Prologue
Before the time of chaos, the Nether Realm was ruled by four women, Moonlight, Sunlight, Starlight,and Daylight. The Realm was a land of peace and prosperity. Moonlight was the leader, and the other three usually listened to her final decisions. Sunlight was second in command, and was the most logical of them. Starlight was the warrior, and the leader of the army. Daylight was the planner. The four women were all sisters, having only one brother. Talpa.
Talpa was always jealous of his four sisters' power and he conspired to gain control. By means unknown to anyone other than himself, he acquired mystical armor that was broken down into what we now know as the nine Ronin armors.
The sisters were all in deep discussion, having heard rumors of someone wanting to overthrow them. As they were talking, their younger brother came into the room. He put on his armor and battled his sisters. It was a horrific battle, but in the end, Talpa defeated all his sisters, banishing them to a Realm unknown.
The four sisters hung in limbo for many hundreds of years when they
were reborn in the Mortal Realm, having no memory of who they were or where
they came from. And this is where our story begins.
Chapter One
School Days
Pushing her way through the crowded cafeteria, she made her way to the five boys sitting at the far table. Her silver eyes were narrowed as she scanned the rest of the room. They landed on a lone girl, and she watched as the light shined off the girl's almost blindingly white hair that was off setted by baby blue hi-lights.
She finally found a seat at the table, but her eyes were still on the girl.
"Sailean? Sailean!" She snapped to attention as one of her companions called her name. She met the deep blue gaze of the blue-haired boy across from her.
"Yeah?" she said.
"Where were you?" he asked. "I've been calling your name for a while now."
"It's nothing, Rowen. I was just looking at that girl over there. Do any of you know who she is?" She pushed her turquoise hair over her shoulder as she asked the rest of the table.
They all shook their heads mutely.
"Why?" This was asked by a boy with black hair and tiger blue eyes.
"Oh, it's just that she looks familiar, Ryo. I was just wondering if she's gone here long." The boys all shook their head again.
Sailean stood up, preparing to go, when a hand on her arm stopped her
"Where are ya goin'?" asked the ash-blue haired boy with friendly hazel eyes.
"I'm surprised that you could ask around the food in your mouth, Kento," said the blond with violet eyes.
"And I'm surprised you could distract yourself long enough from the harem around you to notice what I'm doing, Sage," Kento replied.
Sailean shook her head, interrupting quickly, she said, "I'm going to go talk to that girl." She left before they could say anything more.
~*0*~
The girl watched the turquoise haired girl approach, sighing inwardly.
"Not another one," she thought and rolled her eyes. There had been so many people coming up, wondering who she was and, frankly, she was tired of dealing with it.
The turquoise haired girl sat down and Sianna raised her own silver gaze to meet that of another.
"Hello. I'm Sailean McLoran. What's your name?" Sailean plucked at her loose white halter-top as she waited for the answer.
Sianna had a sudden urge to pull up her own skin tight silver halter top and pull down the legs of her short black shorts. Compared to her companion's black stretch pants and gold over skirt, she seemed quite scandalous. She grinned at the thought.
"I'm Sianna," she said at last.
Sailean wondered what her last name was, but was too polite to ask. Instead she asked, "Would you like to come and sit with me and my friends over there? You look kind of lonely sitting here by yourself."
Sianna considered her options for only a second. Her job would be much easier if she could get out there and meet more people. She grinned over at Sailean, "I'd love too," she answered.
On there way over, Sailean explained a little about the boys. "Ryo Sanada is the one with black hair and tiger blue eyes, Kento Rei Faun is the large one with ash blue hair and hazel eyes, Sage Date is the blonde with violet eyes, Cye Mouri is the one with auburn hair and sea blue eyes, and Rowen Hashiba is the one with dark blue hair and dark blue eyes." Sianna had remained quiet throughout this whole tirade. As they approached the table, all the boys except for Kento looked up. Kento was too busy with his food. Sianna found herself to be under four direct gazes.
This did not affect her, however, and she calmly pulled out a chair and sat down.
"Everyone, I would like you to meet Sianna. Sianna, I already told you who everyone is." Sianna smiled impishly at Sailean.
"I can see why you called him the large one," she said, pointing at Kento. The whole table erupted into laughs and Kento lifted his face from the plate, wondering what was so funny.
~*0*~
Later that day, Sailean was napping heavily on the couch, a book lying open in her lap. Rowen gently lifted the book and closed it, shaking his head. He watched as the four other boys filed into the room, the only two women being Kayura and Mia. He put his finger to his lips for silence and pointed at Sailean.
They nodded mutely and started out the door, Rowen hot on their heels. He quietly closed the door and nodded towards the parlor. When everyone was in and seated, Rowen turned his gaze to Kayura, wondering why she was there.
"I am here," Kayura said, not mincing her words, "because I have some bad news." She paused a second, drawing a deep breath. "The Warlords are no longer good. I didn't realize this until recently, but they had switched sides again two years ago. The only good news I have is that it's not Talpa leading them. It's a new evil. And," she paused dramatically, "A woman is the new Warlord." The Ronins around her were grim as they processed the information just given them. Finally, Ryo looked back up to their former enemy.
"Who is she? Is she as powerful as the other warlords?"
"I do not know the answer to the first question, Wildfire, but I do know that she is at least just as powerful as I was when I was with the Dynasty." The five boys went pale as they remembered the difficult battles with the Lady Kayura, as well as the many times she had almost beaten all five of them. For the first time since the discussion began, the Ronin Warriors realized just how tough the coming battles were going to be.
Chapter Two
Unmasked
As the six fighters thought about their upcoming war with the new Dynasty leader, a feeling of unease that they knew very well swept over them. They rushed outside, calling their subarmor as they went. The Dynasty was there.
Ryo in the lead, with Kayura close by, they spread out to cover as much area as possible. Cye and Rowen to the left while Kento and Sage were to the right, the combatants prepared for their first battle in three years. Thankfully, the only things they had to face were Dynasty soldiers, armors controlled by spirits that were released as soon as the armor was damaged.
"Well, at least the Tin Cans haven't changed," Kento stated with a grin as he swung his fist and knocked one soldier into three others. "They're still as stupid as ever."
Looking over to Cye, Rowed asked, "Is it just me, or does he seem to be enjoying this?" The Ronin of Torrent shrugged before answering.
"You know Kento, he loves a good battle. Especially if it means he can crush something from the Dynasty. Not to mention they interrupted his snack." Rowen of the Strata nodded as if to say it made sense to him and continued to trash the rest of the creatures attacking him.
~*0*~
Sailean opened her eyes and looked around drowsily, wondering what had woken her up. A loud banging from outside made her sit straight up in worry. What was going on?! She rushed to the open front door where Mia Koji, the woman who owned the mansion that the boys lived in, was watching a major melee between the five teens, who seemed to be wearing some sort of form fitting armor in five different colors, and a lot of rusted armors that looked like they were from a horror movie.
"Mia, what's going on?" The auburn-haired girl had followed the boys when they raced out of the parlor. She had been cooking dinner and knew what was wrong when they transformed into subarmor. Her blue eyes widened in shock when she realized that she had forgotten about the young woman asleep on the couch. Now they had another person to explain the whole thing to.
"You'll have to wait for the boys to get finnished. They can explain it better than I can." They turned back to the fight. It didn't take long for them to finish off the last of the soldiers and start to go back inside. Upon seeing Sailean in the door, they paused, looks of resignation registering on their faces. Four of the five looked to Ryo, who rolled his eyes. It always came down to the leader to explain everything. He gestured for everyone to follow him into the living room, where it was more comfortable. As the boys banished the subarmor, he began explanations.
"There is a legend of five armors......"
~*0*~
An hour later, Sailean was looking doubtful.
"So if you beat this guy, why are you still fighting his soldiers?" Kayura was the one to field the question.
"We know that a new evil has taken the Nether Realm. He has started another war, and we don't know who his lead warlord is. The old warlords have also crossed sides, so we no longer have their help. It's just the six-" Mia cleared her throat from the corner of the room. "Sorry, the seven of us against his entire army."
"I'll help. Make it an even eight."
"No." The ronins all nodded at Rowen's adamant refusal.
"Give me one good reason?"
"You don't have an armor."
"Neither does Mia."
"She doesn't fight. She just gives us the information we need to beat them."
"But she's still helping. What about Kayura?"
"She is the Ancient, and has an armor that she hasn't decided to use yet."
"And SHE can speak for herself," Kayura commented dryly.
Turning to Sailean, she gently told her, "The best way you can help us is to stay out of these guys' way. We can't worry that they might capture you and use you against us. " Rowen went up to the young woman, a pleading look in his eyes.
"Please, Sai," he said, using their nickname for her. "Stay out of the fighting." Sai nodded and Rowen breathed an almost silent sigh of relief.
"I'll just have to follow them and help behind their backs," she thought to herself as the boys began planning possible ways to take out the new master of the Dynasty.
Chapter Three
The New Armor
"Hey, Sianna!" Sailean had to shout above the noise of the cafeteria. Sianna lifted her head, waved, and then made her way to the table where Sailean sat.
The lunch hour was just about over when Sailean looked at Sianna and asked if she would like to hang out after school.
"Sure, where are we gonna be going?" Sianna asked.
"To the mall, of course." Sailean and Sianna both turned to look at the guys. "Well, Sia, I don't think we can carry all those bags. How 'bout a little help?" This last was directed to the five boys sitting at the table. A collective groan rose from the mouths of all five.
"Do we have to?" Kento said.
"I don't know, it's a good place to meet babes." Sage grinned.
"Where exactly would we be goin' in the mall?" asked Rowen, as he remembered a past experience with Sailean at the mall.
"Oh, just to a couple of stores." Sia and Sai said together innocently.
"Only if it's a couple." Rowen looked to the others for confirmation. They nodded their heads, but reluctantly.
"All right, it's settled, then. We'll meet at ya'all's house, Rowen. Directly after school?" Sailean said.
"Sounds good to me," Sia replied.
~*0*~
"Oh, I like this!" Sianna said, holding up a leopard spotted mini skirt.
"I don't even think so. Look at how short it is! I much prefer this one." She was holding up a leopard print skirt that went down to her ankles.
"Well why don't we get both of them," Sianna said. A groan arose from the pile of packages behind them.
"More?!" a muffled voice said.
They had already been to seven stores and had several more on the agenda. To Sianna and Sailean, this signified 'just a couple of stores'. The boys went to wait outside as Sianna and Sailean paid for their purchases.
As the Ronins were waiting, they saw three men wearing maroon, black, and green armors. They put down their packages quickly, and called their armor.
They started fighting the Warlords and trying not to demolish the mall. As they were fighting, Sai and Sia walked out of the store after hearing the commotion. Sailean knew what was going on, but Sianna had a shocked expression on her face.
"I never knew," she thought, and quietly slipped off as Sailean ran towards the fighting.
The five Ronins thought that they would beat the three Warlords, no problem, because it was five against three, but it was the opposite. Sailean watched as the man in black armor wounded Rowen and she ran to help, not knowing what she could do. As she ran by a window, the sunlight gleamed on her tears, and she was shocked that when she arrived, she herself was wearing armor. It was gold and white and she had a dagger in each hand. The armor, being a twin to Kayura's, didn't have to be called.
She rushed to Rowen's aid, calling down her attack.
"Sunlight Crash!" she screamed as she pointed her daggers at the man in black armor. Two bright streams of golden light streaked from her dagger tips and the man in black armor dodged just in time.
"Kale!" the man in maroon armor yelled, "The Lady's waiting!" Kale, the black armored man, nodded his head and all three of the men disappeared.
Sailean rushed to Rowen and bent down. She went to reach for him, but strong hands from behind lifted her away as Kento and Ryo lifted Rowen and carried him away.
"He'll be all right," Sage whispered in her ear.
Kento and Ryo placed Rowen on the couch when they got home and Sage immediately went over. Placing his hands on the wound on Rowen's side, he concentrated and to Sailean, it seemed as if it glowed green for a couple of seconds. When they backed off, Sailean ran to Rowen. He lifted a hand and gently wiped the tear from her cheek.
"You're crying for me?" he asked weakly. Sailean nodded her head and held his hand to her cheek. The other four boys, at seeing their preoccupation with each other, quietly filed out of the room, leaving them alone.
Author's Note –
Sianna: Welcome to our first story! Glad you managed to stick with us this far!
Sailean: That was sooo corny!! Just ignore her ladies and gentleman, she's not right in the head. *grins at Sianna*
Sianna: Hey, I resemble that remark!
Sailean: Duh!!! Anyway, we want to make a disclaimer here and now, Sianna?
Sianna: Sure! We do not own any of the characters you recognize. Wish we did, but sadly, we don't.
Sailean: OOO baby if only I did. Rowen baby here I come!
Sianna: Down girl!! We had better go. Ja ne, minna!