Chapter 6
A week later. . .
"I always thought I was doing' fine
spreading myself around another good time
then it hit me from out of the blue
I was falling in love with you." *
Rahne turned in the mirror, surveying herself once more before she went back out to the dance floor. Kento and Cye had done all this for her. Cye had reasoned that even tomboys like to feel like princesses every now and then. She turns again, watching as her dress flows gently with her movement. It was a sleeveless gown, whose color was somewhere between snow white and pale lilac. It separated like petals at the floor, revealing it was really just layers of different colors.
'Oh Kento, Cye... I feel like a Princess!' Rahne thinks, giggling softly as she opens the door to leave the ladies room. 'Thank you!'
She had one person she wanted to go to. If she didn't tell Rowen how she felt about him tonight, she'd never get the guts up again. It was all or nothing.
"But now everythings been changed
my hopes, my dreams. . .
. . .and it's all because of you. . ." *
Rowen sighs, picking at the lapels of his suit. Why on Earth did they make him come? This was boring, and no one was likely to even talk to him.
Disgustingly, Sage had a fair sized harem. They followed him everywhere, dancing, talking... Rowen sighed.
Even Ryo had a girl to dance with.
Rowen sighed, swirling the punch in his glass, hoping that it was spiked like last year so he wouldn't remember this humiliating night.
Why did they make him come? Rahne came, but all the attention she got... Why would she ever want someone like him, when he could have one of those other guys. Why did he come?
"I've been loving you all my life
Till my dying day is through
I'll be loving you"*
"Rowen?" Came a voice almost too soft to be heard over the music. He could scarcely breathe, his heart almost stopped in his chest.
"Forever." *
"Rahne." Rowen whispers, jumping to his feet, knocking his chair over. For once he didn't care that people were staring at him, applauding and jeering cruelly for his clumsiness. It didn't matter.
Words failed him as he stared at her, his heart took up residence in his throat. Oh Lord, she looked like a angel! A goddess even!
Rahne took a deep breath, and opened her mouth. . . Words failed her too.
The most horrible screech echoed through the hall. The music stopped. The DJ and his assistant jumped to their feet to plug the offending cord back in.
Silence. The music had stopped.
Rowen reached out and nodded towards the dancefloor. Rahne simply smiled. She couldn't hear him, but they couldn't speak anyway.
It didn't matter.
____
Sage wakes up to the golden light from the sunrise, and to quiet. Last night had been the Homecoming Dance, and they had all stayed out till unbelievably late. He smiles at the thought of all the girls, and how great they looked. He had had more fun flirting with the girls than he did doing anything else.
They had all gone together, which made a more dramatic entrance anyway. Rahne definitely made things interesting, but she had done that just by looking totally beautiful.
The DJ had been great, he’d really kept the dance moving. He’d played the really good music, but enough of everything to keep everyone happy.
Rowen’s bed creaks softly as he rolls over in his sleep. Good thing there was no school today, or else Ro’ would be in trouble. Then again, he didn’t expect anyone to be in a hurry to get up this morning. Well, maybe Kento would be once he got hungry enough to wake up.
‘You are one lucky bum, Genius!’ Sage thinks glancing over in Rowen’s direction.
The guy they had thought was too shy to do anything of the sort, had kissed a girl. Now he could deal with it being one of the other girls from school, but Rowen had chosen the one who was the totally unthinkable. Only last night did he find out that Ryo had lifted his "Off-limits" mandate. Too damn late for him or anyone else: The Tomboy had already been kissed. She had begun to return to the self they knew was under all that fatigue, the one who managed to annoy and delight her brother alternately, but yet all at once. All this had happened within the past few days, the most improvement last night. ‘Good for you, Rahne. You need something to keep you from becoming like your brother.’
Sage gets up and heads for the bathroom. A nice, warm shower would be great this hour of morning, especially since he wouldn’t have to hurry.
He passes Yuli’s room on the way. He hears the faint sound of a Game Boy. When he looks in; though, the little boy pretends to be asleep.
"Yuli, you’re not fooling me." He tells him from the doorway.
Yuli throws the covers back and whines. "I wanna get up! Cartoons’re on !"
"Look. If you keep the volume low, you can watch cartoons. But everyone had a late night, don’t wake ‘em."
When he gets out of the shower, he discovers the Twins in the den playing video games. Somehow both of them had wedged themselves into one easy chair; an electric blanket spread across their laps.
"This is a new one." Sage says sarcastically, still toweling off his hair.
Ryo glances at him and immerses himself back into the game. "G’Morning, Sage." He mumbles, half drowsing.
"Hey." Sage teases, sitting on the arm of the sofa. "Gee, isn’t she talkative this morning?"
Ryo lightly elbows his sister, she looks up from the game, "Oh, Hi, Sage. Sorry, temporally comatose."
"S’Okay." He says as he walks out of the room: Time to do his hair.
The Twins keep playing their game, trying find their way through the latest, monster-infested maze. Slowly the others stream in, and drape themselves over the available chairs, still in pajamas and robes. They just watch, still half asleep. No one comments on the fact that Kento hasn’t begun whining yet for breakfast. Rowen drags himself in, more asleep than not, and drops himself onto the couch. On the video game, they make a wrong move, run into one of the monsters, and it’s "Game Over." Ryo just pushes "reset" and they start from where they left off. Cye runs a hand through his hair, pushing up more ends that stick out wildly in every direction. Rowen yawns, his deep blue eyes squinting. Sage comes back in, his freshly styled hair still damp, and sits down in the last vacant easy chair. White Blaze come in and lays down in the middle of the rug. The only sound is creaking furniture and the video game.
The quiet is over the minute Kento falls back asleep and lets loose a roof raising snore. The video game immediately registers "Game Over" as he disturbs the Twins. Everyone’s fully awake now; shocked out of their half narcoleptic states.
"Shut him up!"
"KENTO!"
"Hey, KENTO!"
"I think I can actually hear that!"
"How many noise level laws is he breaking, then!?"
"Wake him up, Jeez!"
"Oh, GOD! Everyone in the country can probably hear him!"
"Screw ‘Country’! Try ‘Universe’!!!"
"HEY! Pillsbury Kento! Wake up!"
"Wait. Everyone together: 1 . . . 2 . . . 3!"
> "KENTO!!!!!!!!!!" < Everyone yells, finally waking Kento up. He wakes up and blinks several times, and yawns.
"Huh? Is it breakfast time yet?" He asks groggily.
Sage shakes his head, catching a set of hand gestures out of the corner of his eye. Ryo immediately starts laughing hilariously. "Nothing, Kento."
"Rowen! It’s your turn to cook!" Mia calls up the stairs.
Everyone gets up and goes downstairs for breakfast. Kento asking Ryo all the way what was so funny as Ryo kept trying and failing to keep from smirking.
Rowen walks into the kitchen, his hands jammed into the pockets of his robe. He couldn’t cook worth crap, and the guys hated every attempt he made. What could he possibly cook that would be good enough to hold everyone to their trip to Sendai? Mia’s sitting at the small table, going over her notes for class again. Or safeguarding breakfast. Whatever.
A couple old, faded three-by-five index cards suddenly materialize in front of his face: "Easy Coffee cake" and "Quickie Omelets."
Rowen takes them from the small tan hand and turns around. He gives Rahne a quick hug and hands them back to her.
"Rahney, I can’t cook. These are all but a lost cause."
Rahne scowls faintly and responds, "I can’t either and you know my brother can’t. Those are impossible to mess up. I know from experience."
"Oh." He quickly looks away, trying not to blush. Still too easy to get embarrassed. He takes them back and starts to get out the ingredients.
Rahne backs away, getting a little red faced herself. "Um, so . . . what’s up with Sendai?"
Rowen carefully breaks to eggs, trying not to get any eggshells in the batter. He gets out the cooking spray and sprays the pan before he forgets. "Oh . . . Sage’s from there. Just a visit. Really."
Rahne nods, not really believing him, but leaves the kitchen before she looses her nerve. And walks right into the fully awake teasing realm the guys had going this morning.
Kento gives a wolf whistle, while Cye mimes applause. Her frown gets flatter as her brother leans back in his seat, a little lop-sided smile on his face. She turns to head up to the bathroom for a shower and almost runs straight into Sage’s bare and muscled chest.
Rahne blushes as the muscles ripple beneath his pale skin and cause a few paler scars to ripple intriguingly. He did it on purpose, and she knew it.
That didn’t make it any less embarrassing . . .
He waggles his pale eyebrows at Rahne, grinning at her red face. He puts on his flirting attitude; only this time it’s sarcastic. He begins to say something, but she cuts him off.
"Don’t you dare start!" She warns, brandishing a fist.
Ryo puts a restraining hand on her arm, trying to keep Sage unbruised for as long as mortally possible.
"C’mon, Sage. Leave her alone. The bruise’d be fun trying to explain to your Dad." Ryo says, hefting his duffel bag onto the table.
Later . . .
The ride across Honshu is tense.
Cye thumbs his Discman a little louder to drown out the white noise from the outside world. He’s leading this attack.
He keeps trying to psych himself up for the task, keeps playing little mind games with himself. He couldn’t let anything interfere with his judgment.
Finally, they reach Sendai. And then the Wharf at one end of the dockyard.
"So, where now, Cye?" Kento asks through the rolled down window of his van.
"We park and walk there." Cye states, hoping his decision is the right one.
Everyone armors up and begins the hike to where the warlords and Kayura had said to meet up with them for this assault.
The Sendai dockyard is too silent.
Nothing, not even the caws of seagulls, break the silence. The only sound there is, is the pounding of their hearts and the noise their armors make as they move. A heavy fog hangs in the air, lowering visibility; muting the sound even further. The air is still; strange for being this close to the ocean.
ye shifts his grip on his yari, trying to look everywhere at once. He feels like he’s been dropped into one of the teen-slasher movies like Scream, or maybe Friday the 13th. In the middle. With no idea who or what he was supposed to look out for. Last year it probably would have been Sekhmet. Cye wonders briefly if his heartbeat is as loud as it sounds to him.
Kento feels his blood pressure rise, and his excitement even more. His brain kept repeating "Fight" like a mantra. ‘It feels like old times.’ He thinks, absently twirling his naginata once. He’s impatient; wanting nothing more than a good fight!
Behind him, the other Ronin Warriors follow him nervously with drawn weapons; adrenaline pumping through their veins. They had come here to investigate a lead the warlords had uncovered. Now it would appear that they were at least in the right place. Ryo walks to the rear, thankful he’s not leading the guys this run.
Three rhythmic whistles faintly reach them from beyond the fog: Cale. Meaning: There were soldiers up ahead.
They continue on, feeling the presence of evil all around them.
Another whistle. A instant later something leaps out of the shadows. A streak of brown, red, and black appears out of nowhere, crashing into the humanoid creature like a locomotive of steel and claw.
Cale lands catlike on balls of his feet as more swarm out of every nook and cranny. The guys leap to meet the soldiers head on.
Sage whirls in a tight aerial spiral, cleaving through armor and spears alike. He slashes outward in a complicated maneuver, leaving the ground littered with empty shells. Then the soldiers press in, overwhelming him with their sheer numbers. Help comes from an unexpected source in the form of Cale, who cuts him a path out of the mob. Sage leaps through the openings, then turns like a whiplash.
"THUNDER BOLT CUT!"
"BLACK LIGHTNING SLASH!"
The beams of pure light and darkness slice through the air with breathtaking speed and perfect synchronicity. The two special attacks spin around each other in a whirlwind of light and darkness with an eerie grace. It seems momentarily strange to be fighting along side his once greatest opponent, that their special attacks would work in concert like they do. But they work well together. Sage briefly salutes him with his sword and dives back into battle.
Cye swings his yari in a wide arc, then straight vertical, cleaving the soldier from groin to head. He then reverses his swing to block an oncoming lance. He can’t believe this! It was like these soldiers had a death wish or something. They’re pressing in too close; they were killing more of each other than doing any damage to them.
‘Forget this.’ Cye thinks, performing a one-handed backflip, sending himself into the water. The soldiers don’t seem to realize for a moment that he’s gone, and plow right off the pier and into the water. It only takes a single blast from his Super Wave Smasher to take them out of the fight. He surges up out of the water, temporally more powerful. He points his yari directly at the soldiers, and lets loose.
"SUPER WAVE SMASHER!"
Ryo instinctively ducks the onrush of water, he had learned the last time: Wildfire didn’t belong in the water. ‘He did it TWICE!?’ He thinks in disgust and shock.
The surge rushes well over his head, and then he takes advantage of his opponent’s momentary blindness and strikes. Water rains down on the battle with brutal force. Wildfire spins, whipping his katanas around and up. He looks everywhere at once, his body instinctively knowing where his swords are going. He whips his body around, blocking. Cutting. His foot hurls outward like it had a mind of it’s own, disarming one; his fist directly follows his movement, disorienting another. Focus. He ignores all distractions. They were pressing in too tight. Time for the Wildfire Flare . . .whoops. Not with Rowen behind him.
Rowen’s down to using his bow as a makeshift bludgeon, he couldn’t even draw it in this melee.
Like it mattered. These soldiers weren’t fighting per se, they were just overpowering them with sheer numbers. Rowen had seen only a few use the weapons they carried like they knew what they were doing. It was like they were only extensions of the ones who knew how to fight, once you get rid of those, you ended up with total entropy.
‘Oops! Make that hell-in-a-bottle!’ Rowen leaps backwards to avoid getting crushed by several dozen soldiers who basically got pushed by those behind.
He catches a familiar look from Ryo.
It’s his "I-wish-to-renew-my-membership-to-the-pyromaniacs-society. MOVE!" look. That was okay with him! Rowen vaults over a dry dock wall, and onto the lower concrete. From behind him her hears sounds that resembles the sound a Mac Truck makes when it totals a car. Then:
"IRON ROCK CRUSHER!!!"
‘Oh crap - oh crap - oh shit!! Move it or loose it, Hashiba!!’
Rowen’s thankful that he had learned to swim in deep water this summer, because it’s the only place to go! As he resurfaces he sees one of the warehouses just about implode. He had wondered where "Ol’ Hard Head" had gone.
"FLARE UP NOW!"
Rowen ducks back down under the surface to avoid the astronomically hot blast of heat and fire.
He hears a splash: another ugly. His side suddenly stings fiercely. The thing hadn’t even attacked yet! A mangrabber frames it’s waist in a fatalistic hug. Cye grins at him from behind his faceplate, as the water briefly turn crimson as a second Flare flashes past overhead.
‘Better get up . . . This is starting to sting a little.’
Cye motions upward. Rowen nods. Torrent grabs his arm, propelling him up out of the water so Strata is the first to break the surface.
Rowen hauls himself over the breakwall, feeling his mood deteriorate as he sees more soldiers running towards them. "God damn it." He pants.
He’s running out of steam fast; he didn’t have all that great an endurance to begin with anyway. Now he had the problem of feeling weak from being out of his element. Before he can react, though the soldiers crash into something, falling all over themselves.
"What the . . ?" Rowen leans heavily on Cye’s shoulder.
A deep, familiar laughter echoes through the dock yard. Then the even more familiar spider webs of energy lance out in all directions, capturing soldiers in their area. Dais drops his illusion and brings his energy web back around to further cordon off the area.
"Did you find what you were looking for!?" Cye calls to Dais, who nods in response.
From the direction of the ruined warehouse, they see Kento emerge with a small girl in tow. A girl holding a kursari-gama and the Ancients Staff: Kayura.
The Warlords wander off to finish what’s left of the soldiers.
Rowen staggers against Cye, wondering why he felt so dizzy. Kento and Kayura jog up, shouting greetings and customary trash talk about the enemy.
"Hey, Ro’. You okay?"
"My side’s stopped hurting. But . . .why . . . am I .. . .so dizz . . . -*"
Kento lunges forward to catch Rowen’s shoulders as he faints; easing him down to the ground.
Sage, Ryo, and Cale emerge from the fog, looking fatigued. When they see Rowen sprawled on the concrete, however they forget some of their exhaustion and rush over.
"What happened?" Ryo blurts, on the verge of one of his guilt trips. He had been supposed to watch Rowen’s back.
Sage kneels, placing his hand on Rowen’s chest. His healing powers ripple outward in invisible and gentle waves of warmth and into his friend, bringing him back to consciousness.
He helps Rowen to sit up, supporting him with a steadying hand.
"Wha’ happened . . ." Rowen mumbles, his face still pale. Sage pours more of his healing energy into him to bring his blood pressure up higher.
Sage pulls Strata’s arm up over his shoulders and hefts him into a standing position. "Passed out, man. You okay?"
Rowen puts his hand over his side, pain turning almost white hot. He gasps the word "No."
Kayura’s staff starts ringing and clanging, warning her about something. She whips around and starts running in the direction that Dais and Sekhmet went.
"Dais!!! Sekhmet!!! Watch yourselves!!!! He’s here!!!" She yells as loud as she can, putting on a burst of speed.
As she rounds a corner, she hears Dais scream in pain. Kayura’s sprints faster, her lungs feeling as if they were on fire for the first time in her life.
Finally across a good stretch of the dockyard, she finally sees Dais hunched over on the ground; his helmet gone. Sekhmet is facing down Zanaton, all of his swords slashing through the air; his two arms seem to become six. The rogue lord is pelting him with all sorts of telekinetically thrown debris. Then Zanaton must have said something to the Warlord of Venom, because Sekhmet explodes into an uncontrollable rage.
"SNAKE FANG STRIKE!!!!!!!"
Kayura has never seen the Warlord use his Strike like this before. He never has unleashed this much power before. Yellow streaks of energy whip out at his enemy, so bright that they leave fiery after-images. She can barely keep track of which way the whip-like beam of energy is moving.
Zanaton blocks the bolts with telekinetic shields, laughing and shouting something else; but she can’t hear what he says.
"BUTCHER!!!!" Sekhmet howls, abandoning his swords, and actually managing to throw the lord bodily with his own telekinesis.
Zanaton vanishes before he can impact anything though, taking his soldiers with him. Still laughing at the Warlord’s anger.
Sekhmet stands there panting, his body shaking with fury that he no longer has any direction for. Dust and debris leap away from him as he unleashes a telekinetic shock wave. He tips his head back and screams in insane fury. He rips some more debris off the ground and hurls it at the spot where Zanaton was before he vanished.
Kayura chooses to leave the warlord to his deranged tantrum. She kneels by Dais. He’s gasping in pain; his hand pressed tightly to his eyes. Blood drips between his fingers. His eye patch is obviously gone, the cut across his forehead sliced right through the area where the strap had been.
"Dais, let me see." She whispers, lightly gripping his wrist.
Dais shakes and rises up just a little. He drops his hand, trying not to panic. His missing eye had taken most of the blow, but his right eye is rapidly swelling shut.
"He ripped my helmet right off. Wasn’t any warning . . ." Dais gasps.
Kayura glances around, trying to locate his missing helmet or what could have done this. There was nothing nearby that could have cut him like this. "How did he - ?"
"I think he used some glass or metal shards. . ." His voice barely audible and his face ashen. He’s starting go into shock. "It burns...like my eye’s on fire . . ."
Sage kneels beside Kayura, and hold his hands in front of Dais’s face. He reaches back into his healing powers, hoping they could help him. He feels Dais start to relax, but suddenly Dais screams. Blood oozes from his good right eye; Sage stops his attempt to heal him.
"We’ve gotta get him to a Med Center or hospital. I can’t heal that."
Cale rips off a few sections from his cape and offers them as a temporary bandage. Kayura accepts it and carefully ties them around Dais’s head and eyes.
"Ryo told me he thinks Rowen’s ribs are broken." Cale adds; then straightens and looks over at Sekhmet. "Um. What should we do about Naotoki?"
" ‘Naotoki?’ Who’s that?" Sage asks, suddenly confused.
Kayura answers, "That’s Sekhmet’s real name . . ." She turns to watch the Warlord, who had gone to muttering to himself.
Sekhmet wanders around in a kind of aimless path; his brain turned into a veritable maze on him. He takes off his helmet, lets it drop. He puts his hands over his ears and shakes his head back and forth. He starts to talk to himself again incoherently.
"Cale, take him back to the Netherworld." Kayura orders.
"Kayura, I don’t like this . . ." Cale says, backing up. He shakes his head, and begins to turn around like he wants to get away.
‘He’s scared!’ Sage thinks, almost amused. Not that he could blame him, though. "Cale, I’ll help you. I don’t think he’s too much of a danger -"
"I’m not." Sekhmet states, suddenly lucid in a startlingly fast transition. "I think I want to be alone anyway . . ." He teleports back to the Netherworld without another word, leaving everyone gapping.
"Spooky." Sage whispers to Cale, who agrees with a slight nod. "Just like that."
Cale helps Dais to stand, then walks with Sage back to the cars. Everyone sheds their armors and sub-armors, there was nothing else they could do here. Cale gets into Sage’s jeep with him, which was serving as the equipment vehicle.
"Y’know, even after all this time I still can’t handle him. He’s been . . . unstable for as long as I’ve known him." Cale tells him as Sage pulls out behind Kento’s van.
Sage nods, just listening. He hated to admit it, but Cale had become a friend. He wasn’t all that bad a guy, actually. "Any idea what Zanaton said? I mean Sekhmet really blew up there."
Cale shakes his head. "No. Wouldn’t take much though..." He watches the scenery stream by for several long moments in campanionable silence. "Those weren’t normal soldiers. Did you notice?"
Sage has to think for a moment, but realizes they were different. They were thinner and more streamlined. And even more brainless than the normal soldiers.
Cale watches his face for a moment. "They weren’t being controlled very well, Sage. They were meant to delay us. Nothing more." Cale pounds his fist against the armrest in frustration.
Sage has to agree, but this was starting to feel like this went farther than just simple infighting within the dynasty. Much farther.
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* "I'll be Loving You" by Collage.