eyes bulged. How in the hell did she do that? He didn't get a chance to think about it as a grin appeared on her face.

A hot bath! How thoughtful of you, she chirped happily, stripping out of her clothes and hopping into the water with him, oblivious to his reddening face. Sage was out of the tub and into the hall in two seconds flat, several towels in his arms as he bolted to his room. Ryo's poorly contained peals of laughter followed him down the hall. He grumbled loudly in his room as he toweled his thick golden fur dry, thinking of horrible things to do to the girl for further humiliating him. He sighed. At least Ryo was back to treating him like he always had, poking fun whenever the girl managed to mortify him, which was far too often for his liking.

Shrugging into one of his favorite shirts, he began to work with his hair as much as he was able without all of his necessary implements of destruction. Scrubbing his hair dry roughly, he tied it at the base of his neck, wishing he had access to his hair gel or at least the blow drier. Sighing again, he trudged out of the room, hoping that the girl was still occupied with her bath. Starting down the steps, his eyes widened and he let out a yelp as he lost his balance and slid down the stairs on his stomach. He blinked in fury, never having realized how hard it was to go down stairs like this. Pushing Rowen away from him with a growl, he jumped to his feet and stormed towards the kitchen, giving a start when he found that Cye wasn't beating Kento off with a skillet as was the usual.

“Is he still gone?”

“Yeah,” Cye murmured worriedly. “He was pretty pissed when he left, but I expected him to cool off and come back a few hours ago. I've never seen him that ticked though. I'm starting to wonder if he's hurt. He's never missed dinner.”

“Except when Rowen's cooking,” came the dry response.

“Kento!” Cye cried, spinning to face his best friend.

Kento stood in the doorway obvious in his attempt not to look anywhere in Sage's direction. Sage recognized his expression and moved over to place his hand on his friend's shoulder, trying not to grimace when he noticed that Kento was struggling not to flinch. Rowen and Ryo darted into the kitchen at the sound of Kento's voice, gathering around the four already there, sliding around Mia to see their friend.

“Where have you been?” Mia asked.

“Just out thinking about a few things,” he muttered, settling down at the table and looking quite eager to start eating one of Cye's meals. Mia and Cye obliged, setting the courses out in front of the near-drooling figure. Sage eyed the chairs in irritation before just dropping to the floor at his usual place at the table, only having to strain a little to reach everything. They had just started eating when Mieren sauntered into the room, plopping down at the table between Rowen and Sage. Kento's eyes tightened and he tensed violently at her appearance, refusing to say anything for the rest of the meal despite the others' attempts to start up a conversation. Mieren eyed him carefully, for the first time ever not making an attempt to steal his food.

“Hey Kento, what's going on?” Ryo asked slowly as Kento rose from the table. Kento was never the first to leave a meal. For his part, he didn't bother to reply, merely walking around the table to crack his fist in the back of Mieren's skull.

Mieren blinked, raising her head from her plate to regard the furious boy. She casually leaned to the side to avoid his next blow, rising leisurely to head outside as Kento grew increasingly enraged, tearing after her and making several attempts to take her out as he followed. Stepping outside, Mieren calmly stood in the center of the yard, making no attempt to defend herself as he proceeded to pound her.

“Kento, stop it!” Rowen yelled, trying to restrain his friend.

Kento snarled, knocking him to the ground roughly as he proceeded to thrash Mieren into oblivion. A soft silver glow enveloped her, but she still refused to lift a hand to defend herself, only occasionally making a pale echo of an effort to dodge him. She began to chant in a language that the Ronins had only heard snatches of since they had met the strange girl. Whatever she was saying, she seemed to mean it fervently. The sky darkened slightly as her chanting reached a climax, a single flash of golden lightning cracking in the distance. The unnatural darkness vanished from the sky as the pale silver light died around Mieren. She rose to her feet, swaying visibly for a moment before Kento slammed her into the ground again with considerable force.

“Kento!” Ryo snapped, cutting off as Sage moved around him to restrain his friend, lifting him off the ground by his shoulders and holding him at arm's length.

“What in the hell did you do to Halo?” a horrified voice called from atop the house, causing everyone except Kento to turn sharply. Mieren's head snapped up so suddenly that it was a wonder that she didn't break her neck in the process.

A howl rang through the air, resounding sharply through the trees, as Mieren leapt into the air, knocking the horrified Warlord from the roof. Dais thrashed and squawked in her grip, cutting off with a liquid gurgle as she punched through the breastplate of his armor, blood running unchecked down her arm.

“Shit!” The incredulous cry ended abruptly as Dais was thrown into Cale with tremendous force, both of them vanishing in a violent swirl of black flames.

“Armor of Hardrock! Dao Gi!”

Mieren landed lightly on the ground only to end up kissing the dirt when Kento slashed at her with the glimmering blade on the end of his tetsubo.

“Iron Rock Crusher!”

“NO!” Rowen screamed.

The light of the sure-kill faded to show the girl lying on the ground, a muscle in her cheek twitching in irritation, Kento pinning her to the ground with the blade of his tetsubo.

“You'll pay for what you've done to all of us, especially Sage.”

I try only to protect you.

“You call this protecting?!”

I try only to make you stronger so you can survive the upcoming battle, brother.

“Brother? Hmph. I'm going to make you regret the day you were born.”

That will be hard to do, brother. I was never born. I was created. And I regretted being created on my second day of life when those I would have called family betrayed and tried to kill me for being weak. I have no family, and have thus adopted the whole lot of you for my own. Well, except for Rowen, that wouldn't sound right, she paused, tossing the furious boy a sad smile. Without you, we've lost already. If we've lost for certain, I suppose it's good to know that at least one of you will survive the upcoming battle. Mieren paused again, looking up at Kento with misted eyes. I will not fight you, little brother.

With that, Mieren grasped the tetsubo as far up the pole as she was able, yanking downwards with all of her considerable strength. Kento dropped his hold on his weapon, moving away from Mieren slowly.

“Nice job,” Sehkmet said happily, slapping Kento on the shoulder, not noticing his answering scowl. Mieren looked up from where she lay panting on the ground, wrenching the tetsubo from her chest and tossing it lightly through the air to Kento. He snagged his weapon out of the air, rounding furiously on the startled Warlord.

“Iron Rock Crusher!”

Sehkmet screamed as the sure-kill slammed into him from point-blank range, the sheer power of the blow melting the front of his armor into a molten mass. He called upon his last reserves of strength, vanishing in a swirl of black light.

He never seemed too bright anyway, the weak thought caught the attention of the Ronins, Kento dropping to his knees as he turned to face Mieren once more. He looked to the blade of his tetsubo, eyes watering at the crimson staining the shining metal.

“Sage,” he whispered, throat closing.

“I can't do anything! I haven't been able to since…” Sage trailed off helplessly.

Mieren looked up, eyes clouded. Don't worry about it. It doesn't matter. The five of you need to stay together. Together you may be able to do what I could not.

By the end of Mieren's last thought, the guys could barely hear her. As the gentle rasping in her throat died, so did Mieren.

 

 

Cye scrubbed his hands through his hair in frustration and helplessness. Kento wouldn't even let him in his own room and was blatantly refusing to talk to anyone for any reason, too racked with guilt to speak. Ryo had retreated to his room and seemed to be struggling to keep from having a nervous breakdown. Sage had immediately disappeared into the woods, probably to meditate, but Cye was worried about his mental and emotional stability at the moment. Rowen had collapsed sobbing and had to be carried up to his room. He and Mia had been left with the task of burying Mieren, all attempts at reviving her having proved to be completely useless. Mia had fallen asleep from exhaustion shortly thereafter, leaving him to deal with the others on his own.

A soft growl caught his attention. He looked down with tears threatening to fall from his eyes as White Blaze nuzzled him weakly, still sore from his time in the caves. He dropped to his knees, embracing the huge cat roughly, seeking comfort in any form he could get it.

“Watch Ryo for me, would you Blaze?” he whispered to the tiger unsteadily.

White Blaze whimpered softly, licking the boy's cheek before trotting to Ryo's room, pushing open the door, slipping in silently, and even kicking the door shut once inside. Cye was eternally grateful for the tiger's intelligence at this point. He didn't think he could handle this on his own.

He sighed, slipping outside. Scaling one of the trees near the house, he made a flying leap, landing on the balcony of his room, sliding inside to make another attempt to talk to his best friend.

“Kento, it wasn't your fault,” he began slowly.

“You don't understand,” he whispered, tears streaming down from the one eye that still worked. “I went to the Dynasty willingly so I could get enough power to fight her. I didn't care about anything else like why she did what she did. I just wanted revenge for what she did to us. I wanted to stop her from what she would have done.”

“It's okay, Kento. We were all mad at her, at what she did. Sage nearly killed her himself.”

“He did?” he asked tremulously.

“Yeah. They both disappeared into the woods shortly thereafter. When he came back, he told us what she had told him. You know that she was created a long time ago in the war of the sorcerers, right? Well, that makes her over three thousand years old. Her original opponent, the one she told us that we were to fight, is now in the Dynasty. Sage told us that everything she did was to make us strong enough to beat that demon that she never could. That's the only reason that he didn't kill her, but you didn't know that.”

Kento didn't say anything. His head hung against his chest limply, body racked with sobs and shoulders trembling. Cye's shoulders slumped. Kento wasn't going to get over this any time soon, and understandably so. Hopefully he wouldn't do anything drastic until the guys could snap him out of this. He would also have to watch Rowen. He had tried to kill Kento just before he had passed out from grief.

Sliding quietly onto the balcony once more, he slipped silently into Rowen's room, hoping he had a little better luck with him. Rowen was curled up on his bed, shivering violently, breath rasping in his throat.

“Rowen,” he began softly, fumbling with something comforting to say. Rowen was immediately engulfed in sapphire flames, eyes blazing.

“Leave me alone,” he whimpered, curling up tighter on his bed as the flames around him rose higher, licking the ceiling. Cye swallowed nervously. He couldn't handle that much energy without either hurting himself or Rowen. Even if he tried, the two of them would probably end up blowing up the house, and Rowen would be no better off from it. He backed out of the room with his hands raised wearily in front of him. Even now, it was hard to believe that Rowen loved the girl, the very idea being quite astonishing considering how she had tormented all of them, especially him.

Stumbling down the hall dejectedly, he came to Ryo's room. One last try, he thought, mouth tightening. His last attempt to speak to the older boy hadn't gone over so well, leaving them both with more bruises than he would have cared for. Shouldering the door open, he eyed the tiger sitting in the far corner of the room, regarding Ryo with large, worried eyes. For his part, Ryo was curled up on the bed, faced buried in his hands and hair falling limply across his hands.

“Ryo,” he whispered, nearly leaping out of his skin when his friend looked up.

“Leave me alone, Cye,” he said in a small, tremulous voice, burying his face in his hands once more. Cye could only blink in confusion.

“I thought you figured that out,” he murmured, eyes tracing the heavy muscles apparent even below Ryo's baggy shirt. His gaze hovered for a moment on his strangely jointed legs when Ryo looked up, awarding him with a view of his blurred features.

Ryo shook his head forcefully. “She lied to me, Cye. She said that she had removed the shield. She hadn't. Not all the way. She was slowly removing it so I had time to learn,” he trailed off, eyes sliding shut as tears threatened to fall. “Without help, this is all the better I can do. Go away, Cye. You wouldn't understand.”

Cye's shoulders slumped. A lot of good he was doing today. He had no idea what he was supposed to say in a situation like this. Zero out of three. Just great. Maybe he would have better luck with Sage when he got back.

Slipping out of the room silently, he threw a meaningful gaze at the tiger before heading back to the kitchen, back to the only thing he seemed to be any good at.

 

 

Sage shifted uncomfortably, mouth tightening in irritation and hopelessness. He had seen Mieren's body, but he couldn't bring himself to accept that she was dead, not after what he had seen her survive in her memories. He scrubbed his hands through his hair, disarraying several golden locks. She and Ryo could shapeshift. Without her, how was he going to learn? Ryo seemed to know what he was doing for the most part, so he didn't have much to worry about himself. He dove into the depths of his memory, searching frantically through the slivers of thought that had been transmitted to him with the main memory. Mieren raging across a battlefield for a lost cause, the only remaining survivor of a battle long since lost. A mob surrounding Mieren with torches and swords. Mieren roving through the Dynasty, leaving a trail of corpses behind her as she traveled through the endless halls. Kayura screaming in agony as Mieren left her sprawled bonelessly across the floor, blood dripping from both of them, none of it Mieren's. Mieren crying alone in the night, curled up on the couch in the living room, only rising once to check on each of them. Mieren looking up at Kento, eyes clouding in betrayal as he screamed out his sure-kill.

Sage gasped loudly, lurching to his feet. That was impossible. That had happened only a few hours ago. How could he have seen that from the memories she had shown him? He licked his lips uncertainly, wondering if the confusion and shock of her death had scrambled his memories. Maybe she had unknowingly transmitted the thought to him while speaking to them as she breathed her last. That was a possibility. Settling back to the ground, he began to meditate once more, trying desperately to settle his mangled nerves and emotions.

Several hours of meditation proved to be pointless, leaving Sage just as unhinged as when he had staggered out here. He pulled himself slowly ho his feet, throat tightening in disgust when he looked at what the girl had done to him. He slowly began to head back to the house, deciding that Cye and Ryo would probably need his help with Rowen and Kento.

Something in the far reaches of his mind clicked softly, causing the hair on the back of his neck to stand on end. Sensing nothing around him, he took a hesitant step towards Mia's house, freezing once more when a strange sensation tickled the back of his mind so softly that it was almost undetectable. He strained his eyes in the darkness, searching desperately for something that could set off his senses like that, but found nothing. He was about to start moving again when he heard the soft snapping of a twig not far from him, originating from somewhere within the dense cover of bushes to his left. One of the trees ahead rustled softly, causing Sage to curse mentally. Only one tree had moved. Whatever was out there, it had him completely surrounded.

Sage bolted in the direction of the house, hoping his new speed could save him if nothing else. He was unprepared for the attack as it came, a single wolf darting between his legs, the teeth sinking into his front left leg throwing him off-balance. A second wolf jumped in from the left, further unbalancing him as a third leapt down from a tree, the beast's weight throwing him onto his side as the rest of the pack darted in. Sage squeaked, rolling to his feet and making a point of stepping on several wolves in the process. Gathering all of his strength into his fists, he slammed the nearest wolf into a tree, gaping incredulously when it sprang back to its feet immediately. A similar blow had knocked Mieren across the yard and downed her for several seconds earlier today. One of the wolves, apparently the leader of the pack, growled sharply, causing all of the others to circle in a unified fashion, darting in simultaneously to seize legs and pull fiercely. Sage dropped to the ground abruptly, lashing out with his fists frantically as a wolf slipped in and seized his throat in its thick muzzle.

A bellow in the distance barely registered in his mind as the pack of wolves pulled him onto his side, teeth slashing viciously. He gulped in air pitifully as the wolf at his throat released him suddenly, a pained howl erupting from its throat. Sage's eyes fluttered open weakly to see a massive cougar darting among the wolves, claws sending the beasts running if they were still upright after the blows. In a matter of moments, the entire pack of thirty was either dead or dispersed. The mountain lion moved over to him, growl thrumming deep within its throat as it sniffed him skittishly. Great, he thought miserably, what next? A rabid bear to the rescue?

The cougar paused in snuffling him, looking at him with deep golden-brown eyes, tongue running along the length of its muzzle. Pushing past his feeble kicks, the cat began licking a thick gash along his ribs, leaping out of the way as he managed to take a swing at its head with one hoof. Circling him, the cat began again, this time standing directly behind him so that he could take no more wild swings in its direction. Finishing with the one trench, it moved onto another, occasionally throwing a glance at his face while licking a bloodstained muzzle.

Sage lifted his head slowly as he realized the cougar wasn't going to maul him. “Were you someone's pet or something?” he muttered dryly, eyeing the cat that was nearly the same size as White Blaze. The cougar cocked its head at a strange angle, regarding him carefully as he spoke. Turning away suddenly, it moved to his legs, pinning the nearest one gently with one paw as it began cleaning the deep lacerations. Sage craned his head to see the deep trench in his ribs, choking on a curse when he saw that the wound had stopped bleeding and looked almost half healed, a thin layer of pinkish skin covering the slash.

“Mieren?” he asked slowly, turning to face the cat fully.

The mountain lion froze in cleaning a set of fang marks in his leg to give him a guarded look, eyes narrowing. Something tickled the back of his mind again, the feeling so light that it almost wasn't there. Sage couldn't focus his mind clearly enough to place the feeling, sighing in exasperation as he lowered himself back to the ground wearily. The feeling came again, intensified slightly, pulling at him gently. He closed his eyes, opening his mind to the feeling there, entering a pale state of meditation and concentrating fiercely. The slight sensation sharpened to something that almost resembled a shocked denial.

Sage's eyes snapped open as he regarded that cougar once more. “That was you, right?” he whispered, blinking in surprise when the beast moved to rasp his face with an incredibly rough tongue. He grinned weakly, reaching out to pet the great cat's head, missing miserably as the massive feline shifted to resume work.

Something that was half growl, half whimper escaped the cougar's throat as it stood in front of him. Sage lifted his head, eyes widening when he saw what the beast was looking at, a nauseous feeling rising in his throat. His entire stomach had been ripped out, disemboweling him completely, the cougar unable to see anything from his thrashing, which unfortunately seemed to have caused more problems than he would have liked to admit. He reached down with an unsteady hand, not resisting when the cougar swatted his arm away. He tried to keep his legs still so he wouldn't do any further damage. The cougar only threw him an irritated glare before bolting into the woods once more.

 

 

Cye slumped in his chair at the table. He hadn't really expected anyone to make it to dinner anyway, but for all three of them to run him off when he tried to bring it to them was something that he hadn't anticipated. He sighed for at least the tenth time in the last five minutes, bending over to scratch White Blaze's upraised head wearily. The tiger jumped to his feet, growl rising and abruptly dying in his throat as he looked at the front door for a moment before darting upstairs. Cye blinked in confusion as he heard a door crash open upstairs, quickly followed by Ryo's furious cursing. White Blaze darted to the door, slamming it open without slowing as Ryo clung frantically to his back, swearing loudly at the tiger.

Cye had barely had time to pull himself to his feet when a mountain lion charged through the open door, fixing him in its sights immediately. He squeaked and turned to run as the great golden-brown cat charged him, slipping between his legs before turning to bolt out of the house with his rather unwilling passenger. Cye leapt off of the beast, spinning to bolt only to be cut off by the growling cougar who slipped under him again, holding his wrist in his mouth to make sure that he didn't escape again as he slipped into the darkness. In a matter of moments, White Blaze and the cougar were running side by side, Ryo and Cye exchanging incredulous glances and peering ahead uncertainly.

They were both unceremoniously dropped to the ground as the two cats skidded to a stop simultaneously. Ryo was on his feet immediately, turning to head back to the house to hole himself up in his room once more, White Blaze cutting him off with a furious roar before he had gone two steps. Both boys had their wrists snagged again as the cats pulled them forward demandingly, the cougar forcing Cye to his knees as he pulled the younger of the two towards something on the ground just in front of them. Cye shifted his eyes to accommodate to the dark without thinking, Ryo following his example immediately, both of them oblivious to the cougar's widening eyes as they saw Sage sprawled on the trail ahead. Cye was by his side in an instant.

“Oh God, Sage, what happened? Ryo, help me!”

Ryo nearly fainted when he saw his friend lying disemboweled on the ground, shallow breaths rasping in a half-healed throat.

 

 

“MIA! ROWEN! KENTO! Get down here NOW! Sage is hurt!”

Before Ryo's order had finished ringing through the house, Mia and Kento where in the room, followed by Rowen after a few seconds.

“What the hell is that?” Kento demanded, indicating the cougar.

“Later, Kento. Get the medical supplies.”

The two great cats lowered themselves to the floor, gently depositing the injured Ronin to the ground as they slowly slid from beneath the mortally wounded boy. Cye moved forward quickly to untie the strips of his shirt holding Ryo's coat firmly to his friend's midsection. Rowen and Cye were instantly side by side, surrounded by sapphire and turquoise flames, respectively, as they inspected a delirious Sage.

“Let Turriv by,” Sage gasped weakly, swatting at his two friends feebly.

“Turriv?” Cye asked slowly, silently questioning his friend's mental stability at the moment.

“The cougar,” he panted, trying to push Cye out of the way again, succeeding this time in knocking the younger boy off to the side. The mountain lion immediately moved forward, trying to begin work again, ignoring the many sets of hands pulling at him. He swatted away the nearest boy, yelping as he singed his paw on the sapphire flames emanating from the youth. He got in another few licks before the boy that had been riding his young cousin pulled him away forcefully.

“Guys, let the cougar go,” Mia whispered, ending the ensuing struggle.

“Why?” Kento demanded, placing himself firmly between the cat and Sage.

“Look at Sage,” she murmured.

There was a moment of stunned silence before Kento stepped numbly aside to let the massive cat pass him, staring blankly at the half-healed gash in his friend's stomach. Everyone watched paralyzed as the wound lessened under the gentle cleaning of the mountain lion until a fragile layer of skin shone wetly from beneath the rasping tongue, leaving a ragged scar through the thick golden fur. The cougar inspected his work for a moment before settling down to begin washing himself, occasionally glancing around the room at the four boys and one girl staring at him intently.

“Um, let's get Sage to his bed,” Ryo said slowly, freezing when the cougar leapt between the five of them and Sage, hissing angrily.

“I don't think we should move him,” Cye whispered, eyes slightly unfocused.

“Shit, Cye! What's wrong with your eyes?” Kento cried out, grabbing his shoulders roughly as he peered more closely at the gray film shimmering across his friend's eyes. “Tell me that that thing isn't another one of them!”

Cye collapsed twitching in Kento's arms as the cougar turned his gaze on him, panting frantically and twisting futilely in attempt to escape the strong arms holding him. Ryo, Rowen and Mia moved closer, trying to get a better look at the flailing youth as his trembling increased, Ryo careful to hide behind Rowen so that Mia couldn't get a good look at him. Tears began streaming from the youngest Ronin's eyes.

“Turriv, slow down. You're hurting me. Please. It hurts!” Cye wailed into the room, his cry escalating into a shriek for a moment before Ryo spun to deck the cougar with a growl. The cougar blinked at Ryo in confusion for a moment as Cye's shrieks abated slowly, softening into a whimpering pant that wracked the slender boy's body for a few seconds before he passed out.

Kento lowered his best friend to the floor before rounding on the massive feline, eyes blazing furiously. “What in the hell do you think you're doing?” he all but screamed, fully intent on throttling the huge cat regarding him thoughtfully.

Rowen let out a soft noise, dropping to the ground promptly and clutching his head in quaking hands, his breathing growing ragged. He only trembled for a moment before losing consciousness and collapsing next to Cye. The cat snorted loudly.

Kento lost what little remained of his temper, tackling the cougar and trying to pin it to the ground as it playfully kicked at him with thick paws, claws carefully retracted. Kento would have none of it, slamming his fist into the heavily muscled side, earning a loud grunt from his opponent. The enormous cat promptly flipped him onto his back, sitting on his chest with what could only be called a smug expression.

Hardrock. The great cat paused for a moment, mouth opening in an approximation of a grin as he regarded the boy beneath him. Or should I say Diamond?

Kento nearly leapt out of his skin before going completely limp under the weight of the beast that seemed to by trying its hardest to crack his ribs. The cougar's mouth opened in an eerie proximity of a grin as it launched itself off of the dumbfounded boy, pushing him to his feet helpfully. Kento stepped away from the massive beast, paling further as it followed him lazily, eyes glittering golden in the pale light of the room. It spun to face the unconscious boy who had unwittingly singed his paw.

Rowen began muttering loudly in his sleep, the words frighteningly intelligible. “Kento?… yes, armor of Hardrock… no, she's not here… didn't make it… Kento killed her… betrayed us… she didn't fight back… fifth dimension?… no, it can't be manipulated like that… yes, a flash of gold in the distance… was that you?… what happened to Sage?… no, wolves aren't that strong… can't you heal better?… Sage is still hurt…” he trailed off abruptly, eyes snapping open. He gasped loudly, struggling to sit up, eyeing the cougar nervously. After clearing his throat raggedly, he looked up.

“Turriv says that Sage was taken down by a pack of wolves released by the Dynasty and that he can't do anything else for him. He says that he never was any good at healing. He wants you guys to know that Mieren brought him here to guard Kento,” Rowen whispered, eyes watering as he regarded the person responsible for Mieren's death. He struggled with himself for a moment, his emotions raging across his face. He wanted to thrash Kento into an unidentifiable pulp for what he had done, yet at the same time, he couldn't bring himself to go against Mieren's last actions in her life. A cry escaped his throat as he darted up to his room, the door slamming closed sharply.

Kento's eyes bulged. That's what she had been doing? His throat tightened brutally, eyes misting. He scrubbed the back of his one good eye with his knuckles, not bothering trying to clear the one that would never see anything again. He had been trying to kill her, and she had used her energy to summon someone to guard him instead of defending herself. Spinning sharply, he darted out of the room, all too aware of the cougar that shadowed him silently as he slid into his room to weep in helpless frustration and guilt.

 

 

Cye jumped to his feet as Ryo moved to retreat to his room, catching the older boy's arm in a firm grip and giving him an irritated glare.

“Don't even think it,” he snapped, pushing Ryo onto the couch. “I am not watching Sage by myself while the rest of you sulk. Don't glare at me like that. I don't care how uppity you are about your appearance right now. You're staying here. How do you think Sage feels? He's just as bad off as you are. Sit your ass down. Now. You're taking first watch, like it or not. Mia and I are going to bed,” he hissed, blatantly refusing to acknowledge his friend's furious glare.

Ryo gave him a look that could have left his yari in a molten pool, but Cye returned the glare stubbornly until Ryo ground his teeth and nodded acquiescence.

Ryo growled in annoyance. Since when had Cye gotten so stubborn? Or developed a backbone for that matter? He sighed, leaning back in the couch and trying to ignore Mia's tear-filled eyes as she looked at him one last time before leaving the room. Ever since Mieren had shown up, there had been nothing but trouble. Not to say that it had been her fault, exactly, since things were just as bad if not worse now that she was gone. He scrubbed his hands through his unruly hair, forcing the wild black locks out of his face and tying them at the base of his neck. Cye was so different since having been captured by the Dynasty, his timid easy-going manner lost in a raging temper offset by a streak of uncharacteristic stubbornness. Rowen and Kento were both emotionally shot at the moment, and were likely to remain so for some time no matter what anyone did. As for himself and Sage… he sighed again, shoulders slumping.

Thinking of Sage, he leaned forward to check on his breathing, nodding slightly before leaning back. Whatever Turriv had done, Sage looked like he was going to be fine with just a little rest, and would probably suffer no lasting damage from the attack aside from a multitude of scars covering him. He nearly leapt out of his skin when Sage thrashed in his sleep, muttering unintelligibly.

He leaned forward again, blinking in confusion when he noticed that his friend was sweating heavily. Shit, he thought in irritation. He's running a fever. A bad one, too. Just what I needed. He sighed softly as he got up, heading to the kitchen for some cold water and some towels. Sopping a few of the small towels in cold water, he headed back to the living room, draping the sopped cloth across his friend's forehead and settling back on the couch when his tremors abated. After a few minutes when he was sure he had killed his friend's fever, he removed the soaking towels and leaned back to get a little rest, wondering idly how long Cye was going to be before taking his watch.

A soft rustling roused Ryo. He raised his head groggily, eyes snapping open when he looked at the empty spot on the floor where Sage had been. He was in a state of panic when Sage calmly walked in from the kitchen, blinking at him in surprise.

“Finally up?” Sage asked dryly, settling gingerly back to the floor with a small meal in hand. “I tried to wake you for nearly half of an hour before I gave up and got my own food,” he said quickly when Ryo scowled darkly at him. Ryo grunted an answer and went into the kitchen for his own snack.

Plopping down on the floor in front of Sage, he squinted in the dim light to see if he was doing any better, shifting his eyes to crimson when he couldn't make out his features immediately. Sage jumped slightly.

“Stop that,” he muttered, eyeing the ruby orbs glittering in the darkness just in front of him. “Turn on a light or something.”

Ryo snorted in response, allowing his eyes to shift back when Sage continued to squirm uncomfortably. “How did you know Turriv's name? He dropped both Rowen and Cye by trying to talk to them. I'll be surprised if they're up and walking tomorrow considering how they were clutching their heads and yelling.”

Sage shrugged. “I'm not sure. He was trying to talk to me for quite a while in the woods, but I couldn't hear him at all. I was only able to get the vaguest feelings from him and he seemed to be struggling to even get those across.”

“Kento heard him without a problem.”

“How do you know?”

“If you had seen him jump like he did with that expression on his face…”

“That bad, huh?”

“Yeah, that bad. Kento was trying to cream him for dropping Rowen and Cye. He nearly had a seizure when the cougar sat on him and looked directly at him. I'm not exactly sure what he said, but it thoroughly unnerved Kento.”

“Did you find out anything at all from Turriv?”

“Well, kinda,” Ryo said slowly, chewing his lower lip. “He started talking to Rowen while he was unconscious. He said something about the fifth dimension, being unable to heal you any better than he already had, and about that flash of gold lightning earlier being him. He also told us that Mieren sent him to guard Kento.”

Sage grimaced. “Rowen's not taking that very well, is he?”

Ryo didn't have to answer that, Sage's expression showing that he knew full well how badly his best friend was taking that particular bit of news.

Sage squinted at him suddenly, a soft greenish glow appearing behind his eyes, giving them an eerie molten appearance that set Ryo's skin crawling. “Shield's gone, isn't it?”

Ryo's head snapped up. “How can you tell that?”

“I placed the first shield on you, and was watching carefully as Mieren placed hers. The things are pretty obvious if you know what you're looking at.” Seeing Ryo's hopeful expression, he sighed and leaned forward, grasping his friend's twisted face carefully in his hands. The two were enveloped by an emerald glow that lit up the room for a brief moment.

Ryo looked at his taloned hands, mouth tightening. “Sorry,” Sage murmured. “That's all the stronger I can make the shield. I'm nowhere near as strong as Mieren was, you know.” He froze as crimson flames began licking at Ryo gently, flickering in and out of existence erratically.

Ryo began to tremble fiercely, curling his fingers into fists and closing his eyes as all of the muscles in his body tightened almost to the point of tearing. His breathing became hoarse, a growl rising slowly in the back of his throat. His features blurred for a moment before he looked up triumphantly. Sage's eyes bulged.

“How in the hell do you keep doing that?” he demanded, eyeing Ryo incredulously.

“I'll tell you when I figure it out. You should go back to sleep.”

Sage snorted unhappily, handing his plate to Ryo as he rolled slowly onto his side, very aware of the half-healed slash lining the length of his stomach. Ryo trotted to the kitchen, not realizing that he should have switched on a light when Sage had requested it. It would have been better for all of them if he had.

 

 

Roughly halfway through the night, Cye stumped downstairs slowly, knuckling his eyes fiercely and yawning loudly. Stepping into the blackness of the living room, he made a face and shifted his eyes to a deep ruby, scanning the room for a moment before moving unerringly over to Ryo. Shaking the snoring boy gently, he grinned ruefully as Ryo promptly squeaked and fell off of the couch at his first glimpse of a set of glowing eyes not three feet from him. Cye chuckled softly.

“That is not funny,” Ryo grumped, shifting his eyes to match his friend's.

“Sure it is,” Cye snickered. He sobered up quickly. “How's he doing?”

“He had a fever for about an hour, but I got it back down quick enough. He woke up not long ago to raid the kitchen, so I think he's doing fine.”

Cye nodded slowly. With an injury like that, Sage shouldn't be eating anything just yet. But then again, Turriv had healed him, so it probably wasn't a problem. He appropriated Ryo's spot on the couch as the older boy staggered out of the room, still mostly asleep despite falling on his face.

Cye let out a deep breath as he settled into the couch, wishing he were still curled up in Ryo's bed, having been unable to get back into his own room. The last thing he had seen was Kento trying to lift the cat off of his bed so that he could throw it out into the hall, the great beast not complying in the slightest. In a way, it was almost as humorous as watching the heavy-set boy trying to take on White Blaze, the success rate being about the same.

Sage groaned and did his best to curl up on the floor, trembling slightly. Cye jumped down to inspect him quickly, making a face at his unconscious friend. He knew that Sage shouldn't have been eating anything just yet. He settled back on the couch. Idiot, he thought, you of all people should know better than to eat right now.

Cye leaned back on the couch, watching concernedly as Sage's trembling abruptly ceased, his panting changing suddenly to deep, steady breaths. Muscle cramp, Cye decided, yawning widely as he lost his battle to remain awake, head lolling limply to one side and a soft snore escaping his lips.

 

 

Kento yawned loudly, jaw creaking as he headed towards the kitchen. Opening the fridge, he cried out angrily. Someone had eaten the sub he had made earlier last night for his breakfast as a midnight snack. Grumbling in irritation, he began rooting through the fridge for something else edible, finally settling on a slab of cold turkey. Heading into the living room, he froze at the sight of Cye draped across the couch while Sage was sprawled across the floor.

“When da hell did ya go gray?” he mumbled around a mouthful of turkey.

Cye's eyes fluttered open slowly as he turned to regard his friend leaning against the wall just next to the doorway. “Wha?” he asked sleepily, scrubbing at one eye.

“Sage. Why is he gray?”

Cye was off of the couch and by his unconscious friend in an instant, jaw quivering violently as he stared at the gray fur that had been golden only last night. If that weren't strange enough, Sage's hair had changed to the same dull gray. Sensing that he was being inspected, he tried to push himself up, eyes peeling open slowly as he rose. Cye choked on a cry, sliding across the floor as quickly as he was able until his back slammed into the couch, eyes threatening to bulge out of his head.

“What?”

“Kento,” Cye whispered, quivering slightly. “Go get Ryo.”

Kento spun and darted out of the room, thoroughly unnerved by the terror in his best friend's voice. Within the span of two paces, a massive cougar was pacing him. Slamming open the door to Ryo's room and ignoring the indignant shouts, he lifted his friend across his shoulders and darted to the top of the stairs, depositing Ryo roughly.

“Cye needs your help!” he cried out as he careened down the stairs, pulling Ryo along in his wake.

Kento gasped as Sage looked up at them as they entered the living room, his normally crystal-blue eyes a pale green, yellow flecks surrounding his pupils heavily. Ryo skidded to a halt a few inches from Sage, dropping to his knees and grasping his friend's head in his hands, peeling back his eyelids to inspect his friend's irises.

“Oh God, not again,” he whispered, thoughts drifting back to the tunnels.

“Guys,” Sage began unsteadily, beginning to understand what was going on. “What are we going to do without Mie… um… someone to form a shield? I'm the only one who even knows vaguely how to do that, and I can't shield myself.” Kento watched him worriedly, understanding quite well why his voice trailed off to a whisper by the end. Sage looked around the room, beginning to tremble, his eyes wild. “Ryo got a lot stronger when… and I'm already stronger than any of you,” he whimpered, rising onto unsteady feet, ready to bolt towards the door.

Kento wasn't the only one to recognize the look on his friend's face. Ryo and Cye were immediately helping him block the front door, planting their feet surely and preparing themselves for a battle of strength and wills. Sage only looked at the three of them for a moment before turning and bolting out the back door. Curses rang through the house as the three Ronins started after their friend, losing him in the trees in a matter of seconds. Ryo leapt into the air, hoping to get a better view of the trails below, spitting vulgarities wildly when he realized that Sage knew he would try to follow like this and so had taken measures to remain hidden from an aerial view. After the three searched for nearly four hours, they collapsed in defeat, knowing that with as fast as Sage had become, he could be anywhere by now.

 

_-_-_-_-_

 

To Be Continued

 

This would have been posted in one huge story, but it was too big for the site to accept.