Ronin Warriors Fan Fiction ❯ Past Meets Future ❯ Chapter 6 ( Chapter 8 )

Rating: T

Pairings: Future selves: RyoxMia, CyexCelena, KentoxKahlan, RowenxLee, and SagexSaphrita. Past Selves: CyexCelena and RyoxMia. Kids: None yet.

Disclaimer: don't own. So don't sue.

SSSSSSSSS scene change

italics telepathy

“yap yap yap” talk

`yap yap yap' thoughts

 

Past

Meets

Future

Chapter 6

 

A growl of frustration escaped Rowen's throat. It seemed that no matter how far they walked, (and they'd been walking for over two hours) they never grew any closer to the castle. Their armor had begun to weigh heavily on their shoulders, and their feet were dragging. For some reason, Rowen's patience was wearing especially thin. “This is ridiculous!” he exploded, causing everyone to turn and look at him, “what is this, it doesn't matter how far we go, we'll never get any closer, it just isn't logical”

Sage choked back a bark of laughter, “Is that what's eating you, you aren't able to figure out how this is happening, man, I thought you were going nuts”

“I am!” Rowen threw his hands into the air futilely, “this is so pointless we'll never get there!”

“This isn't like you Ro” Mia said quietly, eye filled with concern, “what's really the matter?”

Rowen sighed and sank to the ground, shoulder slumping, “That thing that Shin fought was so powerful, how can we possibly hope to defeat whatever it was working for?”

“And you are the Warrior of Strata that will become our father?” Touma sounded incredulous.

“That's impossible; our father would never speak like that!” Leeanna said.

Rowen turned angry eyes on Touma and Leeanna, who merely crossed their arms over their chests and raised their eyebrows. Reika hid smile behind her hand, seeing where this was going. Well, if Touma and Leeanna wanted to play `bad cops' she and Ryudo would be willing to play `good cops'. “Oh come on Sky, give him a break” Reika laid a hand on Touma's elbow, “it's been a long morning for all of us maybe if we take a rest, things will be easier”

“I still can't believe one of the fabled Ronin Warriors would give up so easily” he friend grumbled plopping down to the ground, still glaring at Rowen. Knowing glances were exchanged between the others. They hadn't missed the exchange between Reika, Ryudo, Touma, and Leeanna. Everyone else took a seat, catching their breath; they'd been hiking for two hours nonstop, which can tax even the most energetic person. White Blaze was the only one who didn't seem to be gasping for breath, but even the mystical tiger's sides were heaving as he lowered his head to his paws and closed his eyes; taking a little catnap. “So, do you think you could actually come up with something Genius?” Touma growled. Rowen flashed him a glare as fierce as Ryo's sure-kill.

“Play nice boys” Reika muttered, lying on her back and staring up at the sky, “I'm sure he can think of a plan”

Mia heaved a sigh and pulled off her helmet, pushing strands of sweat soaked hair out of her face, “It's like an oven in there” she commented as the others followed suit, except for Kento who had his hands full carrying Cye on his back. “Hey Kento, do you want one of us to carry him for awhile?” Sage asked him.

Kento shook his head, “No, its okay, I've got him” he said shifting Cye since he was starting to slip off his back. Sage just shrugged. “Hmm” Rowen seemed to be considering something, his eyes were locked on the castle, a scowl twisting on his face. Then his eyes grew wide and a panicked look appeared, “Oh!” he gasped, “oh no!”

“Oh no what?” Ryo cocked his head to one side.

“Sage, your sword can see through illusions right?” Rowen turned to his friend.

Sage nodded, “Yes, you should know that by now, why?”

“Look at he palace through the sword, tell us what you see” the archer's voice was insistent.

“Do it Sage” Celena suddenly grinned, “I think I see what he's getting at”

Sage held up his no-datchi and held the flat of the blade between his eyes and peered along the edge of the blade at the palace. His ice blue eyes narrowed and he watched as the outline of the structure began to waver, it became see-through, almost like a mirage shimmering in desert heat. “What the?” he frowned and tried to concentrate harder, only to pull back with a gasp of shock as it disappeared.

“What, what happened?” Shu demanded.

“It-it vanished!” he stammered, “the palace, it's just an illusion!”

“I thought so” Rowen said in a tone of smug satisfaction.

“You mean we've been walking for hours towards something that wasn't even there!” Kento gaped at him, “that's bogus, now what, where's the real castle?”

“How are we supposed to know?” Seiji snapped at him, “we only just now figured this out”

“Hold on a second guys” Sage said in a distracted tone. He slowly got to his feet; eyes still focused along the length of the blade, and began to turn in a circle, scanning the entire cloud-scape. “Ah hah!” he let out a triumphant cry and suddenly whipped the Sword of Halo to point in the opposite direction of the mirage they'd all been following. Everyone had been watching his actions, and so everyone saw as the air in the area and formed into a duplicate of the castle they'd been heading towards. However, none of them saw the illusion behind them fade out of existence. “All right Rowen!” Reika threw her arms around Strata's neck, hugging him jubilantly, ruffling his blue hair, “I knew you'd come up with something!” Rowen just chuckled and watched as Sage set his blade down and sank back down to sit with the others. They did need some rest, and they had a long walk ahead of them. Touma and Leeanna turned to their `father' with grins on their faces. They gave him the thumbs up, leaving Rowen gaping. He'd thought that they had been angry at him. Shin smiled and leaned over, “It was just a ploy to get you thinking again” he said under his breath, amusement tingeing his tone, “and it worked like a charm”

“I should have seen it” Rowen shook his head ruefully. Reika caught his eye and grinned widely before turning back to the conversation the others were holding.

“I can't believe we spent that entire time heading in the wrong direction!” Kento was saying, “now we have to make up for all that lost time”

“Well, if you think about it, the signs were right there in front of us” Mia told him, “those trees must have been part of some kind of garden, so I'll wager we were right in front of the palace the whole time”

“Yeah, and don't we feel silly” Ryo said wryly, “we should have figured it out earlier”

“Ah, it's not as if we had any evidence other than that grove of trees” Sakura reminded him, “and that demon of course”

“So we've got another two hours in the other direction” Shu picked up his helmet and turned it this-way-and-that, “we're going to die of heat exhaustion first”

“Maybe you will” Reika poked him in the back.

“You're evil Rei”

“Runs in the family” Sage smiled, dodging the punch Ryo threw at his head. White Blaze just climbed back to his feet and rolled his eyes at their antics.

“Come on guys, let's get moving” Shin stood back up and slipped his helmet back on, “we've got two hours worth of walking to make up”

The mood between the Ronins was noticeably lighter. There was even a small amount of joking going on, but no one's heart was really into it, and everyone knew it was just the anxiety they were all feeling. Touma and Leeanna dropped back and pulled Rowen along with them. The expressions on their faces could be best described as apologetic. “Listen” Touma began, “we just wanted to say `sorry' for what we said earlier, you got to believe us when we say we didn't mean it”

“Yeah it was just to get you to actually use those brains of yours to come up with a plan” Leeanna explained.

Rowen gripped their shoulders, “I know that, and I'm sorry too, I don't know what happened to make me so hopeless, you probably know I'm not usually like that”

The children smiled. “Yeah, I guess so.” Touma's face fell a little, “The thing is, well, you see, I know I'm not as smart as my father, nowhere near as good with plans and stuff like that.” he looked down at his feet, “I'm just average, so we had to rely on you to come up with something.” For a moment, Rowen saw himself in the boy across from him; constantly trying to please by doing something he truly didn't want to do, just like him and his father's lab. “Hey Touma, don't sell yourself short.” that blue head came up to lock eyes with Rowen, “If you were `just average' the armor wouldn't have chosen you, it picks its wearer, it can't be forced, if you were unworthy, no matter what your father did couldn't have coerced it to you, I'll tell you something, I've seen you using a spear, and that's something I can't do, the only weapon I know how to use is a bow, and it's these different skills we all have that's going to win the battle for us.”

The grin Touma gave him was full of gratitude, “Hey thanks!”

“Are you three coming?” Sali shouted, “or are we gonna have to drag you with us?”

“I'd like to see you try!” Leeanna hollered back.

“We'd better catch up with them” Rowen said, “or Sali might just make good on that threat and sic Shu and Ryudo on us”

“Ah! We're going, we're going!!!”

 

SSSSSSSSS

 

After what seemed like hours the Ronins finally found themselves in front of the palace. “Phew, it took awhile, but we made it back” Ryo said stating the obvious.

“We knew that” Celena replied, “the question is, now what?”

“We've got to figure out someway to get in” Ryudo pointed out.

“Why not just do what we always do” Kento shrugged, “break down the door”

“Hmm, that appears to be out only option” Rowen peered speculatively at the gate, while Touma glared at it as if it had personally offended him.

“I hope you won't” someone giggled, “it's the only front gate I have at the moment”

A startled gasp ripped from sixteen throats as they all whirled around to face…a teenage girl? Yes, a young girl, perhaps about thirteen years of age. She had dark red hair that poured halfway down her back. Like most people with hair that hue, her skin was a tan color and freckles were sprinkled across her nose. Large brown eyes stared up at them, for she was rather short and very petite; almost like a pixie in appearance. A cream colored tunic belted at the waist and a pair of slipped on shoes make up her attire. “Who are you?” Shu asked, unsure if he should be wary or not.

“My name's Taru” she giggled, “this is my castle”

A sixteen-way glance was exchanged, this was their adversary? “Uh, you mean to tell us that you are the person who captured half the city's population?” Ryo raised an eyebrow.

“Slightly more than three-fourths” she corrected, “yeah that's me, I'm in charge here”

“You?” Touma snorted.

“Yes me, I'm in control by right!” she raised her chin and fire snapped in her eyes, “I was hand picked by Badamon four thousand years ago as his successor” her eyes misted over and her lower lip began to tremble, tears spilt down her cheeks, “and it's because of you rotten Ronins that I never got my chance, you went and destroyed my world before I could ever get the power I deserved, now I'm creating my own power base, and you can't stop me, there's one of me and five of you, you're outclassed!”

Then she frowned and glared at them; they could almost see the wheels turning behind her eyes, “Hey, there's too many of you, there's only supposed to be ten!”

“Didn't your little minion tell you?” Reika could barely keep the sarcasm out of her voice, “these Ronins are from the past”

The girl fixed a withering glance on her, “You did it, didn't you, you broke the rules Stars, you weren't supposed to do that.” she stamped her foot like a spoiled child.

Everyone blinked in surprise, what was going on? Then Taru's face lit up, “Oh well, now that there's more of you, I can have more fun!”

“What's that supposed to mean?” Nadeshiko choked.

This girl was clearly off the edge. Her moods swung from innocent child to serial killer in a blink of an eye. This Taru was coming unhinged. “Hmm, decisions, decisions.” she drawled, eyes narrowing as she surveyed them all. No one made a move to attack, though hands were twitching towards weapons. They didn't know how strong she might be. Even the strangest opponents could be powerful enough to mop the floor with their faces. “Do I kill you all now of have more fun playing around with you?” she had levitated upward and was now perched in midair, legs crossed and elbows resting on her knees, chin in her hands, “I think this is the most distracting thing to happen to me since I started pulling my power base together” an insane giggle slipped from between her lips, “those puny humans weren't much fun” her lower lip jutted out in a pout, “I think I'll take my time with you”

“I don't THINK so!” Touma growled, he nicked an arrow on his bowstring and drew it back. “ARROW SHOCK WAVE!!”

The huge surge of energy zoomed straight for Taru. Rowen gasped in shock. He knew just how powerful his sure-kill could be; Touma had charged it to the max. “Oh puhleez!” Taru rolled her eyes absently making a small motion as if swatting a bug away from her face. The Shock Wave was deflected, dissipated really. The energy just faded and disappeared. “No WAY!” Kento gaped, “that's just not possible!”

“Sh-she absorbed it?” Ryo gulped, “how…?”

“Why thank you so much for that little addition to my energy reserve Strata” Taru said, batting her lashes at him coquettishly, “so much more potent than that feeble life energy”

Reika swallowed back a snarl of rage. How could this…this…monster act as if the lives of all those people were nothing more than the lives of little gnats? Little girl she may appear to be, but the callousness she treated their species with was intolerable. “You might want to stop playing around” Shin growled, “too many people have made the mistake of underestimating us, your little skeleton friend, for one” A look of vague disappointment crossed Taru's face. “You killed him?” she asked off handedly, “oh well, he was incompetent, failing to kill you in the first place… and now losing to a pitiful little boy playing soldier, laughable, absolutely laughable” she broke into a laugh that would have made a hyena wince. Celena brought her hands up to cover the sides of her helmet where her ears were. Sali caught her brother's eye and shook her head; he couldn't rise to the bait. “I suppose I owe you one though” the red-haired girl sighed, “he was beginning to stink up the Netherworld, I spent too much time purifying the air around here”. Again with that laugh, this time everyone flinched. “Hmm, do I use my own power to destroy you, or should I bring out Screamer?” Taru debated with no one in particular.

“Screamer?” Rowen murmured to Sage.

“I don't think we want to know” Halo replied grimly.

“Screamer it is!” the girl sounded positively cheerful.

She reached up over her head and made a pulling motion, like she was tugging on something. “Come here!” she grunted, “I command you!” she braced her feet against an invisible wall and pulled even harder.

“NOW!!” Ryo shouted.

“THUNDER BOLT CUT!!”

“MIND CORRUPTION STRIKE!!”

Seiji and Celena both threw their sure-kills at their distracted enemy. “Goodness, you certainly are thick-skulled aren't you?” Taru chided them as the smoke cleared. She was still hovering over their heads her hands clasped behind her back, “you do realize that all you've done is give me even more strength”

“Darn, we can't use are attacks!” Sali gritted out from between clenched teeth, “she'll just use out own energy and throw it back at us”

“So, we'll do this the old fashioned way” Reika muttered, tightening her grip on her sais.

“We'll see” the redhead smirked, “but before you proceed in `tearing me limb from limb', I'd like you to meet a good friend of mine” she pulled something from behind her, “Ronins this is Screamer”

`Screamer' turned out to be a staff. Mounted on the top of it was a human skull, a skull with fangs easily six inches long. A pair of horns curled up form either temple. It grinned demonically at the group; the mere sight of it sent shivers up everyone's spines. “Ew” Sakura commented.

“Yuck, it looks like something out of one of Kento's horror flicks” Mia wrinkled her nose.

“Oh, you're hurting his feelings” Taru pouted, “apologize of face the consequences”

“Listen lady” Ryudo snarled, “we don't apologize to heads on sticks, got that?”

“Consequences it is then!” she squealed in glee, she raised the staff over her head. “Souls of the lost, let your cries of torment be heard!” she intoned in a voice much different from the one she'd been using thus far. “STATTERED SOUL SCREAM!!” the cry ripped from her throat. The jaw of the skull unhinged and fell open. A horrific keening split forth, a wail that seemed to penetrate through the skin and muscle, vibrating in one's ear bones. “Get it out of my head!” Shu grunted, clutching at the sides of his helmet.

“Ahhhh, it hurts!” Rowen groaned, wishing desperately for some way to plug up his ears.

One by one the others fell to their knees, weapons clattering to the ground from hands that had suddenly gone to protect their ears. It's like a Banshee's wail Reika thought, glaring at Taru through slitted eyes. It's going to drive up all insane. Sage reached for his sword, hand shaking against the need to cover his ears. “STOP IT!!” Ryo shouted, “STOP IT NOW!” A roar answered his cry. White Blaze launched himself through the air, claws splayed out to rip through flesh. “Ahhh!” Taru fell back, clutching her wrist, Screamer fell to the ground, mouth closed once it had lost contact with Taru.

“Good boy White Blaze” Mia gasped, scrambling to grab her sais and get back to her feet; an action quickly followed by the others.

“Owww!” Taru whined, rubbing her hand, “that hurt, I'm bleeding, oh yuck!!”

“Oh yuck?” Touma raised an eyebrow.

“She's got the mentality of an eight year old” Seiji muttered. Reika couldn't help but snicker a little.

“You should look into getting your little kitty declawed” she growled at Ryo. “I hate cats!” she held her hands out in front of her, palms facing each other.

A glowing sphere, crackling with energy sprang to life between her hands. She slowly pulled them back, the globe growing brighter and larger the farther away the hands were pulled, until it was roughly the size of a basketball. “I'll make a rug out of you!” she screamed, hurling the ball at White Blaze, who sprang nimbly away; but not quick enough. The sphere exploded on impact with the ground, throwing everyone into the air and crashing back down to the ground. Blaze was caught in the detonation and flung against the stone wall of the castle gate. “Man what a spoiled brat” Kento groaned as he picked himself off the ground, then proceeded to place Cye back onto his back since he had fallen off when Kento collapsed to the ground. “Worse than Ralon” Shu agreed.

“Remind me to tell him you said that” Sali muttered, planting her feet firmly on the ground, she was getting sick of being tossed around like a rag doll.

“I'm getting bored with this” Taru yawned, mood swinging from rage to indifference.

She flicked her wrist and her nails sprouted into wickedly sharp, foot-long claws. She jerked her arm up towards her face, shooting the spikes into the warriors' midst. “Oh now what?” Nadeshiko cried even as she hit the dirt.

“My aren't we cynical?”

Her other hand suddenly grew claws as well, and this time she was aiming. A gasp ripped loose from Touma's throat as one of the spikes grazed his cheek. An identical sound of pain choked from Celena. She hadn't been quite so lucky. A claw had penetrated the protective plating of her armor and had stabbed deep into her bicep. “Touma, Celena!!” Reika turned to make sure they were alright, “you okay?”

“Ugh” Touma wiped a trickle of blood off his face, “I think so, but…” his hands started to shake and he clutched his head, “I feel kind of woozy”

“M-me too” Celena slurred, things had gone blurry and unless everyone suddenly had an identical twin with armor, she was seeing double.

“Give it an hour or so” Taru said nonchalantly, “the poison in my little nail will get to you heart eventually, it will be a slow, particularly painful death” her voice lowered to a maniacal hiss, “it is only what you deserve”

Before anyone could react to that statement the `ground' began to shake. A crack snaked along the clouds, linking the hurled claws together. A huge gap opened up, but instead of revealing the palace and courtyard so far below, an inky darkness gaped up at them. “GET BACK!” Seiji cried, grabbing the two nearest to him, Rowen and Shin, and hauling them backwards.

“You won't escape my little trap that easily!” Taru shrieked.

“That's it!” Ryo growled, somehow keeping his footing on the unsteady clouds, “I'm not going to listen to this psycho girl anymore!” his eyes narrowed and he began to spin his katanas over his head with practiced ease, “FLARE UP NO…”

“NO!” everyone shouted, “DON'T!”

He was suddenly cut off as the ground opened up beneath his feet and everyone else's. With a collective shout of alarm and shock, the Ronins and White Blaze fell down…down…endlessly down into a darkness nothing could pierce.

 

SSSSSSSSS

 

“Oohh!” a faint moan from off to his left brought Seiji back from unconsciousness. His head was throbbing and flashes of bright color frequently zapped across his vision. He thought he recognized the voice. “Sali?” he asked groggily, sitting up only to fall back when a swirl of dizziness overcame him.

“Seiji, is that you?” the other sounded about as dazed as Seiji felt.

“Uh huh” that was as much an answer as he could manage.

“Hey, how about some light?” Sali asked weakly.

“Good idea”

After a few moments of groping around in the darkness, he managed to locate his no-datchi, the sword's blade began to glow a watery green, faintly illuminating…wherever it was they were. It almost appeared to be some kind of room. The ceiling was lost in shadow, and there didn't seem to be any doors of windows of any kind, there was no sign of how they'd managed to get in. “Where are we now?” Sali wondered.

“I don't know” Seiji replied grimly, “but something is seriously wrong here, we should find the others”

“Well, we're right here” a voice said groggily.

“Shin, is that you, where are you??” Sali asked looking around.

“Yes, its me, and you're standing on me and Sakura, could you get off, please?” Shin asked. Sali looked down and saw that she was standing on her brother and Sakura.

“Oh, sorry” she said as she helped them up.

“Okay that's two down, six more to go” Seiji started walking, “are you going to stand there, or come with me?”

“Ahh, we're coming!!” Sali shouted.

As the sword of Halo only illuminated a small area, the search went slowly. Wherever they were was rather large as well as dark. There was no way to mark the passage of time, so it could have been five minutes or an hour before the three Ronins found any sign of their friends. “Seiji is that…?” Shin gestured wildly over to his left, where two dark lumps were sprawled.

“I think so” they stumbled as quickly as possible over towards the figures; one silhouette was about Sali's height, when the other was too small to be Kento, but much too large to be anyone but… “Shu, Nadeshiko!!” Sali went down on her knees next to her friend while Shin knelt next to Nadeshiko. Seiji knelt down as well, holding the Sword over their heads so they could see. “Is he okay?”

“Shu, SHU, wake up!!” Sali was shaking her friend's shoulder so hard that Hardrock's head was snapping back and forth.

“SALI, stop it you'll snap his neck!!” Seiji grabbed the other's wrist to pull him away then leaned forward, “hey, come on, wake up Shu” he said, sending a small mental push with it.

Shu moaned a little and cracked an eye open. It felt like somebody was inside his skull attempting to pound his way out. Two pale blotches hovered over him, standing out with startling brightness against a blackish background. He blinked rapidly and the blotches swam into focus as two very familiar faces. “Sali, Seiji?” he mumbled, trying to clear away the fog around his brain.

“Phew” Sali sighed in relief, “at least you're okay”

“Hmm, looks like a hard head runs in the family” he joked feebly.

“Not to mention a terrible sense of humor” Seiji smiled wanly.

“Uh, where's everyone else?” Shu sat up and tried not to swoon back down to the floor. Things fuzzed in and out of focus for a moment before his vision cleared over.

“I'm over here” Nadeshiko replied dazedly as Shin helped her up.

Sakura nibbled her lower lip anxiously, “We don't know, Taru put us somewhere, but you're the first two we found”

“Darn” Shu growled.

“All we can do is keep looking for them.” Seiji said glumly, “they've got to be here somewhere”

“Great we don't even know where here is!”

“Panicking will get us nowhere Shu” it appeared that tempers were close to the fraying point.

“Uh guys?” Shin's voice cut through the admonishments.

They all turned to glare at him, only to find he was staring intensely at his palm, “I think Ryudo and Rei are over that way” he pointed off into the inky darkness.

“Well you would know” Nadeshiko shrugged.

“Seiji?” Shin glanced pointedly at the Sword of Halo, “we'll need the light”

“Oh right!”

“Are you sure about this?” Shu frowned.

“Positive” Shin nodded firmly, “they're over here somewhere…”

“OW!” Shu stepped back from the wall that had sprung out of nowhere and rubbed his nose ruefully, “where'd that come from?”

“Hmm, so this isn't just some endless blackness” Seiji mused, ignoring Shu's grumbling, “it's some kind of room”

“Do you think we'll find the others if we stick to the wall?” Shin asked.

There were eleven others to find, not counting White Blaze. Seiji shook his head, “Don't count on it, who know how far away the other wall is, they could be stuck in the middle of this cavern and we'd never know!”

“But the door is most likely on the wall, unless there's a hole somewhere in the floor, so it we're going to find a way out, it would be along here somewhere” Sali pointed out.

“We can't just leave the others!” Seiji frowned.

“Oh yeah” Sali said faintly.

“Maybe if we just walk in a straight line we'll find someone” Nadeshiko suggested, “after all, it can't be that far to the other side”

“Should I add that to your list of famous last words?” Shin muttered, getting a very bad feeling about the whole thing, but here honestly wasn't much of a choice, they had to find the others before they left.

Silence fell for a moment as the three friends searched the darkness fruitlessly. The silence was ear-ringing, and the darkness seemed to swallow everything whole. What little speaking did take place sounded hollow and empty, depression set in. “We're probably walking in circles” Seiji muttered. The light on his sword flickered for a moment, only to re-solidify slightly dimmer than before. “Seiji snap out of it!” Shin sounded frantic, “you're letting this get to you, don't let the light go out!” Before Seiji could reply to that, a shout broke through the darkness.

“Hey look, there's something over there!” Shu cried, breaking away from the small circle of light and tearing off out of sight.

“Shu, come back here!” Shin shouted, starting after him, Seiji grabbed his arm.

“If you try to find him, you could get lost too” he said sensible, “now Shu obviously saw something, what's that link of yours tell you?”

Shin glanced down at his hand and then back up at Seiji, “It's pulling towards where Shu was headed!”

“He must have found them!”

`Ugh, all that arguing was getting us nowhere!' Shu thought angrily. He realized that he was still able to see, sort of. His armor was giving off some kind of glow. He hadn't realized it before, probably because it was so faint and Seiji's sword had been glowing fairly bright. `Must be because I'm getting close to somebody, I'll bet I saw was Ryudo, Reika, Touma or Leeanna, they're the only ones my armor would react to, I think'

However, his armor wasn't the only thing glowing; the faint outlines of something crimson and gold could be seen not far off. `I knew it' Shu thought triumphantly, `there was something there; it's got to be them!' He took off towards the glow, a little more confident now that he had some sort of destination, and sure enough, a few moments later, he screeched to a halt by the source of the glow, the Wildfire and Stars armors and their bearers. “Reika, Ryudo?” Shu asked, not really expecting an answer. He crouched down next to his friends' prone forms and gently shook them, “hey you two are you alright?” The only answer he received were two quiet moans. “Hey Shu!” the sound of footsteps and ragged breathing echoed from behind him, looking over his shoulder, he saw the emerald green light given off by the Sword of Halo. Shin, Seiji, Sali, Sakura, and Nadeshiko pulled up behind him, gasping for breath. “Don't DO that!” Sali shook a finger at him, “geez, you wander off in this darkness and we might never find you again!”

“Heaven forbid” Seiji muttered, undaunted by the black glares his friends shot him, he was too upset about being ditched to care much.

“I had a guide” Shu told them, “I think our armor starts to glow whenever we get close to another Ronin, the reason we didn't notice was because it was too faint to see in normal light, that's what caught my eye, Ryudo and Reika's armors”

“Well, they don't look hurt” Sali went down to her knees and checked for pulse and breathing.

Both of them shivered, apparently the sub-armor was cool to the touch; their eyes creaked open, peering shortsightedly up at them. “Ugh, somebody tell the guy with the bell to stop with the noise” Reika grumbled, sitting up slowly so as not to jar her head.

“Um, Rei, there is no guy with a bell” Shin said, a puzzled look on his face.

“Oh, well then…man my head is ringing” she buried her face in her hands, trying to keep her friends from spinning around her vision.

“I think you may have landed on your head” Ryudo grinned.

“Heh, no kidding” she rubbed her eyes and then blinked back at them, “what the, hey aren't we missing a few warriors?”

“And a tiger” Nadeshiko nodded, “we're looking for the others, but so far, we haven't had much luck”

Ryudo's eyes went wide, “You mean you haven't found Celena or Touma?”

Sakura frowned, “No why?”

“They got hit by Taru's claws, she said they were poison and that they only had an hour to live!” he sounded slightly hysterical, “and who knows how long we've been unconscious…” his voice trailed off.

“Oh NO!” Shin looked around frantically at the others, “you don't think they…”

“No” Seiji said firmly, “we'd know, out armors are linked remember?”

“Phew that's right”

“Hmm, so why don't we just use out armors to find Touma, and Leeanna then?” Sali suggested.

“But there's no way to find Ryo and the others” Shu said thoughtfully, “they have an identical set of armors, well almost, but that doesn't mean they all link up”

“I'd be surprised if they were even in this weird cave” Seiji frowned.

“What makes you say that?” Reika raised her eyebrows.

“Taru was saying that she was going to split us all up and take her time with us, remember, I'll bet that the others are somewhere similar to where we are”

“So the first thing we have to do is find Touma and Leeanna, then find a way out of here, and then find everyone else” Shin sounded a little discouraged.

“That's a pretty tall order” Sakura sighed.

“As Touma would say, `nothing we can't handle!'” Reika grinned; she climbed unsteadily to her feet, “let's get moving”

 

SSSSSSSSS

 

He hurt. That was pretty much the only way to describe the way Touma felt. Whatever had been on those claws had hit him hard. It felt as if the blood in his veins had changed into molten lava. It roared through his ears, creating a dreadful light-headedness that made it feel as if he was constantly spinning. Breath came in short, sharp, painful gasps, as his chest felt like it was clamped in a vise. If there had been anything to see in the strange darkness, he wouldn't have been able to, for even his hands, when held up in front of his face were blurry and shaking. He lay on his back on a cold stone floor, letting the chill seep into his bones. Simultaneous rushes of hot and cold made Touma want to collapse to the floor and give in to the suddenly sweet promise of sleep. But Taru's words kept echoing through his head, `give it an hour or so…poison…slow, painful death...'

`I can't let myself die yet.' He told himself, the first coherent thought he'd had for awhile. `There's got to be some way to fight the effects of the poison, I only caught a slight dose…Oh god, if I'm this far gone, what happened to Celena?'

A sudden blue glow lanced through Touma's eyes, he squeezed his lids shut, blocking out the pain it caused; but still it shone through. `Now what?' he wondered cynically. He cracked on eye open and peered down, realizing that it was his armor that glowed, pulsing slowly with his heartbeat, a trembling hand held up to his forehead revealed that his kanji was also alight. Life. It flickered for a moment before dying away leaving him with a new strength. `That's right, Life is the soul of my armor, I guess I can't die that easily after all' he thought. Touma shut his eyes and drifted into a kind of half-sleep. It could have been hours, or even minutes before the first noises startled him into snapping his eyes open and reaching for his bow, never minding that he wasn't strong enough to draw it. “Over here, I felt it, a flicker of something!”

“I think I may have seen a glow…”

The next thing Touma knew, nine pale oval shapes were leaning over him. He blinked for a moment, watching in puzzlement as nine faces blurred into view. Ryudo, Reika, his sister Leeanna, Seiji, Sakura, Shin, Sali, Shu, and Nadeshiko. “Oh great, so I'm hallucinating now.” he muttered.

“Hallucinating?” his sister sounded puzzled, “no, we're right here” she reached over and tapped his forehead, “your kanji led us to you.”

Shu reached over and helped Touma into a sitting position. Privately he thought the blue-haired teen looked like death warmed over already. If there was any hope of saving him, they'd have to do something soon. “What's going on?” Touma asked, voice slurred over.

“It's a long story” Reika answered him.

She knelt next to him and pulled his helmet off. She pushed damp locks of blue hair out of his face, shuddering at how clammy his skin felt, “we'll explain later, are you alright?” Touma couldn't help it, he knew Rei didn't deserve it, but he turned an icy glare on her, “Is dying alright?” She bit her lip and pulled back a little. Shu frowned at Touma, “It looks like death makes you cranky”

“Stop it both of you” Shin interjected, “this isn't the time, nor the place for that!” he turned to Seiji, “do you think you can do anything about this?” he waved his hand to take in the whole scene.

Seiji hesitated for a moment, “I-I don't know…” he said uncertainly, “I've never tried to cure someone of poison…I just don't know.”

“Try at least!” Reika begged him, “we can't just let him die like this!”

Touma blinked groggily at her, he suddenly felt ashamed at her, she'd only been trying to help after all. “Rei, I'm sorry, I …” he started to mumble.

“Yeah, me too.” Shu began.

“Shush you two” she chided them, “let's save the apology for after we get out of here.”

“Okay, I'm going to give this a shot.” Seiji announced, effectively changing the subject.

He tightened his grip on his no-datchi, a frown of concentration creasing his brow as he channeled his energy through the chill metal of the sword. It was an exhausting process, especially since he'd spent so much power in lighting up the darkness. Wisdom flickered briefly on his forehead, and then the Sword of Halo flared to life, flames of brilliant emerald-green licking up and down the length of the blade. “Now or never” he muttered, reaching out to grab Touma's metal-clad hand, which he place on the hilt of the sword, next to his own. He heard Touma gasp in shock as he felt the healing energy flow through his body. Seiji's breath hissed between his teeth as he concentrated, seeking out the poison which lingered like a black smoke in his friend's blood. It was difficult, and the engulfing darkness didn't help at all, keeping his power to a mere minimum. If only there was some light source nearby… “AH!” a startled gasp went up from the ten teens as an intensely bright light flooded the room as if someone had flipped a switch.

“What the…?” Sali shielded her eyes with her hand and blinked at the source of the light.

It took a moment for everyone's eyes to adjust to the bright lights but still al anyone could see was a dark silhouette.

“Tsk, tsk, Ronins” Taru's voice chided them, “you wouldn't be trying to cure my lovely poison now would you, it took me so long to concoct it.”

“And why wouldn't we?” Shu spat, almost as if the words left a bad taste in his mouth.

“My, my you sure talk big, but can you actually back that up?” Taru cocker head to one side and drew Screamer from behind her back.

“Oh not the head again.” Shin moaned, he was really beginning to dislike that thing.

“Shall we find out just what your capable of?” she continued, ignoring him, “I know for a fact that you can't have had the amulets or the armor for more than a few hours, let's see how well you wield the power without the other little Ronins to back you up.”

 

TBC...

 

Author's Note: I am so so SO sorry that this took so long but I was grounded off all fan fiction sites for a long time so I couldn't publish any of my stories. But anyways here's a belated Christmas and New Year's present hope you liked it. R and R please it keeps me writing even if I can't publish it. Ja ne.