Ronin Warriors Fan Fiction ❯ Past Meets Future ❯ Chapter 4 ( Chapter 5 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

Okay since this chapter took me so long to find on my stupid slow piece of crap that's resembles a computer I decided to be nice and put up two of my chapters (3 and 4). Though with the good comes the bad (unfortunately). Seems my computer ate all the rest of my chapters and now I have to type them up again. Luckily for you guys though that I was smart enough to print copies of the story so my friends could read it and I kept those copies. So it might take me a while to type up my chapters but I will. Okay now enough of my somewhat use less babbling on with the show er I mean story. Hee hee.

Rating: T

Pairings: You'll have to find out for yourself

Disclaimer: I don't own Sexy Sage or any of the other Ronins or Warlords. But if I did the show would be longer and much cooler in my opinion.

SSSSSSSSS scene change

italics telepathy

“yap yap yap” talk

`yap yap yap' thoughts

Past

Meets

Future

Chapter 4

The bright sunlight lanced through the window to shine rudely right into Ryo's eyes. He grumbled, but opened them reluctantly. For a moment, he wasn't sure where he was, it certainly wasn't the room that he had back at Mia's manor. That little voice in the back of his head reminded him that he and the others were in the future, that Reika had brought them. He remembered the vision he'd seen the night before and he remembered Kayura showing them the room they were currently sleeping in, and apologizing for the fact that they had to share one, since most of the other rooms were full of refugees. Come to think of it, he hadn't seen any, but then again, they were probably too scared by what had happened to the city to come out very often.

The room was roughly the size of Shin's room and he only knew that because Cye had described it to them. They'd all crashed in the sitting room portion of the suit. White Blaze was curled up in front of the door that led off to the bedroom, where Celena and Mia were. Kento was sprawled on the floor, snoring uproariously. Ryo was surprised the others were still asleep, even Cye was for once though he was an early riser like Ryo, but the fact that the guys were still out cold was something of a miracle. Rowen was curled up on the other end of the couch Ryo was on, he'd lost count of the number of times Rowen had kicked him during the night, the archer was not a sound sleeper. Sage was lying of his back on the love seat, his arm thrown over his face, snoring softly. Cye was on the other couch, sleeping on his side, left arm dangling over the edge. Ryo looked over at Cye, still trying to reassure himself that his friend was still in one piece, that vision had been so real. To his surprise, he met a pair of laughing emerald green eyes. “It's weird, isn't it?” Cye asked quietly, “waking up here I mean.”

Ryo nodded, “Yeah, for a minute there, I couldn't remember where I was.”

“Should we wake up the others?” Cye still sounded a little sleepy.

“I'm already up.” Sage's groggy voice came from somewhere under his elbow, “you should be worrying about Rowen, not me.”

Cye sat up and prodded Kento's sleeping form with his foot. The noise cut off mid-snore, and a strangled sound came from the floor. “Wha-?” Kento asked, his voice sounding muddled.

“Welcome back to the world of the living.” Sage grinned. Kento glared at him through sleep filled eyes.

“Hah!” he snorted, sitting up and rubbing at his eyes, “you should save that comment for Rowen, if we can get him up, that is.”

“Hmm” Ryo frowned thoughtfully, stood up, and walked behind that couch where he and Rowen had crashed on. He promptly pushed Rowen off the couch, a loud thump sounding as he landed, but Rowen just grumbled a little, and rolled over. “Oh no you don't!” Sage said, snatching a pillow off the seat behind him and whacking his friend with it. Taking their cue from him Ryo, Cye, and Kento picked up their own pillows and soon Rowen was curled up into a fetal position, arms over his head to try and ward off the blows. “Uhhh, go away” he mumbled.

Whap!

“Nope not till you get up.” Cye grinned.

Whack!

“Move it blue boy!” Sage smacked his friend relentlessly.

Poof!

Kento had hit Rowen so hard his pillow had exploded, a cloud of feathers blossoming out of the rent in the cloth.

Smack!

After blowing a feather out of his face, Ryo brought his pillow down on Rowen's head. “Get up!” he insisted. Rowen just curled up even tighter.

“Get up or I'll go get Lee to do it for you!” Celena threatened, she and Mia had come out of their room because of the noise.

“You wouldn't!!” a gasp came from under the pillow Rowen held protectively over his head.

“Watch me” Celena sounded dangerous.

Rowen started to uncurl from the tight ball he was in. White Blaze just put his paws over his ears. At that moment, the door opened revealing a young woman none of them recognized as she entered. She stopped in her tracks for a moment and blinked at them all in surprise, obviously not expecting to see four of the Ronins ganging up on another, or maybe she was just appalled because the mess they'd made with the feathers and pillows. “Uhh” she apparently wasn't too sure of what to do.

“Can I help you with anything?” Cye asked politely.

The woman apparently gathered her scattered wits together and straightened up. “The children sent me to wake you; it's rather late in the day. They're out in the ring” she explained.

“Oh, well, just give us a second” Mia said.

The girl shrugged and left and the four Ronins went back to bashing Rowen with pillows.

SSSSSSSSS

As they made their way out to the training area, that single ray of sunlight over the castle seemed to be dimmer that before. It became apparent to them that they were running out of time. “I don't like the looks of that.” White Blaze rumbled worriedly, seeming very much on edge.

“Come on Blaze.” Ryo called to him, “We should be safe in the palace”

“I hope so anyway.” the tiger grumbled ominously.

It was dark and cool inside the training ring. The sent of sweat and sawdust filled the air, dust notes dancing in the faint light that was shining through the skylight in the training ring's roof. Leaning casually against the guard rail were Ryudo, Reika, Sakura, Leeanna, Shin, Sali, Caran, Shu, and Nadeshiko. Dueling it out in the center of the ring were Touma and Seiji, each of them was holding a staff identical to the ones Shin and Seiji had been using the day before. “Hey, what's up?” Kento greeted the eight teens, taking a place on the rail as well, a move imitated by the other six. White Blaze just dropped down on the floor, a cloud of dust billowing up, suddenly feeling displaced. “We're just seeing how well those two hold up under unfamiliar weaponry.” Shin explained to them.

Shu rolled his dark blue eyes, “What he means is, we've put those two up against each other because neither of their primary weapons are staffs.”

“It's sort of like training just in case Touma finds himself in a situation when he can't use his bow in, or if Seiji loses his sword.” Reika chuckled, she was getting a kick out of this since neither boy was an expert with a staff, but at least they were proficient enough to hold their own, especially against each other. The spar ended when Seiji got in a hit to Touma's rib cage. The blue haired teen crashed to the ground, the wind having been knocked out of him. “I think I won this one.” Seiji said, bending over to help Touma to his feet.

“I think you're right, I'll admit defeat this time, but just you wait cause next time I won't lose.” the other boy threatened.

“I'll believe that when I see it.” Shu shouted from the side.

“No one asked you!” Touma hollered back.

“Oh come on guys.” Sali sighed and motioned them to come over to the rail, “Cut it out now okay, the last thing we need is to be at each others throats.”

“They're just kidding Sae.” Sakura reminded her.

She sighed a little, “Guess I'm kinda edgy.”

“It's okay” Shin said as he squeezed his sister's shoulder, “Trust me you're not the only one.”

White Blaze rumbled in agreement, causing everyone there to chuckle in amusement. Ryo ruffled the tiger's ears affectionately, “You too boy?”

“Hey Shin why don't you spar with someone?” Shu suggested, grinning.

Shin stared at him, “Uh no thanks I don't really feel like it.”

“Oh come on Shin” Reika urged, “stop being so modest, go on and spar a little.”

Ryudo then leaned over and whispered something into Shin's ear. Shin's eyes widened as he shook his head, “Oh no I'm not sparring against him!” he exclaimed.

“Oh come on let's see how good you are against him.” Ryudo pleaded.

Shin avoided his eyes “I said no and that's final!”

“Who do you want him to spar against so badly Ryudo?” Nadeshiko asked.

“Oh I just asked if he would like to spar against Cye to see if he can beat him.” Ryudo explained. The past Ronins looked surprised. “Uh no thanks” Cye said. Kento sighed dejectedly then he pushed Cye, who was sitting on the rail, off of it. Cye landed onto the ground with a crash, he sat up and glared at Kento, “What was that for!?”

“Oh come on it's just a little spar what could happen?” Kento asked. Cye and Shin stared at each other, “Oh alright” Shin said finally jumping over the rail. Shin crossed over to the rack of weapons on the far wall and grabbed two staffs tossing one to Cye. “I'll warn you I won't go easy on you, so don't hold back okay.” Shin said.

“Okay.” was the reply.

Shin charged at Cye, Cye tried to a low sweep, but Shin jumped into the air. “Alright Cye won't escape this attack, it's Shin's best” Shu exclaimed. But he was surprised to see that Cye brought his staff right above his head and blocked Shin's attack. Shin landed on the ground a few feet away, only having a few seconds to recover before Cye charged at him. Shin tried a low sweep similar to what Cye had done before, intending to take Cye out at the ankles. He somehow knew it was coming and took a leap into the air, somersaulting over his head to land behind him. Cye spun around and slashed at Shin's back but he'd already turned and stepped out of range. Shin brought his staff down in an arch which quite possibly could have split Cye in half. Cye brought up his staff just in time to block it catching it directly in the middle of his own staff. For a moment, their faces were quite close together, Cye chuckled under his breath. “You're not that bad actually.”

Shin smiled back, “You're not half bad yourself.”

“Thanks for the compliment.” Cye said as he spun away.

From the viewpoint everyone else had, the intricate steps and slashes seemed like a dance. The blocks, thrusts, and parries all part of some graceful choreography. Spinning out, dashing back in. Unfortunately, they were too well matched; neither was gaining any ground at all. “Come on Shin get out of there!” Shu hollered, “It's a tie, alright?”

“Coming.” Shin shouted back stepping back and looking at the others, “it's a draw Cye.”

His response came as a sharp jab in the ribs knocking him backwards. Shin looked up to see Cye standing over him. “Never let you guard down when there is an enemy around, you never know what might happen.” Cye explained to him while helping him up.

“Alright.” Shin said laughing as they crossed over to where the others were.

Cye took a drink out of one of the canteens then passed it to Shin who squirted some into his mouth and then poured a portion over his head, washing the sweat away, then he tossed back to Cye who promptly emptied the thing. “Who taught you to fight like that?” Ryo asked.

Shin shrugged, “My father did mostly, I guess three hundred years gave him plenty of time to come up with new techniques.”

“I guess so” Ryo agreed faintly.

A flash of violet light suddenly appeared. “Ouch!” Sali exclaimed, clutching her left wrist. She glared at Shin, “What did you do that for?”

Shin looked surprised, “I didn't do anything the mark flashed on its own.”

“It just hasn't done that for awhile” Sali said, “I don't know why it suddenly came to life now.”

“What are you guys talking about?” Kento asked.

As if in answer Shin held out his right hand palm up, Ryudo, Reika, and Sali did the same, only Reika and Sali held out their left hands while Ryudo extended his right. Ryo, Rowen, Sage, Cye, Celena, and Mia leaned forward over Kento's shoulder to get a better look. On each palm was a strange silvery mark, almost like a symbol or a glyph. “What does it say?” Rowen frowned, he assumed it must be a new type of written language or else he would have been able to understand what the symbols meant.

“They mean `true friends'” Shin explained, “We did this a long time ago.”

{start flashback}

A four-year-old Reika sat in the shadows of the stables gloomily watching Seiji, Sakura, Shu, Nadeshiko, Touma, and Leeanna kicking a ball around. She was feeling very lonely; her father and most of her uncles were away on business, and she didn't have anyone to play with except for her loudmouth brother Ryudo and he didn't like to play with her very much. She wasn't very close to any of the boys or the girls they didn't like her very much, they called her a klutz most of the time since she was always falling down and breaking things. She sighed and watched as the ball was tossed back and forth between the other six children. She knew that they couldn't see her; Uncle Anubis had taught her how to hide in shadows, so no one could see her even if she did want to be seen, and she didn't. So that was why she was so surprised when Shin, Sali, and Ryudo sat down next to her. “Whatcha doin'?” Shin asked her, never looking at her, but staring at the other playing kids.

“Just watching.” she sighed.

“Why not go play with them?” Sali asked simply.

Reika leaned her cheek into her fist, “Because they didn't invite me, and I don't want to ask.”

“Why not?” Ryudo asked.

“Because I know that they don't like me too much.”

“Why not?” he repeated.

“Because I'm a klutz.” she replied moodily, that was the story of her life, she could never do anything without tripping or falling on her face.

“But their letting Leeanna play and she just as much a klutz as anyone.” Shin sounded confused.

“That's because they were already friends with each other before they knew that about Leeanna.” she said enviously, “She doesn't know how lucky she is to have friends.”

“Why does that make her lucky?” Sali asked.

“Since she's friends with them she'll never have to be all by herself, I don't have friends and Ryudo here won't play with me so I'm always by myself.”

“Hey I never play with you because you never ask me to.” Ryudo said quietly.

“We're by ourselves most of the time to you know.” Shin said.

Reika stared at him in surprise; these three were friends so why would they be in the same situation as her? “Yeah but you have the others to play with, the other girls don't like me too much so they won't play with me, and I don't have any friends since no one wants to be friends with a klutz like me.” she lowered her chin to her hand, “I wish I had friends.”

“We'll be your friends.” Shin sounded a little more cheerful.

“Y-you will?” she could barely believe her ears.

“Yeah sure, you can be our friend we don't mind if you're a klutz Reika, you help us to laugh even when something bad had happened.” Sali said, “so will you be our friend because they always say four heads are better than one.”

“I'd love to!” Reika exclaimed, hugging her new friends.

“But Ryudo's my brother how can we be friends?” she asked.

“Sometimes even the best of friends are siblings in the first place it brings them closer together.” Shin said.

Shin pulled out his dagger, even at ages of four and five they were aloud to carry small but sharp daggers, Shin held out his right hand and cut a symbol into his palm. He did the same to Sali and Ryudo cutting Sali on her left hand and Ryudo on his right. Reika didn't even think about it, she wanted friends so badly, she extended her left hand palm up, so he could scratch the word onto her as well, the dagger was so sharp she didn't even feel any kind of pain. “Let it bleed for a second and we can't let Uncle Sage heal it up, or else we won't have a scar, that's kinda the point” Shin smiled shyly. Reika nodded and looked down at her bleeding hand, making out the phrase written on it, `true friends'. “So now we're really friends?” she asked hopefully.

“Yep” Shin brought his hand up and the other three did the same, their mingled blood ran down and dripped between them.

Then Shin and Sali started to talk, and it was very formal, almost like the words weren't coming from them. “We promise to guard and keep you safe, because you're our friends, fire and water can mix.”

Then Reika and Ryudo started to speak as well, “We promise to guard and keep you safe because you're out friends and even friends need help sometimes.”

The four of them grinned at each other and intertwined their fingers. All four felt a sudden surge of power and there was a bright flash of light, originating from their hands. It spilled between their fingers and they all shielded their eyes with their free arms. The light went from, intense ruby, to a bright yellow, then to a light blue color, and finally ending at a soft violet. The light faded and the four children looked at each other in surprise and alarm. “D-did you do that?” Reika asked Shin.

He swallowed hard, “We thought you did” he managed to answer.

The four stared at each other for a moment, an unspoken agreement passed between them not to tell anyone about the light, maybe about the blood bond, but not the light. Ryudo glanced at his palm and gasped, “Look!” he waved his hand at them, and Sali caught his wrist and peered at it. The cut had already scarred over, only the scar tissue was a strange silvery color, flashing the light around. She looked at her own palm then at Shin's and Reika's and saw an identical mark. “So, now what?” Reika asked them.

Shin smiled gently at her; “Now we go play” he said jerking his head back at the game of ball.

Leeanna, Sakura, and Nadeshiko were standing off to the side, looks of disgust on their faces as they watched the three boys wrestle on the ground over some imagined argument. “But won't they kick me out?” she sounded a little unsure.

“Nope” Sali shook her head, “they can't because you're our friend now, remember.”

{end flashback}

“So ever since then, we've always been there for each other, no matter the danger” Shin explained.

“You should have seen Aunt Kayura's face when she saw those marks.” Touma shook his head at the memory.

“She freaked out. We got chewed out for cutting ourselves.” Sali sighed, “She thought we might have severed some tendons or something”

“What puzzled her was how it had scarred over so quickly” Ryudo said.

“Yeah and since that happened they've always been together, you could never find one without finding the other three with them.” Touma said.

“Funny” Rowen murmured, “I would have thought that Shin and Shu would have been the best of friends, considering Cye and Kento, that is.”

Shu came up between Ryudo and Reika and threw an arm over each of their shoulders, “We are the terrible quartet.” he grinned evilly, “Reika, Ryudo, Sali, and I get into trouble and Shin gets us out”

Shin rolled his eyes, “Isn't that the truth!” he said sardonically, “oh the stories I could tell.”

Among the snickers following that comment, the pounding of paws could be heard. Tannin and Kira came screeching in on Orion's back. “Reika!” Tannin cried, slipping off.

She fixed him with a glare, “Where's Graham?” she asked, her voice dangerous, “I thought I told you that he was allowed on Orion too”

“He didn't want to come this time honest!” Kira insisted.

“Okay I believe you. What did you want?”

Tannin looked up at her breathless, “You've got a visitor!” he gasped.

“Huh? Who?” she asked blankly.

“I don't know, Mom told me to find you and tell you that there's someone to see you” he clambered back up onto Orion, “so come on already, all of you.”

Since not everyone could climb onto the backs of the two available tigers, the group of seventeen teens and two children walked at a pace of the slowest there. “Hmm” Sage looked thoughtful that whole time, like something was bothering him.

“What's wrong?” Rowen asked him.

“I was just wondering something about Ralon.”

That got everyone's attention. “What about him?” Leeanna asked.

“I was wondering, no offense or anything, how did he turn out to be such a, well, brat and the rest of you didn't, I can't come up with an answer to that, and I'd like to keep it from happening.”

Touma chuckled, “It's because he had a different, uh, nanny.”

“Huh?” Celena frowned, “that doesn't make sense.”

“It's because the rest of us were raised to be warriors” Seiji explained, “we were brought up to defend ourselves, he wasn't.”

“Yeah, our parents were away an awful lot” Shu agreed, “he had a different babysitter than the rest of us, we had a weapon's instructor, and he had just a normal nanny.”

“Unfortunately, that nanny spoiled him rotten” Caran said, somewhat sourly, he didn't like to talk about his brother's attitude.

“So why does he seem to despise Reika, Shin, Sali, and Sakura so much?” Mia asked curious.

Reika chuckled, “Because the tigers chose us instead of him.”

“Uh, I think that deserves an explanation.” Kento prompted.

“It's a pretty long story, and has very little to do with anything else, but Shin'll make it short.” Shu offered.

“Me?! Why me?!” Shin frowned, “since when did I become the official story teller here, huh?”

“Oh just tell them and get it over with.” Reika snapped, exasperated, “And make it quick, we're getting closer to the palace, if there's anyone there to meet with, then you'd better explain before we get there”

“Oh alright” Shin sounded angry, “it's because of the tigers...” he began, everyone slowed down their pace a little to hear the story. Maybe if they understood why Ralon was such a snob, they could avoid pushing the buttons that set him off. “You see, about every two years or so Iya and Blue Fire would come and stay with us for awhile, for as long as I can remember they'd been White Blaze's and Icoro's mates.”

“Yeah, those four practically took tigers off the endangered species list.” Shu snickered, but he quieted down after Shin shot him a frosty glare.

“Who's telling this story me or you?”

“Uh you.”

“Then be quiet.” Shin resumed the story, “So every two years they'd come back from a mission to have their kittens here, they'd stay a few months until the kittens got big enough to take care of themselves and them they'd take the kittens with them and leave, but one year White Blaze told us that whatever kittens they had would be staying with us”

“But how did you know?” Rowen raised an eyebrow.

“That's easily answered” Ryo chuckled, “White Blaze can talk remember?”

“Oh. Right.”

“So Ralon, who by this time was already a spoiled brat” Shin continued, shooting an apologetic glace at his cousin, “insisted on having one of the cubs for his own.”

“But when the time came for them to be born, there was a small problem” Touma interrupted.

“Geez, why don't you guys just tell this story!” Shin shouted.

“Okay we're quiet.”

“The kittens had been turned around the wrong way inside of Iya and Blue Fire, and they were in danger of being strangled be the umbilical cord” he went on, “no one was skinny enough to reach in and fix the problem except for one of us kids, Ryudo, Touma, Leeanna, Seiji, Shu, Caran, and Nadeshiko were outside at the time and didn't even know this was going on, but Ralon was already there, since he'd been expecting to get one anyway, and Reika, Sakura, Sali, and I were there since we got along with them really well.”

“So someone had to untangle the kittens, Ralon refused to reach in do it, so while Reika and Sakura helped Blue Fire, while Sali and I helped out Iya, soon the little things were out and alive.” Shin finished.

“Yeah but Orion and Blaze were the only ones Blue Fire had and Ice and Iyanna were the only one Iya had, tigers don't usually give birth to more than four cubs but two is uncommon.” Seiji reminded him.

“And the four of them wouldn't go with Ralon.” Sali ended the story, “They wanted to be with us, so Ralon has hated us ever since”

“So Iya and Blue Fire have been staying here ever since?” Ryo asked.

“Yep, and they were quite happy about it too.” Sakura said, “And so were Aunt Celena and my mom, they sure did miss Iya and Blue Fire while they were gone.”

By this time they'd reached the palace, “Aunt Kayura said to wait in the family room.” Kira told them.

The two little tiger riding children led them into a nice-sized room, the walls were lined with book shelves and a fireplace in one corner, comfortable looking oversized stuffed chairs were scattered here and there around the room. “Tannin, there's no one here.” Leeanna frowned at her little brother.

“Aunt Kayura just told us to get you here and that this person was going to show up.”

At that moment, the doors to the room were thrown open and a small, sand-yellow furred fox raced in. The only thing strange about the animal was the fact that it had more than your usual amount of tails, seven in fact. It ran across the room, making a beeline for Reika. Halfway there, the fox's outline began to blur and change. Everyone was forced to look away as his or her eyes began to tear over the effort of trying to focus on the thing. Then, where there had been a fox, there was now a short, slim girl, dashing towards Reika. Her hair was straight and chin-length, and was the same color as the fox's fur. She had dark skin, dusky colored, and twinkling green eyes. She was dressed entirely in black leather, and was festooned with so many daggers she was practically a walking armory. This wasn't too strange, except for the fact that she also had seven tails protruding from her clothing. “Reika!” she cried, throwing her arms around the girl, “it's about time you got back!”

Reika just chuckled and hugged the girl back, “It's not like I planned to be away for that long.”

The girl stepped back and glared at her, “I should seriously hurt you for making me wait as long as I have.” she said icily.

“Uh Reika?” Kento asked.

“Oh” the girl blinked and stepped aside, waving her hand at the fox/girl, “Guys this is Kitari” she introduced her friend.

Kitari smiled a vulpine grin, “You would be the Ronins Reika was sent to find right?”

“Uh right” Celena nodded.

“Well, I'm Kitari like she said, and in case you can't tell I'm a kitsune, you know a shape-shifting fox spirit.”

To their amazement her outline bean to blur again and she was a fox once more, then she became a normal girl again, minus the tails, and then a humanoid fox, as in a huge fox, walking on its back paws and wearing the same clothes Kitari had been wearing a moment before, she blurred again into the form of the girl with the fox tails and grinned again. “Kitari has made it her life's pursuit to ruin our lives” Seiji said gloomily.

The girl winked at the others and patted Seiji's cheek consolingly, “Only yours, buddy, only yours.”

He growled at her, “And why's that?”

She shrugged, “Oh I don't know blondie, maybe it's because you bug me.”

His eyes flashed, “How many times have I told you not to call me that?”

She giggled, “Four thousand, five hundred eighty seven, well eighty eight now, but who's counting?”

“I can't win.” Seiji moaned.

“Ignore them.” Touma said dryly, “They really do like each other a lot” he ignored the looks of death the two sent him.

“Kitari's also our chief, uh, espionage specialist.” Shin told them.

The kitsune giggled and smiled at him, “You are such an innocent, Shin, why don't' you just call me a spy and get it over with?”

He blushed a little and was saved be Reika. “So, what's the news then? Why did you want to talk to me?”

Kitari looked uncomfortable, “Well, Rei, it's got to do with what I saw on my latest venture out into the city, I think you better take a seat, all of you.” she turned to Tannin and Kira, “you'd better leave.”

The twins blinked and nodded, slipping from the room and taking Orion with them. Struck by the severity in her tone, everyone sank into a chair. Kitari crossed over to the cheerily burning fireplace and leaned against it, she suddenly looked very tired, tired and sad. “I'm sure that you must have seen one of those terrible massacres on your way in Rei.” she said.

“Massacres?” Shu frowned, “What do you mean?”

“When we arrived in the city, we saw them.” Kento nodded.

“They're like huge piles of slaughtered people.” Cye said in a quiet voice, “Their throats were cut, there's blood everywhere on the ground.”

The children went very pale, Reika swallowed hard. “Yes Kit we saw them, what about it?” her voice was shaky, like she didn't want to know the answer.

Kitari took a deep breath, “My patrol and I stumbled across one of them being built”. The sound of gasps filled the air as she paused for breath. “You see, we discovered that, like most Dynasty demons, this one draws its power form human suffering, but unlike most of these demons it takes it sustenance form death energy and death suffering.”

“Death energy?” Rowen frowned.

“Yes, you see, we've discovered that human life contains a great deal of energy, and it is violently released by death, the more painful, violent, and drawn out the killing is the more energy is released.”

“So you're saying that the people the Dynasty captured are being slaughtered as a power source?!” Sage demanded outraged.

“That's exactly what I'm saying.” Kitari said solemnly, “One of my men was captured by the soldiers, I saw what cruelties they are capable of” she squeezed her eyes shut against the painful memory, “poor Youko (snicker sorry had to do this one), I couldn't even end his misery.”

Reika stood and laid and hand on her friend's shoulder, “When this is over, everyone who perished will be given the respect they deserve.”

Kitari wiped her eyes, “I guess that's the best we can do for them now.”

“Have you told our parents of this Kit?” Seiji asked.

She nodded, “Of course I did. They suggested that you might like to know, but that you shouldn't do anything rash about it.”

“Yes, rushing off into things never got anybody anywhere” a soft voice came from the door. They all turned to see two people standing there. They entered and closed the door behind them. One of them was a tall slim girl, she had long hair that fell to her waist, in color it was a pale green and wound through with vines, leaves, and wildflowers, she wore a thigh length dress which also appeared to be made of interwoven vines and leaves and she had emerald green eyes. The other person was as the same height as the girl. He had long sky blue hair that fell to his shoulders, he wore flowing robes that looked like they were made of water, and he had sapphire blue eyes. “This is Willa and Lark guys” Reika introduced the girl and boy, “they're two of Kitari's team members and good friends of mine”

“Willa and Lark hmmm?” Kento murmured, “if I may ask, why are you green and blue?”

Cye elbowed Kento in the side, appalled at his rudeness, “KENTO!!!” he hissed, “please forgive him; he's got a big mouth”

Willa giggled slightly, “That's alright, we're used to it”

“Willa's a tree nymph,” Reika explained, “a tree spirit, as opposed to Lark who's a dryad, a water spirit.”

“Yeah, they live in the willow tree and the lake behind the palace, that's why we call them Willa and Lark.” Kitai said, “Their real names are too hard for us to pronounce.”

“What's going on Willa, Lark, you never come into the castle.” Touma crossed his arms over his chest, puzzled at their unusual behavior.

Both of them exchanged a glance, “It's not safe outside any longer.” Willa said in a hushed voice, “as much as we dislike being unable to go to our tree and lake, we must stay here for a short while.”

Lark turned to Reika, “Rei, you're needed in the nursery, Sonya's having nightmares again.”

Reika sighed and got to her feet, “I'll take care of this and be right back” she said.

“I'll go with you.” Shin said and both left the room.

“Does Sonya get these nightmares often?” Cye asked.

Lark sounded serious, “Yes, the poor thing, often the only way she can get to sleep at night is to have Reika put a soothing image into her mind”

Kitari made a face, “Yeah, the little kid's been the source of so many sleepless nights it's not even funny”

Rowen, the strategist of the group, turned to Kitari, “You said the Dynasty is killing all these people, how long do you think it will take them to slaughter everyone they've captured?”

Kitari looked thoughtful, “Well, they get more energy if they torture the person first, and that takes time, but at the rate they were going, and considering that they've already caught three fourths of the city's population, probably only about another week”

“Darn” Ryo said softly, “that's not much time is it?”

“My father did say that you were all leaving to attack tomorrow” Seiji reminded them.

“How much energy do you think they've gathered from all those deaths?” Sali asked quietly.

Everyone looked at her, they'd forgotten about that part. “I don't know” Kitari mused, “a lot though, Youko's death alone gave them a ton of energy.” her face saddened, “I saw the amount displace, it was terrible, but maybe his death gave off a large amount of energy because he was a kitsune, I just don't know.”

She looked up in surprise when Seiji covered her hand with his, “We'll get revenge for him, don't worry about it.”

“Don't let revenge cloud your thinking.” Willa cautioned them.

Sage turned to look at Rowen, who was deep in thought, “Alright Ro, you've been really quiet lately, I want to know what's going on inside that blue head of yours.”

Rowen blinked at him and opened his mouth to answer, when two screams split the air around them. “AAAARRRGGGGHHHHHHHHH!!!!!” it was Reika's and Shin's voices, screams of both pain and terror.

“REIKA, SHIN!!!!” everyone shouted, bolting up out of their seats and out the door.

SSSSSSSSS

Reika and Shin had entered the nursery and made their way over to Sonya's crib. Tannin and Kira had obviously retreated to the room as well after Kitari had banished them from the meeting, and were coloring something over against the right wall, beneath a table. Graham sat in one corner playing with a brightly colored ball. Orion, and Blaze were lounging near the toddler, pushing the ball back whenever it rolled out of the little boy's reach, while Ice and Iyanna sat near them. The nanny was nowhere in sight. “Hey little sis” Shin greeted the cranky infant.

“Having another nightmare are we? Let me take a look.” Reika reached down and brushed her fingers gently across the baby's forehead.

{Dream sequence}

A terrible image filled her mind. She saw red skies, rivers of blood and Dynasty soldiers rampaging across the land, pillaging and burning as they went, killing so many people the oceans ran crimson with blood. She saw briefly the broken and shattered bodies of her family and friends, a baby's cry split the still air, mixing in with the roar of soldiers and the screams of innocents.

[Dream sequence]

Reika snatched her hand back with a gasp. Where had that come from? How could Sonya be seeing those things? It was just terrible. Tannin and Kira shot her strange looks while Graham played, oblivious off in his corner. “Ssshhh” she murmured comfortingly, still touching the baby's forehead. She began to project soothing images of forests and animals, those always seemed to work before, and they did now as well. A sudden growl from behind them caused Reika and Shin to spin around, surprised. Why were the tigers growling? Had Graham been pulling their whiskers again? Reika stifled a scream as the door exploded inward off its hinges in a shower of splinters. As the dust cleared, the outline of a Dynasty soldier could be seen silhouetted in the doorframe. It growled menacingly and advanced upon them, waving two spears threateningly. “The children and the ocean eyed one.” it hissed, and it reminded them of the thing that had almost killed Shin's father. Reika could just make out the forms of many others behind it. For a moment both she and Shin were frozen in fear, then their minds snapped back into working order. “Iyanna, Blaze, watch the littles!” Shin shouted as Orion and Ice stood beside him and Reika. Iyanna crashed backwards, tipping the crib over, while Blaze herded Tannin, Kira, and Graham underneath it to be with Sonya. Reika looked around them desperately. Darn, this is a nursery! There were no sharp implements; that was the point. She grabbed two large arm-length splinters from the door and tossed one to Shin. “You'll have to go through us to get to them!” She glared at it, eyes flashing dangerously. To their surprise, the thing only nodded. Then it moved with blinding speed and stabbed them with the two spears it was carrying right into their sides. That was when they screamed. Through a pain-filled-haze, Reika manage to bring the shard of wood up to keep the thing from splitting her head wide open like a ripe melon. Unfortunately, her makeshift weapon shattered, Shin tried to do the same thing but his shattered as well. Both looked at each other, and came to the same conclusion they would have to get those weapons out of the things grasp. So both reached out and wrenched the spears from its metallic grip. “All right, now we can do some damage!” Reika said. Then the things rushed into the room and they realized just how many there were. There had to have been over two dozen. “We're screwed” Shin said.

SSSSSSSSS

Ryo, Rowen, Sage, Cye, Kento, Celena, Mia, the children, Kitari, Willa, Lark, and White Blaze ran into the other Ronins, the Mystics, the Dark Warlords, and Lady Kayura halfway to the nursery. “You heard it too?” Anubis panted. Everyone nodded, breathing too hard to answer, there were so many stairs in this place! “Th-the nursery!” Touma managed to gasp out. The much-enlarged group continued up the stairs to the nursery tower at mock five. Unfortunately, there were too many of them to fit through the door, and the fact that those in the front were too shocked by the sight to move, well, that didn't help much. Ryo, Cye, Touma, and Kitari had been in the lead, and they came to a screeching halt. Reika was standing, knock-kneed, amid a roomful of smoking slag and discarded weaponry. She was leaning forward, held up only by her grip on a spear she'd obviously ripped from one of the soldiers. Her body was in shreds, bleeding from a few dozen places at least, and her clothes were held up only by a few strategic strands. Her hair had fallen over her face, obscuring the left side; even that fall of ebony was matted and sticky with blood. They found Shin on the ground his head propped up by Ice sitting behind him. He didn't look as bad as Reika, but he had deeper cuts and a bad wound in his side that was bleeding badly and his auburn hair had been darkened by the blood. Orion and Ice were covered in cuts from head to toe and their fur stained with blood as well. Reika looked up at the crowd in the doorway as if expecting more soldiers. Her blank eyes flickered a little with recognition. “R-Ryo?” she asked, her voice slurred over in exhaustion, “I-uhhh” her grip slipped and she fell over to land with a sickening crunch in the metal shards. “REIKA!!” Touma shouldered past Ryo, and a stunned Kitari to kneel beside the girl as Cye kneeled by Shin. Both were out cold and Reika's eyes were rolled back in her head. “Move over!” someone shouted from the back of the crowd. Both Sages, Cye's counterpart and Kayura make their way through. Kayura waved the staff one the smoking armors disappeared. Ryo noted absently that the older Sage was in full armor; he knelt beside Reika and began to glow. “The babies!” Celena (the elder one) shrieked, “where's my baby?!” White Blaze slipped through the legs of the gathered people and over to the upturned crib. He nosed at it and heard a questioning rumble from beneath it. Blaze and Iyanna burst out from under the cage-like crib, hackles raised teeth bared. The four little children were huddled behind them sobbing. Kira had her face buried in her brother's chest. Tannin was trying to keep a brave look on his face, while clutching his sister to him, his other arm protectively around Graham's shoulders. The three-year-old was holding Sonya against him, shielding the little child form any harm. A collective sigh of relief went up from the mothers. Tannin, realizing that he and his friends were safe now, loosened his death-grip on the other children and leapt straight into his mother's arms, drawing Kira after him. “I was so worried.” Lee sobbed, shocking the past Ronins, Lee sobbing? Graham solemnly handed Sonya to his Aunt and then ran to his mother and started to cry. Tannin suddenly pulled his face out of his mother's arms and stared at her in horror. “Reika, Shin what happened?” he demanded, sounding much older, for some reason, “Are they okay?”

Cye nodded from where he was sitting beside Shin, “He's lost a lot of blood, but he'll be alright after he's had some rest”

Celena sighed, “I'm glad to here that”

Cye's counterpart nodded in agreement. Then all eyes turned back to where Sage was leaning over Reika's still form. The green slow intensified to eye-watering brightness. All of Reika's wounds began to glow bright green, sealing together with a small burst of light. The terrible gash in her side stitched together, and the blood stopped running. The skin was smooth and scar-less underneath the rent in her clothes. She groaned softly and frowned, trying to pull away form the elder Kento, who was holding her down by her arms. Tranquility flared to life on her forehead, and she calmed down, accepting the healing. A flash of light-blue light suddenly appeared from where Cye was healing Shin. A light-blue star mark appeared and then disappeared as quickly as it had come. “What the heck was that?” Sali asked surprised.

“I don't know.” Cye lied, not wanting to tell her what it was since she didn't know in the first place what it was. Both Celena and Cye's counterparts looked at each other. Celena shrugged not knowing why that had happened. Then a rasping coughing noise came from Reika's direction, diverting their thoughts about what just happened. Her eyes fluttered open and she looked up at the crowd of people looming over her. “Wha-?” She breathed, “Wh-Where'd they all go?”

“You defeated them Rei.” Willa said gently, “They were piles of junk when we got here”

“And T-tan and K-ki?”

At least everyone understood what she was trying to say. “They're fine, see?” Kahlan leaned over, still holding Graham to her. Orion padded up to the girl and licked dried blood off her face. The cuts were healed but she had lost a lot of blood like Shin. “Everyone's alright.” he said, licking her face again, “Me included, man that hurt!” Reika managed a weak smile.

“Enough all of you.” Kitari intervened, “Can't you see that she's in terrible shape?” she sounded very angry.

“Yes go to sleep Rei” Willa laid a cool hand on Reika's fevered brow, and she felt her eyes grow heavy. Sleep, a voice whispered into her mind, and Reika had to listen to it. Ryo watched as her whole body went limp again. He looked around the room, it was literally trashed. The walls were cut up terribly, picture frames were slashed, the crib had been shattered and the door was practically non-existent. The floor was littered with the remains of furniture and other things that were now unrecognizable. It was no wonder Reika and Shin were in such bad shape. How they'd been able to keep those things away form the little kids was beyond him. “Will they be okay?” Tannin sounded like he was about to cry, in fact tears were pouring down his face.

“They'll be fine, they just need time to sleep for a while” Kitari said comfortingly, “Rei and Shin just need to sleep so there bodies can recuperate.”

“R-recuperate?” Tannin stammered.

“Get better.” Touma said, hugging his little brother.

“Oh.”

“We should get them back to their rooms, and then get this mess cleaned up” Rajura said quietly.

“I'll take Reika.” Ryo volunteered and without a word Cye (the younger one) picked Shin up and started to the door. Then he and everyone else looked up when someone cleared his/her throat in the doorway. A young woman stood in the doorway. She had long silver hair with violet streaks, she wore long, flowing dusk colored robes, and she had lavender eyes. “What happened here?” she gasped.

“Apparently the castle wasn't as safe as we thought, Iyaria.” the elder Cye said, turning to the woman. Iyaria's hands flew to her mouth as she caught sight of the damage and Reika and Shin's sleeping forms. “Don't worry Iya, they'll be alright.” Celena reassured her old friend. Ryo (the younger one) made his way over to Reika and gently picked her up, “Cye, would you mind telling me where her room is?” he asked. Cye (the younger one) blinked but nodded, no one stood in the way as the two left the room with Shin and Reika. “What do you think that was all about?” Kayura mused.

“No idea at all.” the elder Rowen said.

Cye waited outside as Ryo put Reika in her room. “Hmmm, you were right Cye her room is about the size of ours.” Ryo said as he closed the door.

“Yeah, but so is Shin's room, its through there.” Cye answered.

Ryo opened the door to the room. Being careful not to jar Shin awake Cye set him gently down on his bed. Ryo came up behind him and pulled the covers up over Shin's shoulders. He sat down beside the boy and smoothed some of the hair off his brow. “I can't believe between him and Reika, they caused all that damage.” he murmured.

Cye shrugged and sat down next to him, “I'd like to know how those creeps got into the palace. I thought it was safe here.”

Ryo just shrugged, “I'm not sure, but one thing's for certain no one is going to be getting much sleep tonight.”

Cye nodded at the truth in his statement and stayed seated as Ryo stood and walked back over to the door. He was about to follow, when he felt a hand grab his wrist. Blinking in surprise, Cye turned back to see, it was Shin, though he was still out cold. “Don't leave me” he muttered in his sleep, “please father, I don't want to be alone anymore.”

Ryo and Cye exchanged surprised glances and Cye tried to pry Shin's hands off his wrist, it wasn't much good though, he was just a little too strong. The only way to get him to let go would be if Shin did it himself. So Cye stopped trying to break that grip and decided to make Shin let go. “It's okay Shin” Cye whispered in his ear, “I'm not going anywhere, I'll be here when you wake up.” It actually worked! Shin's hand went limp and he rolled over, sighing in contentment, a small smile on his face. “Hmmm.” Ryo mused quietly, “I guess he thought you were…”

“Don't say it!” Cye held up a hand, “Just don't!”

Ryo shrugged and they both left the room. There was a lot of cleaning up to be done, as well as some questions to be asked.

TBC...

Author's Note: Well there's your gift now give me mine in the form of... reviews! Please I need reviews to motivate me to type if I don't get them I get lazy that happens to me sometimes. Well gotta go. Ja ne.