***I don't own the Ronins, Mia, or Rinfi***

CHAPTER TWO

"Why aren't they here yet?" the gruff chief screamed at the tiny sorceress, a beefy hand lashing out and knocking several of her bottles off of a small table next to him. They landed on the ground, shattering most of them on the ground. Liquid spilled out of the wreckage, seeping into the dirt floor. Ultana glared at the mess, irritated that her healing potions were now wasted on the rocks.

"I'm sorry, my liege," she soothed, placing a tiny hand on her father's arm. "I can't get a lock on them one at a time. If they would just get in one area, I might be able to use their armor's power and summon them. At this stage, there is nothing I can do." Attol pushed her to the ground angrily, and pulled a dagger out of the belt at his waist.

"There better be something you can do," he growled menacingly, advancing on her.

"Please, my lord! I will keep on trying!" Ultana turned back to the image on the wall of her small, dingy hut. She sighed in relief as she heard her father leave her house in a huff. Frowning, she stared at the image of the blue-haired warrior as he walked back into the house belonging to the red-haired girl. He watched as the girl placed a hand on top of his head, feeling his forehead in concern. Ultana pursed her lips in thought and began pacing the small hut. Tapping her finger on her teeth, she muttered as she walked back and forth. "I was unable to bring the green one and the dark blue one. I can't find the red or the light blue, so that just leaves the orange. Maybe I will have luck with that one."

She had hoped that if she could at least bring one of them here, that would distract her father long enough that she would be able to bring the others without him interrupting her constantly with his threats and beatings. She fingered the latest bruise on her eye in annoyance. It seemed that ever since her mother had died-by Attol's own hand, no less-he had turned all of his rage at his young daughter. Taking a deep breath to clear her thoughts from her father, she turned to the image and implored it to find the warrior in orange. The image changed to show the young man standing at a large basin, washing dishes. Ultana looked closer at the man, concentrating deeply on him. Quietly, she began to chant.

"Kento, aren't you done yet?" his sister Rinfi shouted from the office of the restaurant. "I want to close up and go home!"

"Then you get your butt back here and help me!" Hardrock shouted back, flinging a handful of soapy water at her. She shrieked and hid behind the door so as not to get wet.

Kento growled and focused on the task at hand. He hated doing the dishes, much preferring to add up the books at the end of the night. But he had lost an important match of 'rock-paper-scissors' to his sister, so she gleefully worked on the books while her older brother was stuck washing the dishes.

He had long ago given up the idea of getting a job somewhere other than the restaurant owned by his parents. He had tried, but after a guilt trip by his mother, he had simply sighed and asked when she wanted him at work the following day.

"If Talpa could only see me now," he grumbled, scrubbing a particularly stubborn set of chopsticks. "The proud Warrior of Hardrock, washing up after screaming kids and annoying parents." Grabbing a delicate tea cup, he suddenly shuddered as a deep chill went through him, seeming to grab hold of his heart and pull. "What the hell?" He gasped as he accidentally broke the tea cup, cutting his hand. A stabbing pain shot through his head and he fell to the ground, blood flowing from the wound, running onto the clean tile floor. As the throbbing in his head became worse, he brought both hands to his face and writhed on the floor, blood smearing everywhere.

"Kento?" he vaguely heard Rinfi call after hearing her brother yell. "Kento!" He felt his sister grab at his hand and gasp as she saw the deep cut and the blood everywhere. "Oh my gosh, are you okay? We have to get you to the doctor!"

"No," he protested, feeling as if he were swimming in a pool of acid as his skin began burning. "It's my head, it hurts! My-my skin is on fire!"

"What?" Rinfi asked. "What are you saying, Kento? I can't understand you!"

All at once, the pain and burning subsided, and Kento found himself lying on the cold floor, hand in his sister's lap as she staunched the blood flow with a cloth napkin.

"Wha-what happened?" he asked, uninjured hand coming up to cover his eyes. "Rinfi?"

"Kento?" his sister asked, brown eyes wide. "What the hell just happened to you?"

"I don't know." Kento grabbed the napkin from her and wrapped it around the nasty cut on his palm. "And don't swear. It's not ladylike." He stood up and almost fell over until he felt his sister loop his heavy arm around her shoulder. She walked him over to the office chair where he collapsed, cradling his injured hand.

"Do you need to see the doctor for your hand?" she asked, fretting over him like a mother hen. "That cut looks really bad."

"No, it's fine, it's just-my head. I don't know what just happened but my head-hurt like hell." The throbbing was still there, but more tolerable now, and Kento was able to stand.

"Are you sure you should be getting up?" Rinfi grabbed at his arm, but he gently pushed her away.

"Can you close up?" Kento ignored her questions as he grabbed his coat.

"Yes, but-"

"I have to go, I'll talk to you later! Love ya!" He sprinted out of the restaurant, leaving his car for Rinfi. He ran all the way back to his apartment, about ten long blocks away and was panting from the exertion as he ran up the steps to the front door to the apartment building. Bursting through the door, he began shouting Rowen's name. "Rowen, man, where are you?" He slammed through the apartment, checking all of the rooms, looking for his friend. "Rowen!"

Pulling out his cell phone, he called his roommate, unsure of where he had gone off to.

"Kento?" Rowen answered on the first ring. "Where are you?"

"I'm at home. Where are you?"

"Mia's. Are you okay? How are you feeling?"

Kento went cold at his friend's concern. Obviously he had known right away that something was wrong. "Rowen, what's going on?"

"You felt it too? Sage already called me and said that something just felt-"

"Cold," Kento finished.

"Yep."

"And pain-horrible, excruciating pain!"

"Sage didn't mention pain, but that's what I felt too. Whatever it is, it's getting stronger." Rowen sighed. "Mia doesn't know what's going on, but she's checking the internet to see if anything strange is going on around the world. We don't think it's the Dynasty but we're checking just to make sure."

"Let me know if you find anything," Kento asked, sitting heavily on a kitchen stool, dizzy from the blood loss from his hand. The linen napkin that was wrapped around his palm had originally been white, but it was now red from his blood.

"Do you want me to come pick you up?"

"No, I think I need to get to the hospital. I cut my hand and it's bleeding pretty badly."

"Can you get yourself there?" Rowen's concerned voice cut through the fog.

"Kento!" Strata heard Rinfi's voice call over the phone.

"No, my sister's here. Call me if you find anything." Kento answered.

"Will do. Have fun getting stitches."

"I hate needles," came the grumbled response. The phone went silent.

Rowen hung up the phone. "Kento felt it too," he explained to Mia as he turned towards her. He sat down on her couch with a heavy sigh, running his hands through his tousled hair. "I don't know what's going on," he admitted. "But it was almost as if Sage described. Like cold hands grabbing at us. Something is trying to get our attention. I just wish I knew what it was."

"But Sage didn't say anything about the pain that you and Kento felt," Mia finished. "Is Kento okay?"

Rowen nodded, feeling sleepy after the night's events. "Yeah, but he sliced his hand in the process and had to go to the hospital. I said I would call him if we found anything."

"According to the internet news, there's nothing strange going on around the world for now." Mia shrugged and perched on the armrest of the couch, next to Rowen. She placed her hand back on his forehead. "Are you feeling better now?"

He shrugged. "My head doesn't hurt, but I still feel uneasy. Kinda like someone's watching me. On a plus side, it didn't sound like Cye has had any weird feelings, so that's something, I suppose."

"Yet."

Rowen swiped a hand across his tired eyes. "Mia," he started, "I think I had better sleep here for a little while. Just in case something does come up, I don't want to leave you unprotected. Our enemies do tend to try to get to us through you, so better to be safe than sorry. Just for now."

She nodded in agreement. "Right. I'll make up the guest room for you." She left the living room to head upstairs and Rowen leaned back on the comfortable couch. Pulling out his cell phone, he dialed Sage's number again. Frustrated at only getting his voice mail, he left a quick message for Sage to call him and hung up.

A few minutes later, Mia came downstairs to find Rowen slumped sideways on the couch, fast asleep. She knelt in front of him, smiling at his peaceful face. She frowned as she remembered the days with Talpa. They were just boys back then, and had the whole world's safety on their shoulders. She cautiously tapped him on the knee to wake him. From her experiences, one didn't startle a Ronin Warrior...could be the last thing one ever does. As it was, Rowen leapt to his feet, arms at the ready to take down any opponent. Surprised to see Mia sitting on her backside on the floor, a frown on her face and arms crossed over her chest, Rowen asked, "Why are you on the floor?"

The girl merely rolled her eyes, picking herself back up. "Your bed is ready."

Rowen shot her a lopsided grin and started heading upstairs. As his foot touched the first stair, he realized that he had no clothes to wear tomorrow. For toiletries, he was set, as he and the others had stayed there enough times that Mia now kept a stash of toothbrushes and the like just for them. His was, of course, dark blue. "Wait," he said. "I have to go get some clothes." He turned towards the door and stopped. He didn't feel comfortable leaving Mia alone in the house. "Why don't you get some shoes on and come with me?"

Mia shook her head. "Don't be silly," she said. "I'll be fine." At Rowen's continued hesitation, she continued. "I have some spare clothes that you can wear."

After picturing himself wearing a short skirt and pink sweater, Rowen grimaced. "I don't think your clothes will fit me."

Mia snorted. "Not my clothes, you idiot. I have some of Ryo's clothes that he left here. They might be a little short, but at least they're clean."

Rowen nodded. "Okay," he agreed. "I'll get some more clothes tomorrow."

"Come on then," she gestured for him to follow. The warrior obediently followed, starting to turn into the guest room that Ryo usually inhabited, but was surprised when Mia kept walking and headed into her bedroom instead. Frowning in puzzlement, he walked behind her and sat down comfortably on her bed while she rummaged through her closet..

Rowen looked around Mia's bedroom. It was very soft and simple, with light blues and greens scattered throughout. He smiled as he realized that the quilt he now sat on was a patchwork of green, orange, red, light blue, and dark blue squares all sewn together. There were three light yellow pillows propped up against the white headboard. He looked above the bed and smiled as he saw a picture of Mia with all of the Ronin Warriors after defeating Talpa. They were all in street clothes, smiling into the camera. Rowen noticed something and looked closer at the picture, frowning. "Mia?" he asked.

"What?" came the muffled reply from the closet.

"Are you and Ryo holding hands in this picture!" There was no reply from the closet so Rowen continued unimpeded. "And for that matter, why are his things in your closet?" Still no answer, so he stepped into the large walk-in closet with her. "Mia?"

She turned around with her head down, red-faced and looking guilty. "Well, Rowen, you see-"

Rowen chucked her lightly under the chin. "Hey, I'm just kidding! I'm not your parents. If you and Ryo want to sleep together, I'm not going to stop it!" He threw himself back onto the bed, smiling at Mia's indignant sputtering.

"You don't understand," she stammered. "It's not like that!" Rowen smiled knowingly and opened her nightstand drawer to find proof that she and Ryo were indeed an item. Mia shrieked and ran for the nightstand to cover up the embarrassing box. Her shoulders slumped in defeat. "How did you know?" she asked.

Rowen grinned again. "Because that's where I keep mine," he announced.

If Mia's face bloomed any more red, she would have burst into flames. "You!" she shouted, grabbing a pillow from the bed and throwing it at him. Rowen laughed, dodging the pillow. He grabbed Ryo's clothes from the floor where she had dropped them and sprinted out the door before she could do any more physical damage.

Strata headed into the spare room, still smiling over her attack. Ryo and Mia, he thought, shaking his head. I guess I shouldn't be too surprised.

"Ow, that hurts!" Kento complained as the nurse injected his hand with a syringe to numb the laceration site.

"Quit being such a baby!" Rinfi shouted as she punched her brother lightly in the opposite shoulder.

"I told you I hated needles," he grumbled, turning away as the nurse began washing the injury.

"Okay, the doctor will be here in a minute to stitch you up," the nurse said, walking out of the room leaving the two siblings alone.

After a few minutes of silence, Rinfi spoke. "Kento? What was that language you were speaking before? I didn't recognize it."

Kento frowned at his sister. "What language?"

"Before, when you were-lying on the floor. You were saying something, but I didn't know what it was. It was kind of neat, so I figured it was something you were learning in school."

Kento raised an eyebrow. "I'm not studying any foreign languages in school. Are you sure it wasn't English?" he asked, referring to another language he spoke fluently.

"I know English, you dummy," Rinfi retorted. "No, this wasn't something I have ever heard before."

Kento shifted uncomfortably in the hard plastic chair as he considered his sister's words. What's going on?

Ultana watched the scene in the white room with the orange warrior and his sister. She smiled as she heard the sister's words. If the warrior was speaking their language, then her summons were getting stronger. She must have injected some of their language into the young man. "Still not strong enough though," she grumbled. She had to figure out how to use their armor powers and combine them with her own powers. She wasn't quite sure of how to do that, but she was running out of time since Attol was running out of patience.

***Thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoyed!***