Whew! Barely got this chapter done before the weekend was over. It's later than I usually like to post stuff, but I'm posting it now anyway. Enjoy!


"Ready?"

"As ready as I'm going to be. Let's go."

Gingka grinned under his mask and dove over the side of the cliff, grabbing a tree branch and flipping over it before landing lightly on the ground and heading for the edge of the forest. The other ninja followed, while the samurai looked around confusedly before beginning to climb down, A few hand motions from Hyoma and the other earth users, and everyone was soon safely on the ground.

"Last one there's a rotten samurai." Ryuga said as he practically disappeared into the night.

"Hey! Not nice!" Kenta called as he ran off.

"Be quiet, everyone. We don't want them to know we're attacking." Dynamis said, directing his sound waves so that only their allies could hear them.

"Where did Gingka go?" Kenta asked suddenly.

"He's already up there." Hikaru chuckled, pointing at a shadowy figure already scaling the walls of Doji's fortress.

"Gahh! We'd better hurry then!" Ryo exclaimed, rushing off. The others chuckled and followed.


"Where is Doji?"

One samurai guard froze, trembling, as he was encased in earth with a calm, yet menacing voice sounding in his ear.

"Enemy attack! Sound the alarm!" He shouted, but no sound came out.

"Nobody can hear your calls for help." Dynamis hissed from a tree above. "I control sound. You are also the only one hearing my voice. Now, where is Doji?"

"I-inside the tallest tower." The samurai replied.

"Good. Hyoma?"

The other ninja nodded and completely covered the samurai in earth, then buried him underground.

"Keep moving. Gingka's nearly inside already." Dynamis called softly, redirecting his voice to the ears of his allies.

"He's not following the plan." Ryuga huffed.

"I thought we didn't have a plan other than sneaking in and taking the leaders out." Zero said as he darted across a small open area.

"He's got a point." Hikaru said as she followed.

"That's too many guards for us to take out." Ryo said, peering inside the gate.

"Then we'll do this." Hyoma said, moving the ground underneath them aside and creating a tunnel.

"How will we know how far to go?" Ren asked.

Hyoma paused. "Dynamis, can you hear what's going on in areas above us through rock?"

"If you make tiny holes in it to allow the sound through, I can." Dynamis replied calmly.

"Then let's go." Hyoma said, jumping down into the hole he had created.

"Hsst, Gingka! Down here!" Dynamis called.

Gingka looked down. Dynamis pointed and jumped into the hole. Gingka smiled under his mask and followed.

"Is that everyone?" Hyoma whispered.

Ryo lit a small flame on his fingertips and looked around quickly. "Yes."

Hyoma nodded and mostly covered up the opening. "Let's go then."

The fire users lit their hands up and scattered throughout the group.

"Dynamis?" Hyoma said, placing his hand on the roof of their artificial cavern.

Dynamis closed his eyes and listened. "Nothing's there." he said.

"Good." Hyoma opened up a hole and climbed out. Gingka was out and off through a nearby doorway before anyone could say 'wait.'

"He's got the speed of lightning, that one." Ryo chuckled.

"We'd better hurry then." Ryuga said, following after Gingka.

"He's already started fighting." Dynamis said as the sounds of battle reached his ears.

"Without me?!" Ryo yelped, taking off faster than the others thought possible for a man his age wearing armor. Hyoma chuckled as he followed, closing up the hole they had emerged from.

Gingka darted through darkened hallways, sparks of lightning and kunai flying from his fingertips at anyone who saw him or got in his way.

"He's just moving through." Hyoma commented as he and the others ran past dead or dying enemies.

"Leaving no survivors." Ryo whistled.

"That's how we were taught to do infiltrations. If they see you, or might see others you've killed, you take them out without letting them sound the alarm." Ryuga said.

"Swift and silent. The shadows in the darkest night, moving without even a breeze to indicate their presence. Silent killers, like death coming in the sleep of the enemy, taking them down without a single sound. Cunning as the panther stalking its prey, striking like the owl before the target even sees us. That's how we were trained, and without having powers for the majority of my life, I've become an expert at doing it." Gingka said, leaning against a doorway ahead.

"Well, glad to see you waited for us." Ryo said.

A hint of a smile flashed underneath the black fabric over Gingka's face before he stood and turned, opening the door just enough to allow his body to fit through it.

"Nothing here." he reported, moving through the darkened room, past silhouettes of armor and weapons. The others followed, heading up to the very top of the fortress.


"Sir, the watch on the southeastern side hasn't come around past here for the last hour."

"What of it? The idiot probably fell asleep at his post again," Doji huffed.

"Better make sure. I trained the ninja that are our enemies as well as those that are our allies. They could have taken out a simple samurai watch like the ones you're using easily." Pluto said.

"Go look." A deep, menacing voice came from a large pillar of darkness in the center of the room.

"You two, go-" Doji began, but was interrupted.

"I want you two to go personally check it out." the voice snarled. "You and all of your best fighters."

"Yes sir." Doji bowed and left the room, along with Pluto.


"They've got to be around here somewhere." Gingka muttered.

"The guard I interrogated said they were at the top of the tower." Dynamis said.

"You couldn't have mentioned that earlier?!" Gingka sweatdropped.

"If you had stayed with us, you would have known that." Ryuga huffed.

"Shh." Dynamis hissed.

"Well I was focusing on getting the job done!" Gingka hissed.

"No, seriously. Someone's coming." Dynamis snapped.

"Hide!" Ryo said.

Before Ryo had finished speaking, none of the ninja were visible. Zero and the other samurai looked around frantically. Zero, Sakyo, and Kite soon settled for hiding behind several racks of armor, hoping that their armor would blend in enough in the dark room that they wouldn't be noticed. Ryo found a pile of swords and laid down behind it, while Chris, Yuki, and Aguma positioned themselves next to several full suits of armor that were apparently being repaired.

The entire group held their breaths as several familiar enemy samurai and ninja entered.

"Fan out and search the area, including the two lower levels." Pluto ordered.

"You guys too." Doji said.

Kira and Baihu nodded , pulled up their ninja masks and hoods, then leapt out the nearest window. Yoshio and Captain Arrow grabbed some armor from the racks in front of Zero and Sakyo, putting it on before heading off down the stairs.

"Time for some poetic justice." Arrow said before disappearing.

"Do you ever shut up?" Dynamis heard Yoshio growl before the door to the staircase slammed.

"Do you guys know how wielders of darkness kill people?" Pluto asked. Dynamis heard everyone else tense.

Doji looked directly over at Ryo, smirking. "It's easy enough to demonstrate."

"Why don't you come out, Gingka? I know you're there." The room became darker as Pluto spoke. Dynamis closed his eyes, relying entirely on sound to detect his allies and enemies. He only hoped that the others would be able to do so as well.

"We kill by cutting off our target from everything. Sight, feeling, even sound." Pluto said. Dynamis heard a few of the samurai shift uncomfortably before every sound was cut off, leaving him in frightening silence. He clung to the wooden beam that he was laying on, as his last bit of sanity. However, much to his horror, even that was soon taken. He opened his eyes, but wondered if they were open. Nothing but thick darkness could be seen.

Zero and Sakyo clung to the racks in front of them until splinters dug through their gloves and into their fingertips. They lit flames on their fingertips and looked around. Within moments, they couldn't feel the heat of the flames, or even the pain the splinters were causing. They looked at their hands in alarm, but saw nothing.

"Trying to light up the darkness with your fire is useless." Doji taunted. "Any light is soon destroyed by my dark powers."

Ryo growled as he heard this. He too had been trying to see something, feel anything by igniting the flames that had comforted him through many a cold night in the field fighting. But nothing would get the flames to burn. His most desperate efforts failed.

"We kill by killing the mind. Eventually, you will all go insane from wanting to feel something, and you will kill yourselves. It won't be long. It will seem like an eternity until you do it, but it will have really only been a few moments of time. So why not just get it over with?" Pluto said.

Dynamis growled, then froze as he felt the cold metal of a kunai in the palm of his hand. When had he pulled it out of his pouch? He quickly slipped it back into the pouch, trembling. But he wasn't the only thing in the area trembling… So what else was?

"Impossible." Doji snarled, but his voice reached Dynamis's ears long after another sound had. It came again, a low rumbling noise, rippling through the darkness. A jagged line of bright blue light flashed across everyone's vision for a split second. Dynamis gasped as he saw Ryo standing from behind his pile of helmets in that brief instant.

"What's going on?!" Pluto asked as a second jagged line seared into everyone's eyes. Doji cried out in pain suddenly, and Dynamis heard a loud thud. The darkness suddenly retreated to reveal Doji on his knees next to Pluto, who was looking around him frantically. Ryo looked around and spotted Gingka in the darkest shadows at the corner of the room, his eyes flashing with the same jagged streaks that had just left afterimages in everyone's vision.

Gingka gripped the edge of the rafter he was crouching on, then flipped down and landed neatly behind Pluto, who instantly sensed him and whirled. Doji grunted and got to his feet, gripping his twitching left arm.

"That arm is now paralyzed. You won't be able to use it for a while, if at all anymore." Gingka said, his tone as cold as ice. Ryo and the others shivered slightly.

"So, the traitor at last shows his face. Perhaps i could convince you to join us by telling you that your father is among our forces." Pluto said.

"Lying won't get you anywhere. I know already that the Phoenix is my father." Gingka said, his eyes blazing.

Pluto froze at that, half turning to look at the armored figure standing behind him. Ryo removed his helmet and smirked slightly. Gingka pulled his hood off.

"The resemblance leaves no room for doubt. Fate seems to be working against you." Gingka said.

"Fate is on our side." Doji snarled.

Before anyone could open their mouths to reply, Gingka had made a throwing motion with his hand, paralyzing Doji's other arm. Pluto and Doji's eyes widened in fear and surprise.

"In case you haven't noticed, I've found my powers." Gingka smirked, snapping his fingers a couple of times and showing off the sparks created.

"That makes no difference. You don't know how to use them."

"Neither do you, but I'm finding that it's mostly instinct." Gingka said, slowly advancing towards the two. "I've seen fire, and i've seen ice. My parents have those two particular powers, so it hasn't taken much for me to figure out how to use the icy precision and fiery speed that my powers possess."

Pluto growled. "You cannot beat the ultimate darkness."

"Just watch me. With the allies that I have at my back, there's nobody I can't beat." Gingka said, raising a hand enveloped in lightning.

"Now, who's really in charge?" Gingka asked.

Pluto growled. "His name is Rago, and nothing you can do will stop him."


Tadaa! Rago makes his entrance! And, as to the little bit that I put in the end AN of the last chapter, I'm not gonna explain it... Yet. Instead, I'ma give you something else to think about this week: The title of a song from a Disney movie. You don't have to listen to it unless you want to, but the song is "Not One of Us" from The Lion King 2: Simba's Pride.