A/N: Well, this is probably a lack of better judgement on my part. But in light of the fact that: I keep getting messages about it, authors who have long been MIA are returning to updating, and this thing has been sitting on a computer for five years it's past time to put it up. Welcome to Book 4 in the TGOL series, thanks to my faithful readers who have stuck with the story & my sistah Sifirela K. Hashiba (because she had a big hand in this messy book here whether she knows it or not).
Hang on folks, you are in for a ride!
-LG

Prologue:

She pursed her lips together in thought, trying to wrack her brain for an answer to the current riddle. Mia's eyes were slanted as she tried to think of someone she could contact to gather the information she currently found herself in need of. Try as she might, the brilliant woman was drawing a blank and it was frustrating her to no end.

Then, as if someone had turned on a light-bulb, the answer came to her and she knew who she could call. One of her brothers had to know, there was no way they would let her down…They never had before.

Mia quickly dialed the all-too familiar number and waited a bit breathlessly for someone to pick up the other end.

"Hello?" Ryo queried sounding a bit worn out, most likely just having come in from a training session.

Mia inwardly let out a sigh of relief, "Hi, Ryo. How are you doing?"

"Mi, hey!" the Ronin Leader seemed to brighten at hearing her voice. "I'm all right; this place is not as much as a zoo as it has been in the past. But I'm still stuck with the monkeys." All of a sudden he let out an 'ow' and the woman bit down a laugh when he whined to Cale for smacking him in the back of the head. "How are you holding up?"

She knew that it was in reference to the fact her long-time boyfriend, or fiancé had ended up being quite different from the man she had thought he was. It had resulted in her breaking off their engagement in January and telling him to stay away from her…That she never wanted to see him again.

He had tried to remedy the situation, but there were a lot of things Mia happened to be, and stupid was not one of them. It had been a bit of a blow to her, but she had recovered…If not from a little care from a certain Spring Seasonal who took the chance to visit her whenever he could (which was quite often now). But all of these things did not happen to be on the forefront of her mind right now.

There were far more important things on her mind, and she wanted information which she was going to get. Mia had picked up plenty from her five younger brothers, and the stubborn determination happened to be one of those things.

"I'm perfectly fine Ryo," she assured him. "I'm glad to hear that you are well, and I'm assuming the others are fine too?" He answered that they were, and Mia decided to go right in for the kill, "I wanted to ask someone something, and you're the right person. Have you heard from Elayne?"

This request took him a little off-guard, as he did not immediately respond. When he did he spoke with a bit of hesitation in his voice, "I haven't. I know she's been working a lot lately, but that's mainly to avoid us."

"Avoid you?" Mia's furrowed her brows in confusion, from what she knew of Elayne, and she happened to know a great deal, there would be no reason for her to do such a thing. "What on earth for?"

Ryo bit his lip a moment, sucked in a breath knowing he shouldn't have opened this can of worms…But now that he had, he had little choice but to tell her everything, "I don't how aware you are of just how far our current problem spans…"

"The Raikken and Akemliek? From all the data I have I know this is a reoccurring problem. That you've fought this before."

"We have," the Ronin of Wildfire admitted. "We're stuck living a life, and fighting a war that's been going on far longer than we realized. Over three-thousand years to put it into perspective."

Mia surprised him with her response, "I know, Ryo. Anubis told me quite a bit…" Realizing she just gave that to him, she hastily added, "He visits here sometimes. But what does any of it have to do with Elayne avoiding you?"

"She's the Secondary Guardian, Mia," Wildfire's bearer was inwardly smirking. So that's where the Spring Seasonal kept spending his weekends…Fuel for the fire, or payback. He was quick to focus back on the conversation, when she said Anubis had mentioned that also. "He didn't tell you that all of us have our memories back, did he? We remember everything from the first and second lifetime."

"I see, she just couldn't handle it," the woman murmured out frowning. "Still, Ryo, when was the last time you talked to her?"

"Three days after she bailed," the Ronin Leader sighed out. "I called her to check on her, she answered said she was fine, and then hung up before I could get a word in edgewise."

"Ryo-"

"Come on Nas-chan," the raven-haired man protested into the phone. "I've gone to the apartment several times since then. She hasn't been there, and if she is she's ignoring me completely."

Mia rolled her eyes and counted backwards from ten, and interrupted before he could make a case to defend himself, "Ryo, calm down. I was just going to tell you why I am calling asking about her. She was supposed to come by two days ago, and she never showed."

The woman waited for this to sink in, already certain that the Ronin of Wildfire's eyes had widened and that he was grasping whatever happened to be nearby for balance, "She always calls me if she can't make it. And, I can't find her anywhere. I've called her job, the apartment, the Estate, and now I'm calling here."

"Don't worry about it Mia, we'll find her," Ryo assured her before exchanging goodbyes and hanging up the phone.

The Ronin Leader was frowning in thought…Whenever the Secondary Guardian fell off the radar like this it had never been a good thing.

He quickly turned to walk into the living room, and with the way her emotional state had been when he last spoke with her?

He didn't want to think about what could have happened…