LittleMay: It does work out nicely when I have all the chapters already done. All I have to do is add in comments to my reviewers and double check spelling of names and the such. Thanks!

LdySubaru: This is all so true. Thank you and I'm glad you're enjoying the story.

Vampire Ronin: As far as I know, he wasn't from New York. I've got a little bit of a writer's block on the sequel, but it's because I already have the story playing out in my mind down into the future chapters and I'm only on chapter 2.

To all my readers: As you read through this chapter, you're going to get the impression that something big will be happening soon. Keep reading on to find out what it is.

CHAPTER THREE

The sky was pitch black and void of all stars. Emily stood in the middle of the forest with her gaze on the sky. Her brother and the other ronins were armoring up and fighting against some evil she couldn't see.

There were sparks of light falling down from each of the armors. Emily reached up her hand to catch some of the beams in her open palm. When she brought it back down, she noticed her hand was flashing the five colors of the ronin armors.

Suddenly, everything shifted and Emily was staring down at her reflection in a lake. She gasped. Her hair was parted from her face and the kanji for Spirit was glowing green on the middle of her forehead.

"That…that's impossible," she whispered.

Without warning, Emily felt an electrical shock course through her body. She fell hard against a tree and looked up to see the three warlords. Their faces were hidden by shadows, but she recognized the armors from having seen their fights with the ronins.

The Warlord of Darkness raised his nodachi and aimed it at her. He lunged at her and she screamed as she raised her arms up in defense.

"SAGE!"

/…/

Emily's eyes snapped open as she jerked awake. Her heart was beating rapidly and she tried to calm her breathing down. Emily slowly sat up while taking deep breaths. She reached over to the nightstand to pick up the clock. It read 01:30AM in a bright blue light.

She groaned. Thanks to the nightmare, she was wide awake now. She pushed the bedcovers off in annoyance before climbing to her feet. She snatched up a jacket and slipped her shoes on. Emily walked across the room to her brother who had fallen fast asleep in an armchair.

They had stayed up late reminiscing about childhood memories and Sage had the misfortune of falling asleep on the armchair he had been sitting in. She smiled softly as she pulled a blanket out and draped it over him.

Emily made sure to carefully close the door behind her so she didn't wake her brother. She jogged down the stairs, through the dojo hallways and to the outside. A cool blast of wind caused her to smile.

She followed a path out to the middle of a garden where there was a large space for training. Emily did a few stretches before further warming up with some flips.

She started with a cartwheel that changed into a backflip before finishing with tucking her legs and landing perfectly on her feet.

Too bad I hate the cheer squad at school. I would make a great member for the team, thought Emily.

After performing a few more flips, she turned the heat up and started working out. To any onlookers, it would have appeared as though she were fighting an invisible enemy. In her mind, she was fighting a faceless man.

She forced him to throw his head back with a punch to his face then shifted her body and kicked him in the back of the knees. This caused him to fall hard on his back.

As she continued to work out all the stress leftover from the nightmare, she was unaware of her audience.

"I wonder if Halo ever sees this side of her," Cale murmured.

The three of them had separated with Dais and Sekhmet keeping an eye on the other ronins. They had decided that if it appeared that the other ronins decided to join the two blondes then they would have to act quickly to snatch the girl before the others could come to Halo's aid.

Silently, Cale moved closer to get a better look. The girl shifted from fast, quick movements to more fluid movements that were used to calm the mind and body.

It would be so easy to take her now, Cale thought.

For a moment, he got within snatching distance of the mortal. He moved around behind her as she continued to train. After sweeping the legs out from under her invisible opponent, Emily froze.

/Be careful, child./

The wind had shifted behind her and now she felt like she wasn't alone anymore. In fact, she could have sworn she had just heard a voice whispering to her.

For a fleeting moment, Emily wandered if her brother had woken and come outside. However, she knew deep down it was something else. She just didn't know what.

Quietly, Emily let out the breath she had been holding and stood up straight. She picked up her jacket which had come off sometime during her work-out. Glancing at her watch, she wasn't surprised to see she had been training for well over an hour.

/Go back inside./

Emily shook her head as she walked down the path and back to the dojo. The exhaustion was starting to set in. Now she was hearing voices in her head.

No longer hidden by his shadows, Cale followed very closely but silently behind her. Such a small girl, she was. He could easily break her arm without even calling his subarmor.

Emily paused at the dojo doors. The voice inside her head was telling her to go back inside but her instincts were telling her to turn around and face whatever imaginary presence was nearby.

Your temper always gets the best of you. Like she hadn't heard her brother say that a thousand times. Choosing to listen to her brother's wise words, Emily slid open the door and went back inside, unknowingly slamming the door in the face of her brother's rival.

/…/

"Why won't you tell me?"

Sage shot his sister a sideways glance and smiled. Emily glared at him with a grumble as she crossed her arms over her chest.

"I told you it was a surprise, Em," Sage reminded her.

Emily turned up the heat on her glare.

"Surprises are for your dates, Sage. Not your baby sister," Emily mumbled.

"That was before my baby sister flushed my phone down to the sewer system of Toyama."

Emily turned her face away to hide the growing smile. Considering whose name she had seen on the Caller ID, she didn't feel all that bad about flushing the phone.

"I never liked her."

Sage snorted.

"There was no need to flush my phone. I'm not dating Skyla. She was calling to ask about Rowen." Emily made a face. "She wants a date with him."

Silence filled the car as Emily slumped against the car door. She stared at the scenery as it passed by quickly. Sage lightly put his foot on the brakes as the light went red.

He shot his sister a quick look, but then snapped his head all the way to the side.

"Did you see that?" he asked.

Emily turned her head back around to face him and tilted it to the side with her eyebrows raised.

"See what, Sage?" she asked.

Looking over his sister's shoulder, he saw that there was nothing but the trees behind her. He could have sworn he had seen someone standing there only a moment ago. He was brought out of his thoughts when Emily smacked him in the arm with the back of her hand.

"The light's green."

The car started moving again and Sage shifted his gaze back to the road. Emily stared at her brother confused.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing."

"You're lying."

"It was nothing."

Emily scrunched up her nose. She shifted her body to face the road while re-crossing her arms over her chest.

"Ryo kissed me at the family picnic," she said point blank.

"WHAT?"

/…/

Ryo groaned. As soon as Sage and Emily had arrived at the house, Sage had come looking for him. He had been chased down the stairs, around the furniture in the living room, and out the back kitchen door. Now he was sitting high up in a tree in the backyard.

"I want a straight answer, Ryo!" Sage shouted.

Ryo's gaze fell down to spot Sage at the base of the tree.

"I'd like to live to see another day, thanks!" Ryo shouted back down to him.

If anything else, this got Sage even madder.

"You did kiss her!"

Ryo sighed as he covered his eyes with hands. What was Emily thinking when she had blurted that lovely little tidbit of information out at her brother? At least, if she had to tell him, she should have seen fit to mention it was part of a Truth or Dare game.

He noticed the other three ronins and Emily watching from the kitchen window. He pointed his finger at Emily and gave her the stink eye. She smiled slyly and waved before latching her arms onto Kento who tried shaking her off.

Forget Talpa and the dynasty. Sage's sister is the one who's going to get us all killed, Ryo thought.

"You better come down, Wildfire!" Sage hollered.

"I'm not coming down anytime soon and you can't make me!"

Sage summoned his subarmor and crouched down. Ryo had just enough time to jump from the tree to another tree, summoning his subarmor in mid-air.

Meanwhile, the boys and Emily were watching from the house with great interest.

"On a scale of one to ten, how mad do you think Sage is?" Kento asked, still trying to shake Emily off.

"9." Cye.

"13." Rowen.

"4." Emily.

Three pairs of eyes snapped to the fourth. "Who are you kidding?" Emily flashed them a grin and peace sign.

"Don't worry about Sage…or Ryo, for that matter. Sage is only half mad at Ryo and Ryo can dart pretty quickly between the trees. If anything else, they're getting a good workout," Emily promised.

She let go of Kento in favor of leaving the kitchen. "But if they don't come down in half an hour, you might want to send someone out to break them up."

END OF CHAPTER THREE

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